Is there an Essex Wassail?

Subject: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,EssexWhistler
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 12:13 PM

I was wondering if there were any wassails for Essex (or surrounding south east england region)...any ideas to point me in the right direction anyone?

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 12:51 PM

tiptree used to be an apple growing area, try any old people in that area, you might discover an UNDSCOVERED song.
J howson seem to concentrate on suffolk and norfolk, but some of us are aware that essEx is east anglia

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 07:22 PM

[quote]
but some of us are aware that essEx is east anglia
[/quote]
Somebody clearly knows fuck all about English historical geography

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 13 Dec 11 - 07:25 PM

Do you mean wassail songs collected in Essex or do you mean a contemporary revival wassail event? I don't know of any wassail songs collected in Essex. There is of course the well-known Sussex wassail, published in 1843. Also, wassails aren't necessarily linked to apple-growing areas. Many were simply house-to-house customs.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Howard Jones
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 04:12 AM

Historically Essex was the land of the East Saxons and quite separate from Anglia. There are still clearly different physical characteristics between the "coffin-headed" Saxons and "pudding-headed" Anglians. Bob Roberts told how someone asking directions was told to go into Essex and ask again - when he enquired how he would know he was in Essex, he was told, "Why, bor, you'll see a lot of Essex-men about".

In more recent times, however, Essex had more in common both linguistically and culturally with East Anglia than with London.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,EssexWhistler
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 05:18 AM

I am after some songs collected from around essex, I'm not actually sure if there are any, i was just interested as i've heard many wassails from gloucestershire, devon, and that sort of area and was wondering of any from round essex way.
And there are quite a few wassail events around in essex, you only have to google essex wassail to find some.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 05:22 AM

There is a local wassail group in Walthamstow (well they meet annually for the Walthamstow Wassail!) which is geographically and historically part of Essex.

I don't know if they are aware of any "local" wassails but will try to track down the organiser and ask.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 07:59 AM

I just did a search on the Roud database for anything with Wassail in the title and Essex in the place collected and it returned no songs. This is not definitive, but I think pretty indicative.

Mick

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: treewind
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 08:03 AM

Colin Cater wrote a wassail song, and he lives in Essex. That may be as close as you are going to get.

Duton Hill Folk Club will be having its Christmas party tomorrow night.
We'll be wassailing the apple tree that we donated to the pub at the same event last year, but not using any locally collected wassail songs. If anybody sings a traditional Essex wassail I'll certainly report it here...

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 11:33 AM

I `ad that Ethel Spelter in my cab the other day. She`s the last of the Essex professional women hot dip galvanisers. She wrote that book," Zinc or Swim".
I said , "Morning Eff, `ave you seen that Mudcat. They`re asking about if there are any Essex wassails. Surely, as a county authority on and singer of local folk songs you could answer that?"
She said, " I suppose the one that comes to mind is "Giving Time".
I said, "`ow does it go then?"
She went, "Well chorus is like this.
            
          "Christmas is a giving time.
            A lovely time of year.
            I wanna go to Lakeside
            And get me presents there"".

Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 01:10 PM

Essex is part of East Anglia.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 01:35 PM

I don't know about technicalities of historical geographical dividing lines.

I do know that Essex is represented in East Anglian Traditional Music Trust, by Essex County Council, Head of Heritage and Arts.

University of East Anglia is in Essex.

East Anglian Railway Museum is in Colchester Essex.

I will try to remember to ask our Sound and Video Archivist if there is any such Wassail.

Has any thought to ask the Morris Ring?

Also seems to me there could be one attached to Molly tradition which is Essex

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 01:37 PM

Go to the Duke of Essex Polo Cup day and ask any appropriate Essex oik - I'm sure they will know the answer!!

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 01:42 PM

Colin is a good performer and songwriter , he used to be part of a duo with Roger Watson, he is from the midlands originally, and as far as i know he is not a buddhist.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 01:57 PM

Well that was a wrong answer. Molly is associated Plough Monday first Monday after Epiphany and ploughing furrows in gardens of gentle folk if they did not give food or money to "disguised" farm workers. A way of getting some income in an entertaining terrorist kind of way through the lean winter months.

