P.Millington (1991b)

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DO GUYSERS STILL EXIST?

by Peter Millington

Earlier this year, I asked if anyone had seen any
Guysers during Christmas 1990. I only received
four replies, but the answer seems to be yes.
Guysers do still exist.

Mr. Tom Thorpe of Brinsley, sent me the words of
the Guysers' play he performed in the 1930s in
Bagthorpe. Mr. Thorpe played the "Opener In". He
told me that once they trekked all the way to
Felley Priory and were given a pound note to go
away. They would have been happy with tuppence.

Everyone who remembers Guysers can give you
different words. That is one of the interesting
things about the custom. It would seem that at
one time there must have been two different
scripts with the same plot and similar characters.
Over the years they have become inextricably mixed
together.

The play Mr. Thorpe remembered, started with the
Opener In, who cleared space for acting and
introduced the play. The hero St. George then
entered boasting of all his brave deeds, and he
was challenged to a sword fight by the villain
Slasher. After Slasher had been knocked to the
floor, a Doctor was called and interrogated by the
Opener In. He then set about curing Slasher with
a dose of medicine. After the cure, Belzibub and
Devildowt entered to conclude the play and ask for
money.

Although he usually added nothing to the story,
Beelzebub was always regarded as essential to the
play. It is his lines that people tend to
remember best;

 "In comes old Belzibub.
 Over my shoulder I carry my club.
 In my hands a drippin pan.
 Dont you think I'm a jolly old man?
 Cos if you don't, I do."


In the 1950s, about 25 years after Mr. Thorpe,
Mr. G.S.Bennieston of Wingfield Park was a member
of one of three teams of Guysers in Underwood.
His play had the same characters, but apparently
without Slasher. This team covered a very wide
area on foot during the Christmas period, taking
in Underwood, Annesley, Moorgreen, Newthorpe,
Kimberley, Eastwood, Jacksdale and Selston.

They had more success than Mr. Thorpe at Felley
Priory, where they had a standing engagement on
Christmas Night. Here, one of the servants gave
them mince pies and a drink of orange, and they
were taken through to entertain Odwin Oakes and
his guests. They were given half a crown each for
this, but the awe of the occasion was the main
highlight.

Apart from this special performance, they visited
both pubs and ordinary houses, and the convention
was to enter without knocking. Once they "entered
in" on a woman in a tin bath, who panicked when
presented with a black-faced boy in a top hat.

People tended to give them five or ten shillings,
and at the end of the three days they ended up
with `6 to `7 each - a good weekly wage for a
working man.

Mrs. Barbara Faulconbridge of Brinsley, told me
there were Guysers in 1990 at Awsworth. She also
told me about her experiences with Bullguysing in
Selston...

"I was delighted this last Christmas when one of
my sons returned from a visit to the 'Hogs Head'
at Awsworth to tell me four people had been in
there doing Bullguysers. My son is familiar with
it as when he was younger (he is now 26) I taught
him along with his two younger brothers and my
husband some of this act. We entertained quite a
number of our relatives and friends for a few
years at Christmas time with our family show. I
have always been anxious to keep this old custom
alive and, as mentioned earlier, have tried to
pass on my limited knowledge of it to anyone
interested.

I was brought up at The Crescent. Selston in a
very close-knit community being born there fifty
four years ago. Every Christmas we were "entered
in" by one or more sets of Bullguysers. At first
we lived in a very small terraced house and
invariably things went flying when they started
the fight. As I got older I remembered being
worried in case they came on a Friday night when I
was sat in the tin bath at the front of the fire.
(It was never thought to lock the door).

Eventually it was the boys of my age group who
went on the rounds and we girls hung-around
outside or were Christmas singing nearby (no sex
equality in those days). It was perhaps at the
age of thirteen or fourteen that I recall we
suddenly lost our local Guysers, they had found
more lucrative grounds at Somercotes and Alfreton
where they had no competition and found they were
very welcome in the public houses.

I recall them coming to school the next morning
telling how much money they had received. That
seemed to be the beginning of the end of the
Selston Bullguysers for quite a number of years,
but some of those words stuck with me as I always
longed to join in, - hence me cajoling my family
into it many years later, and what fun we had.
Strangely enough I had thought of us getting
together with it this year - for family only of
course - as the girl-friends of my sons have never
seen it."

Folk enthusiasts are also helping to keep the
custom alive. Syd Barber of Ripley Morris Men
told me about the play they have been performing
around the pubs of Ripley for charity since 1983.
They got their words from the late Percy Cook of
Hammersmith, Ripley, although they do "interpret"
the parts. For instance, the Doctor has been
played straight, as Dr. Who and the Flying Doctor,
complete with Aussie accent.

The Morris Men will be Guysing this year on the
17th Dec. in pubs in Heage and Ambergate, and on
the 20th Dec. in Ripley.

Clearly, Guysing is a local custom that has given
people lots of fun for longer than anyone can
remember. However, over the years, more and more
of the lines have been forgotten, and the number
of teams going out has become fewer.

Copies of all the scripts and memories I have
gathered have been given to local libraries for
the benefit of future Guysers. Any further
information would be gratefully received.

Peter Millington

[-- Address redacted --]

December 1991

[-- Author's submitted text --]