Whitsun Ales and Cheeses Roll...
Whitsun Ales and Cheeses Roll...
Robin Hood was a prominent character in the May Games of the 16th century and has been incorporated in the May Day repertoire. He also became interchangeable with the Lord of King of the May as well as Jack-in-the-Green. He gets in everywhere!
Early popular representations were often unflattering, showing him as a kind of rustic buffoon or jester, but there was a deliberate attempt to dignify him during later centuries. It was the Victorians, with their interest in the medieval past, who finally shaped the image of Robin Hood as the English folk hero we think of today.
First mentioned in Piers Plowman in 1370, the Ballads of Robin Hood were very popular and widely available through printed broadsheets and chapbooks. Performances of Robin Hood plays and ballads are regularly mentioned at Whitsun in Churchwardens’ Accounts throughout the 15th and 16th centuries for ‘monies paid for costumes.’
May Games
Whitsuntide was the period of May games, mainly for the young people who, after dancing round the maypole, would try out their strength and skills in wrestling and archery contests. Other games included foot races, trying to catch a greased pig, or making a funny face through a horse collar, climbing a greasy pole, running after a pig with a shaved and well soaped tail, sack racing, plus singing and dancing.
Dover’s Games near Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds were “instituted in the reign of James I by Robert Dover, an attorney, and featured football, skittles, quoits, shovel board, cudgel, cock fighting, bowling, wrestling, pitching the bar, horse racing, ringing of bells, jumping in sacks etc.” The celebrations also included Morris dancing. The village of Temple Sowerby in Westmorland used to hold a story-telling competition on May Day up until the last century. The winner was considered the greatest liar...
A preposterous game is Cheese Rolling, an event which was formerly held on the old Whit Monday but is now transferred to the Spring Bank Holiday Monday. Not for the faint-hearted, this takes place on 5-in-1 slope called Coopers Hill, near Birdlip in Gloucestershire. Large Gloucester cheeses are rolled separately down the slope and pursued by young men. There are also races for the young women, too. The winner is the person who manages to reach the bottom first. Any hope of catching the cheese, which rolls at an alarming rate, is soon abandoned. St. John’s Ambulance officials are kept busy assisting those with injuries. The ritual is connected with the maintenance of grazing rights.
Whitsun was also the time for walks, processions, and feasts associated with local clubs, particularly Village Friendly Societies. There would be parades around the whole of the community with members in their best clothes, carrying staves, banners, and often accompanied by a local or club band. Frequently, it would also be celebrated with a fair. The day usually ended with a club dinner or a feast.
