Whittlesea Festival - Part 2
The festival dance programme began at the Manor Leisure Centre at 10.30am on Saturday morning with the spectacle, music and colour of the procession of morris sides led by the Straw Bear and his “driver".
Simon Haines
In 1979, quite out of the blue, I was asked to join a group of musicians who were working on a folk show. The group was called Poor Man’s Burden and the show was Captain Swing; I was asked to play melodeon as well as read the speeches of William Cobbett.
I joined after the group had had a break from rehearsals, so the music was already arranged. I couldn’t believe my luck. It was a time when I was into folk rock and was a massive fan of the Albion Band. For me, Poor Man’s Burden was like an Albion tribute band.
The group organiser and leader was Phil Manchester, a melodeon / fiddle player who conceived the idea of Captain Swing, wrote all the songs and researched the subject matter.
After the performances, Poor Man’s Burden morphed into The Hooligan Ceilidh Band which turned in Bass Instincts and eventually The Hosepipe Band.
You can listen to the whole show below, but there is a CD available. If you'd like one, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Background to the Straw Bear Festival
The Straw Bear is a very old fenland icon which goes back well into the nineteenth century at the very least. Straw Bear parades took place on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany or Twelfth Night; the day when local farm workers were supposed to return to their work, ploughing the land.
The Straw Bear dances in the Market Place, Whittlesea January 2016
As they had not been working or paid during the Christmas holidays the agricultural workers and “ploughboys” toured the locality to perform molly dances, plough-plays or sing and entertain with acts of “mischief” and would beg for money. To avoid recognition, they would black their faces to disguise themselves as their aim was essentially to intimidate in order to obtain money: those refusing to donate would have some trick played upon them. In her book “Fenland Chronicle” (Sybil Marshall, 1963) she recounts that her mother, had told her “very often these were real nasty tricks, and they’d wait until Plough Monday to get their own back on somebody what had done them some injury during the year” for example, they would plough up a doorway or take gates off their hinges so that the livestock escaped.
The Straw Bear is not exclusively a Whittlesea custom and some of the earliest newspaper reports date from 1880 where in Ramsey, a few miles south of Whittlesea there are reports of an “individual dressed from top to toe in straw … (who) capered before the houses … to the merry strains of the accordion”.
Read more: The (new) Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival is 40 years old
Following interest in the recorder as a folk instrument from two articles on this website, Val Woollard has put together a compilation of tracks on which she has played her various recorders. The first is on the 1986 Bass Instincts album Strippers's Waltz, the last is on the 2017 Rosewood album Rife & Strife & Mirth & Fun.
For any further information about the tunes on this recording or her recorder playing, you can contact Val at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
You can listen to all the tracks on this recording by clicking the sound file under each track title, but if you'd like a physical CD version of the recording for £5.00 (*P&P incl.), contact Val as above.
For a review of this recording by Dawn Wakefield CLICK HERE
There may be other sides performing in the area who have not contacted us. Contacts for morris and clog sides appear elsewhere in Morris On! If planning to see a performance please check with the contact or website beforehand as sometimes, for unavoidable reasons, performances are cancelled or re-arranged.
| GROUP(S) |
DAY |
DATE |
VENUE/EVENT |
TOWN/VILLAGE |
|
OG |
Sat |
26th Jan 2019 |
Dance England, Nottingham Playhouse |
Nottingham |
|
OW |
Sat |
26th Jan 2019 |
10.30 6pm Mark Jones Day of Dance (see side website) |
Ely, Cambs |
|
OM |
Sat |
30th Mar 2019 |
Oxblood Molly 5th Day of Dance (see side website) with other invited sides |
Halesworth, Suffolk |
|
BMM |
Sun |
28th April 2019 |
12.30 St Georges Day Celebrations, Rose & Crown, with many other sides from Suffolk & further afield |
Hundon, Suffolk |
Key TBC = to be confirmed TBA = time to be arranged
BMM = Belchamp Morris Men (Cotswold and Border)
OG = Old Glory Molly Dancers and Musicians (Molly)
OM = Oxblood Molly (Molly)
OW = Ouse Washes Molly Dancers (Molly)
by Simon Haines
I have followed the fortunes of the Derry singer Cara Dillon for about 30 years, in fact since I first saw her as a teenager in the group Oige, at Colchester Arts Centre. Her voice and her treatment of songs was mesmerizing and I became an instant fan. Cara appeared next in The Equation, a pop-folk band, where she replaced Kate Rusby who had left to start her solo career. The other members of the Equation were Kathryn Roberts and the Lakeman brothers: Sam, Sean and Seth.
Fast forward a few years and Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman formed a duo. Rumour has it that the recordings they made for Warner Brothers were never released, so they walked away and started an independent musical life. Eventually Cara Dillon released a solo album and has since gone on from strength to strength to become an internationally acclaimed singer of traditional Irish songs. She has performed her repertoire in a duo with Sam Lakeman but also with other formations of traditional musicians. She has appeared regularly on TV in Transatlantic Sessions.
Molly Dance Workshops for Milkmaid Molly Buddies
with Alison Giles from the Cambridge Molly side Gog Magog
October 18th, November 22nd and December 14th from 7.30 to 9.30pm
Risbygate Sports Club, Westley Road, Bury St Edmunds. IP33 3RR
The workshops are for any Buddies or potential Buddies who would like to learn new dances or anyone who would like to give Molly dance a go. All are welcome to come along and learn this local tradition.
Information from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Gill on 01284 767476.
Gog Magog dancing in Ely on Mark Jones Day January 2018
About Milkmaid Molly
Nearly seven years ago, in January 2012, a new Morris dancing side was launched in Bury St Edmunds which filled a gap in the Morris dance family in West Suffolk. At the time there was a good representation of the dances of the west and northwest of England with Bury Fair and Hageneth dancing the hankies and sticks dances of the Cotswold; Haughley Hoofers, with their clogs, dancing Northwest and Green Dragon’s boisterous stick-wielding Border dance. The plan was to create a side with a different tradition to avoid standing on the toes of these well-established West Suffolk dancers. So Molly dancing was the choice, Molly being the tradition closest to home, the tradition coming out from the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Gill Bosley and Graham leading the Milkmaid Molly procession at Ely Festival
But there was another difference, this was to be a side that was inclusive: to involve people with disabilities, to have regular dance practices to learn dances and to socialise and to be able to perform alongside other Morris sides, in other words, to enjoy the whole Morris experience.
Milkmaid Molly (named from the well-known Milkmaid Folk Club) has a membership of 12 Mollies who have learning difficulties and an equal number of Buddies who dance or play with them. Dances are chosen or created to enable all the Mollies to fully participate. The Buddies also learn more complex dances and when these are performed the Mollies provide the instrumental accompaniment with the musicians. A generous donation of £50 from the line-dance group of a previous Buddy was used to purchase more instruments which were given their first airing on 23rd September at the Bury Hub Fest in Hollow Road.
Milkmaid Molly now have regular bookings to dance every year at Ely Folk Festival and Euston Rural Pastimes and may have been spotted amongst the Morris throng dancing in Bury town centre on Green Dragon’s 25th anniversary celebration in September 2018.
Gill Bosley
Milkmaid Molly
17th October 2018
