M.W.Barley (1951)


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Transcription

THE
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE COUNTRYSIDE

Volume 13, No.2. October 1951



Plough Plays in Nottinghamshire

M. W. Barley, B.A., F.S.A.

EVERY January a photograph or an article in
Nottinghamshire newspapers reminds us that
at least one Nottinghamshire village still
sees on each Plough Monday that comes round the
performance of a play that has probably been enacted
as long as the village has existed. I am referring
to Tollerton; I have before me a press cutting of a
photograph taken in 1950, showing Tollerton men
in a farmhouse at Plumtree; the names of the
characters are old-Threshing, Blade, Lady Bright
and Gay, and so on - even if one of them, the
Sergeant, is wearing a uniform made since 1939.
In the picture, the Doctor, in a 20th century top hat,
is restoring to life Threshing Blade, whose character
cannot be fitted into a modern costume. His part
in the play is to be killed in a mock duel, and then
resurrected; thus by sympathetic magic he represents
the death of the earth in winter, and its resurrection
in spring, without which the spring ploughing which
begins on Plough Monday will be a labour lost.

There may well be other villages in the county
where this ancient ceremony is still performed; the
purpose of this note is to appeal to all those who
know or can discover anything about it in their own
village to collect information carefully and send it
to the editors of the Nottinghamshire Countryside.
There are many things that one would like to find
out which will never be known unless an effort is
made in the next few years. Performances of Plough
Plays ceased in most villages fifty years or so ago,
and the number of those who recall them dwindles
each year.

We should like to know for insrance of every villag.!
which once had a team of Plough Boys, or Jacks, or
Jags, or Stots, or Bullocks, whatever they were
called. We want the texts of the plays, if old people
can be persuaded to recite them while younger
enthusiasts write them down. If the words are
forgotten, we want the names of the actors; the
costumes they wore; the territory which each team

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covered, and the precise season when they went
round from house to house. We want to know of
any places where they actually pulled a plough (real
or model) round with them, and whether any such
ploughs were kept in the parish church for the rest
of the year. We particularly want to know the words,
and if possible the tunes, of any songs proper to the
occasion. All this information, if it could be collected
systematically through the good offices of the
Rural Community Council would be a valuable record
of a neglected part of local history.

There is much more that we should like to know
that may be more difficult to find out. It has already
been noticed by those interested that Nottingham-
shire, as part of the Danelaw, belongs to an area in
which one expects to find not only the Plough Play,

but also the Sword Dance. This dance
is not peculiarly Danish, for it is found
all over Europe, but in England it is
definitely not found in the part settled
predominantly by Saxons. We want
therefore to know whether anyone can
describe dances formerly performed
during the Plough Play or after it. In
Derbyshire, which lay on the edge of
Danish England, several different tradi-
tions met: there one could find the
Yorkshire type of Sword Dance, the
Morris dance characteristic of North-
West England, and also the peculiarly
Derbyshire form of Morris, associated
with well dressing. It may well be that
some Nottinghamshire villages on the
western side of the county have also in
the past picked up these different tradi-
tions, and had, in one and the same
village, Mummers at Christmas, Plough
Boys on Plough Monday, and Rush-
bearing or well-dressing in the summer.
It would be very valuable if we could
see more clearly just where Nottingham-
shire fits into this pattern of local
traditions and regional variations.

As well as the Sword Dance, the Hobby
Horse is a well recorded accompaniment
of the Plough Monday ceremony,
though it is not often easy to see how
it fitted into the picture. Canon R. F.
Wilkinson has shown me A. S. Buxton's
notes on the Christmas Play of the Poor
Owd 'Oss, which was performed at
Mansfield up to about 1870. It is also
recorded from Cuckney and Elkesley.
Was this play usually separate, or was
this Hobby Horse sometimes part of
the Plough team, without a play of its own?

Perhaps I may add that I have the texts of
Plough Plays from Blidworth, East Bridgford,
Bothamsall, Cropwell, Clayworth, Flintham,
Mansfield, Selston, Walesby, Whatton (fragments
only) and Worksop. I know that there
were teams in many other villages, such as
Norwell, Averham, and North Leverton, but
I have been unable to recover any details.
The plays I have mentioned are being added
to the large collection belonging to the English
Folk Dance and Song Society. Any further
help in this rescue work will turn these
tantalising scraps of information into a more
complete story of a very important aspect of
the life of the village community.

A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE FOLK TUNE

Collected at Blidworth 1925 (by E.F.H.D.)

"PLOUGH BULLOCKING"

Good master and good mistress, As
you sit round your fire, Have pity on us
plough bys who plough through mud and mire. A
pint of your best beer, A pint of your best
beer, We'll thank you gor your kindnesses and a
pint of your best beer.

Sung in unison at the end of ~~~~,i~
the "Plough Bullocking" play
by all the cast. The hat was
then held out for a donation.

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