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21 Jan 08 - 03:43 PM (#2241513) Subject: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Herga Kitty Letter in today's Guardian (UK) newspaper: Plough Sunday still happens (Letters, January 17). A few years ago at St John's Knaresborough, we jingled our way through Lord of the Dance with 150 morris men. All very bucolic. Rev John Caperon Crowborough, East Sussex With a name like that, born to dance? There was also an obituary in today's Guardian of ballet choreographer and director Norman Morrice.... Kitty |
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22 Jan 08 - 07:04 AM (#2241866) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: brassy sharman There were a couple of refrences to Wassailing on radio 4 also, there were 2 seperate Wassail events near us over the last w.e. N.Lincs how many others throiughout the country and how many7 were reported on local news? |
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22 Jan 08 - 07:20 AM (#2241872) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Sue the Borderer Exmoor Border wassailed at a Cider Orchard near Goodleigh in North Devon on Saturday. The photographer from the local paper was there. Sue |
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22 Jan 08 - 07:26 AM (#2241874) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Mr Happy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough_Monday |
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22 Jan 08 - 12:24 PM (#2242065) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Captain Ginger Born to dance, maybe - or maybe just not to fertilise chickens! |
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22 Jan 08 - 01:08 PM (#2242114) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Rusty Dobro I went for the first time to see the Old Glory Molly Men at Rumburgh 'Buck', Suffolk, on Plough Monday. I feel that after all these years I'm fairly hard to impress, but fortified by a pint or two of 'Rusty Bucket', there was a real sense of occasion as we waited under the stars for the procession. We heard the tramp of the hob-nailed boots first, then saw the flaming torches as the Lord and Lady of the Dance (both men, of course) led the dancers along the village street dragging the plough behind them. Then came the musicians, all female, carrying lanterns and dressed in greenery. All were 'blacked-up', a necessary precaution in days gone by, as Plough Monday was really an excuse to demand money with menaces, (if having a plough share dragged across your garden constitutes a menace)and the men ran the risk of being recognised by their employers. As befits a farm workers' tradition , the dancing was perhaps a bit more energetic and physical than some Morris sides, all greatly appreciated by a sizeable crowd. There was a break for the toast to the plough, and at the end, the ivy used during the winter dances was ceremoniously burnt as the centre-piece of a dance. The effect, especially as the procession emerged from the darkness, was surprisingly creepy, and I look forward to taking my grandchildren next year to show them that there's a world beyond their games machines and DVD's. Old Glory have an excellent website, with lots of background information on the Plough Monday tradition. |
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22 Jan 08 - 02:28 PM (#2242182) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Geoff the Duck Brings a different meaning to the line - "We plough the fields and SCATTER!". Quack! GtD. |
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22 Jan 08 - 02:36 PM (#2242191) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Herga Kitty Captain Ginger - does this mean you also saw the letter below John Caperon's? - Your review of No Country for Old Men (Film & Music, January 18) describes the three leading men as having "the spectacular virility of Texan steers". A steer is a castrated bull. Ted Truscoe Horley, Surrey I'm really not making this up - here's the link Kitty |
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22 Jan 08 - 02:57 PM (#2242213) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Emma B Bought a copy of Old Glory's CD 'Old Glory & the Cutty Wren' at Strawbear this year. Sleeve notes describe it as 'So Suffolk it hurts! :) |
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22 Jan 08 - 03:03 PM (#2242217) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Willa A wassail event took place in the new community orchard in Hull last week, and was mentioned in the local press. |
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22 Jan 08 - 03:12 PM (#2242227) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: katlaughing Clearly I have been reading the wrong newspaper for letters! Thanks for the smiles, Kitty. And, thanks for the education folks. Now I know what Plough Monday is all about and, once again, wish we had such traditions over here. |
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22 Jan 08 - 03:47 PM (#2242267) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Herga Kitty I'm a bit surprised nobody's yet mentioned Goathland Plough Stotts. Kitty |
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22 Jan 08 - 09:09 PM (#2242514) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Jim Martin This may also be of interest: http://www.old-glory.co.uk/index_files/cuttywren.htm Jim Martin |
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23 Jan 08 - 03:05 AM (#2242599) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: pavane I recently established that a contact of mine had a relative who was a vet. His surname is COWOP, and she had NEVER noticed the link. I think New Scientist magazine had a long-running item on people whose names were coincidentally linked to their jobs, but I can't recall the technical term they used for it. (By the way, re Norman Morrice, this could really have been a descriptive name, his ancestors could have been Morris dancers.) |