Still would be interesting to check Morris Ring archive (some of which is at Essex Record Office) to see if there is anything approximating wassail tradition specific to Essex and East Anglia.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Dec 11 - 03:52 PM

I decided to start a Salford Wassail

Wassail, wassail all over the place
Give us your money or I'll punch your face
My stick it is made of proper good trees
If you don't pay up I'll take out your knees.

I'm sure it would do in Essex too.

Oh - We are called Wassailants BTW - Not Wassailers.

:D tG

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Snuffy
Date: 15 Dec 11 - 08:38 AM

"Essex people are very strange: they're half East Anglian, and half human"

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 15 Dec 11 - 12:07 PM

Essex is part of East Anglia.

No

"East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of the East Anglian princess Etheldreda, the Isle of Ely also became part of the kingdom. Formerly a standard statistical region, for administrative purposes East Anglia now forms part of the East of England government office region and is defined as a Level 2 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, comprising the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire including the city of Peterborough unitary authority area."

That is East Anglia, you are confusing it with the larger East of England government office region and I quote again

"Before the creation of the East of England region there had been a smaller standard statistical region of East Anglia which did not include Essex, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire. They had previously been included in the South East region. The East of England civil defence region shared the boundaries of the current region."

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Dec 11 - 01:28 PM

kevin, another example of wikipedia inaccuracy.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 11 - 03:54 PM

with regards to where essex is, given that i live in essex,
we are sometimes classed as east anglia and sometimes as south east england.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 16 Dec 11 - 04:01 AM

Dick

OK the quotes are from wikipedia simply because that was the easiest cut and paste route but not all wikipedia is inaccurate and many articles have citations and links to such official sites a government and EU statistics ofices and departmebts as is the case here, always check those first.

Stay as pig headed as you like, but twice you've been corrected, and note it's been done "politely".

Nobody has called you an idiot or reacted with knee jerk personal abuse.

If you refuse to learn anything else on mudcat perhaps you might learn that!

I'm out of here.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: The Sandman
Date: 16 Dec 11 - 12:12 PM

I'm out of here.
good, I have not called anyone on this thread an idiot, it is quite true I replied to Folknacious" who is this idiot" on another thread, but KEVIN.. WHY BRING THIS INTO THIS PARTICULAR THREAD.it is irrelevant.
I went to school in north essex, AND LIVED IN ESSEX AND SUFFOLK thevast majorityof people there certainly those living in i north essex regarded essex as EAST ANGLIA,I dont care what wikepedia says.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 09:53 PM

Check the largest ever work on wassail that did indeed come out this year
The Book of Wassail
A huge volume just on songs
http://mysite.verizon.net/cbladey/wassailbook/wassailbook.html

Conrad

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 04:35 AM

To the OP

I saw the organiser of the Walthamstow Wassailers and she is not aware of any Essex specific wassails.

Somone I haven't seen for a few years but used to be a regular drop in at the club is Tony Kendall "The Essex Man". Here is a link to a website which gives more info and refers to Essex Wassails but Tony not only collected but wrote "folk" related songs on Essex themes so they may be his own work.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 08:03 PM

there is a thames head I think wassail but is that essex cant remember may be have the title scrambled

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Acorn4
Date: 28 Dec 11 - 12:42 PM

OK, sorry about this:-



The Essex Wassail
1.Come all Chavs and Chavettes for' tis New Year's Day,
Pray weld on your baseball caps- into the the fray,
We'll go a binge drinking with language most foul,
Like rabid rotweilers to the main streets of Slough.

2. Our life's a widescreen, if yer know warra mean,
We all love 'X Factor' and 'Pirates of the Caribbeen'.
So to celebrate good taste and with customary grace
We'll give you a knucklebutty or a glass in the face.

Chorus
Wassail, Wassail, from Essex we hail,
We'll drink gnatspiss lager and watch Jeremy Kyle, innit!
And like that used condom that floats in the loo,
We'll flush out the old year and welcome the new!

