M.W.Barley (1951)
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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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