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23 Jan 08 - 01:37 PM (#2242963) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Les in Chorlton So, this Plough Monday business. Is it a thirteenth century Christian practice of blessing ploughs, resurected by 18/19C plough boys to make money? |
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23 Jan 08 - 02:02 PM (#2242993) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Marje We had a local wassail here in Stoke Gabriel, Devon, that was reported by the local press and also, so I am told, BBC Radio 4 and a local radio station. I had pulled together a "folk band" to play for part of the evening, so it's possible that some of our music was broadcast, but I have no idea when. No one asked us who we were, so it looks as if we missed our chance to hit the big time :-( Perhaps the reporters were more interested in the performance of Newton Bushel Morris, who valiantly (or foolishly) danced despite heavy rain and mud. Still, I'm quite chuffed to hear that the event got noticed. |
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23 Jan 08 - 04:54 PM (#2243105) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: GUEST,Shimrod "So, this Plough Monday business. Is it a thirteenth century Christian practice of blessing ploughs, resurected by 18/19C plough boys to make money?" Yes, and re-resurrected in the 20th/21st centuries by teachers, computer programmers etc. who think it's pagan. It's a funny old world! |
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25 Jan 08 - 12:37 PM (#2244621) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Les in Chorlton And (to the tune of Speed the Plough): May the Great Programmer Bring much peace and gigabytes of succes To all that toil at the screen May their hard drives never crash May their software be forever free of viruses No all down the wine bar for the traditional attack of Chardonnay and Tapas as our forefathers and brethren and sissteren have done Since the building of Stonehenge 1 Wassail! |
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25 Jan 08 - 02:34 PM (#2244741) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Fidjit Do people still read the Guardian? It used to be full of mistakes. Chas |
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25 Jan 08 - 03:05 PM (#2244784) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Herga Kitty Fidjit - that was the Grauniad. The Guardian has a policy of publishing corrections! Kitty |
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25 Jan 08 - 05:08 PM (#2244913) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Les in Chorlton OK, I confess I cannot spell mush .......... |
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26 Jan 08 - 03:44 PM (#2245588) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: GUEST,Chris in Clevedon several Somerset morris sides were over-booked for wassailing this year and some orchards had to go without. less of a tradition now and more of a fashion! |
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27 Jan 08 - 05:29 AM (#2245978) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Dave the Gnome We don't have wassailers in Salford. We have wassailants... :D |
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27 Jan 08 - 07:01 PM (#2246564) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: GUEST Our plough monday play was that good we have been "booked" by the pub we finished at to do it again in June! presumably they will have recovered by then, by the way does any of the plough play make sense to anyone? |
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10 Jan 22 - 07:25 PM (#4131871) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Joe Offer OK, so Vikki Appleton Fielden says today is Plough Monday. Can somebody explain this to us? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough_Monday Penny for the Ploughboys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQ0km0JVbk |
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10 Jan 22 - 07:27 PM (#4131873) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Felipa Great to hear Vikki and partner sing for the occasion tonight on Mudcat singaround. |
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12 Jan 22 - 11:31 AM (#4132101) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: GUEST,Essex Girl We did molly dancing around the pubs in Greenwich on Monday. |
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12 Jan 22 - 04:19 PM (#4132129) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Steve Gardham First Monday after 12th night, presumably a good date for ploughing to start in earnest after all the festivity. Or a good time to celebrate the plough, a very important implement. |
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12 Jan 22 - 06:02 PM (#4132158) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Rumncoke When I was younger they moved the timing of plough monday to the bank holiday for new year, as all the participants had jobs to go to.... |
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09 Jan 23 - 06:36 PM (#4161910) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Joe Offer Needs to be refreshed today. |
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09 Jan 23 - 09:14 PM (#4161927) Subject: RE: Plough Monday - you couldn't make it up From: Felipa as this Monday was Plough Monday see associated song Come See the Boys Go Round |