3. From the taxis they tumble, those birds of a kind,
Call each other "baybs" as they eff and they blind,
Some they will pewk up and some may get laid,
And some will call each other effin slags and in they'll all wade.

4. Now some will present the most wond'rous of sights,
As vast tattooed flab spills from dresses too tight,
Though their gobs they are mighty, their braincells are few,
As they paint the town red while they turn the air blue

Chorus: Wassail, wassail

5. We're on a hair trigger, blue lights flash everywhere,
As we stagger on like lemmings from bar unto bar,
In the doorways we'll copulate, upon a broken window pane,
So join in our wassail, and get pissed out of your brain

Chorus: Wassail, wassail
Add:-
So let's spread this ancient Essex custom the whole nation through,
Let's flush out the old year and welcome the new!
So let's toast the work of Peter Andre and of Posh Spice too,
Let's flush out the old year and welcome the new!

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,Dave of Mawkin
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 07:25 PM

Cheers Acorn4, think I might of found a new Mawkin song.

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: GUEST,Sunnyside
Date: 19 Mar 12 - 03:26 PM

Makes you think a bit.
No Essex Wassails as far as I'm aware, apart from Duton Hill which is very recent. But then of the 160 wassail ceremonies in UK this year that I know about, quite a lot are no more than five years or so old.
As for chavettes ,you don't see many of them north of the A13, apart from some very old American models.
Wassail

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: Acorn4
Date: 14 Dec 12 - 04:16 AM

Vicky Swann and Jonny Dyer have answered the question:-


https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/essex-wassail-single/id582432308

Subject: RE: Is there an Essex Wassail?
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 10 Dec 17 - 02:55 PM

ssex Wassail 1
(based on all the Wassails that we could find)
You gentlemen of England
I’ll have you to draw near
For we have come a wassailing
for your strong ale and beer
Wassail wassail, come listen to our call
wassail wassail, a health to one and all
God bless the master of the house
the misteress also
And all the little children that
around your table go
Wassail…..
Likewise your men and maidens
your cattle and your store
And all that dwell within your gates
we wish you ten times more
Wassail…..
Put your hand into your pocket and
draw out your keys
Go down unto your cellar
and draw what e’er you please
Wassail…..
Draw us a jug of your fine grog
or your ale that is so brown
And we will drink a health to you
and another to the crown
Wassail…..
From walking and from talking
we are so very dry
We trust your good nature that
you’ll never us deny
Wassail…..
This night you’ll never us deny
of your strong ale and beer for
We’ll come no more a-wassailing
until this time next year.
Wassail…..
-Traditional (Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer’s version)
The Essex Wassail
1.Come all Chavs and Chavettes for' tis New Year's Day,
Pray weld on your baseball caps- into the the fray,
We'll go a binge drinking with language most foul,
Like rabid rotweilers to the main streets of Slough.

2. Our life's a widescreen, if yer know warra mean,
We all love 'X Factor' and 'Pirates of the Caribbeen'.
So to celebrate good taste and with customary grace
We'll give you a knucklebutty or a glass in the face.

Chorus
Wassail, Wassail, from Essex we hail,
We'll drink gnatspiss lager and watch Jeremy Kyle, innit!
And like that used condom that floats in the loo,
We'll flush out the old year and welcome the new!

3. From the taxis they tumble, those birds of a kind,
Call each other "baybs" as they eff and they blind,
Some they will pewk up and some may get laid,
And some will call each other effin slags and in they'll all wade.

4. Now some will present the most wond'rous of sights,
As vast tattooed flab spills from dresses too tight,
Though their gobs they are mighty, their braincells are few,
As they paint the town red while they turn the air blue

Chorus: Wassail, wassail

5. We're on a hair trigger, blue lights flash everywhere,
As we stagger on like lemmings from bar unto bar,
In the doorways we'll copulate, upon a broken window pane,
So join in our wassail, and get pissed out of your brain

Chorus: Wassail, wassail
Add:-
So let's spread this ancient Essex custom the whole nation through,
Let's flush out the old year and welcome the new!
So let's toast the work of Peter Andre and of Posh Spice too,
Let's flush out the old year and welcome the new!
-traditional mudcat