May the dancing begin (From Gazette & Herald)

May the dancing begin

Next Saturday is May Day and one of the ever-present customs associated with this happy time is maypole dancing.

In spite of repeated attempts to halt it, this essentially rural ritual has survived with lofty

and colourful maypoles continuing to be a feature of several village greens in this region.

Some remain in position throughout the year, while others are erected especially for the occasion, although nowadays any dancing will probably take place on the Saturday or Sunday nearest to May Day rather than upon the day itself.

This year, we are fortunate to have the coming Saturday as May Day; I am sure some wonderful examples of maypole dancing will occur either on Saturday or during the rest of the weekend.

One great attempt to ban maypole dancing occurred in 1644 when the Puritans decided it was a pagan custom and set about trying both to ban the dancing and destroy any existing poles.

There is one account where a Puritan writer referred to a maypole as a "stinckying idoll". He wrote scathingly of the practice of felling a suitable tree, and then yoking teams of oxen to haul the tree from the wood to its site in the village. All the oxen had bunches of flowers tied to the tips of their horns as they drew the "Maie poole or stinckying idoll" along; the pole itself was also

adorned with flowers and garlands and, before it was erected, it was painted in bright colours with more garlands tied to it.

Once the pole was in position, our Puritan writer said, the people "do banquet and feast, leap and daunce (sic) about it as the heathen people

did at the dedication of their idolles."

There is a record of such an attempted destruction in 1701. A group of Puritans, known as Broadbrims because of their hats, arrived at

Sinnington near Pickering. They were determined to stop the dancing, but the local lads were equally determined they would not succeed. There followed what is described as a 'great dordum of a fight' in which the Puritans were beaten off.

And there is still a maypole at Sinnington.

I do not have a comprehensive list of local villages where maypoles can be seen, but they have been recorded in Foston, Staithes, Roxby near Staithes, Slingsby and Langton near Malton, Masham, Whitby, Goathland, Coneysthorpe and Welburn near Malton, Upper Poppleton and Clifton near

York, Thorpe and Burnsall in Wharfedale, Bubwith near Selby, Sinnington near Pickering, Otley, Nun Monkton and Aldborough near Boroughbridge, Ovington, Middleton Tyas and Bolton-on-Swale near Richmond, Gawthorpe near

Wakefield and even in the ground of Ryedale Folk Museum at Hutton-le-Hole, with perhaps the tallest of all at Barwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds.

I am sure there must be others, although in March this year, the mighty pole at Nun Monkton was demolished during a storm.

Exactly when maypole dancing began is uncertain, but for centuries it was the custom to make use of a tall, straight young tree which was brought from the woods, accompanied by a good deal of ceremonial, for use on May Day.

If the people believed these poles could ward off witches and evil spirits, it is not surprising that some clergymen regarded them as pagan idols.

There is a tale of a maypole which, when not in use, was stored by hanging it horizontally under the eaves of a row of houses. A local curate

considered it to be an idol and set about chopping it into small pieces, each householder being given that part which hung over his doorway.

The fact that trees were used as maypoles suggests they represented the new bloom of nature and the fecundity of the countryside and there is

little doubt the pagans used them as a form of fertility symbol.

It is perhaps not surprising that fervent Puritans considered them as something evil and dangerous and that attacks occurred, although in most cases the dancing and merry-making was nothing more than a means of welcoming the

month of May with all its new life and colour.

A delightful yarn concerns the splendid maypole at Burnsall in Wharfedale. It was the focus of much dancing and happiness, but the people

of nearby Thorpe could never hope to match it. They yearned for a maypole of their own and so, in 1804, under cover of darkness, a team of raiders

crept into Burnsall and stole the pole. It was re-erected in Thorpe but a search failed to locate it until almost a year later - and then a raiding party from Burnsall went to recover it.

The Thorpe pole plunderers were outnumbered and so the maypole was returned in triumph to Burnsall. But that is not the end of the story.

In 1991, Burnsall repaired its maypole after some storm damage and it lay on the green, awaiting its re-erection ceremony on May Day.

Overnight on April 28, it vanished. The Monday following, a splendid new maypole mysteriously appeared in Thorpe, remarkably similar to the one which was missing from Burnsall. But the local folk are saying nowt.

Updated: 11:53 Wednesday, April 28, 2004