PLOUGH SUNDAY IN VANCOUVER BC: A TRANSPLANTED ENGLISH CUSTOM
An article by Graham Baldwin, written for the American Morris Newsletter
The Vancouver Morris Men (VMM) were formed in 1982 to maintain the traditions of the English Morris in North America and to recreate the ritual and social activities of England's pastoral past. From the beginning, VMM membership comprised a high percentage of native Englishmen, many of whom were seeking a way of experiencing and presenting their English culture in their newly adopted country. For the first eight years of existence, the VMM focused exclusively on Cotswold morris, and quickly adopted the habit of relying heavily on direct English, rather than North American, sources for its dances, style and overall presentation. This reliance on English sources resulting in a strong association with the English morris and attendance of members at many English morris events. Our first tour to England as a side, in 1990, resulted in our election to the Morris Ring, thus becoming one of only two North American sides to receive this honour.
Following our first tour, we began to expand our interest to include the full scope of English dance and folk customs, and very quickly adopted first Welsh Border Morris, then Mumming, Molly dancing and eventually NorthWest Morris to our repertoire. We implemented this by dividing the calendar year into "seasons" which approximated the most common historical occurrence of each specific dance or theatrical style. We have, in fact, developed our own "seasonal year", with Welsh Border in the Fall and Winter, Cotswold in the Spring/early Summer, NorthWest in the late Summer, four distinct Mumming plays (Plough Sunday, Easter, Fall and Christmas), and Molly on Plough Sunday. This results in a very active and highly varied year, involving a diversity of dance styles, songs and plays.
PLOUGH SUNDAY
Historical records indicate that Plough Monday was the "big day" for Molly dancing in East Anglia, the day when the plough was dragged around many villages to the cry of "A penny for the Plough Boys, only once a year". On the preceding day, Plough Sunday, the plough was blessed in the local village church. (See Elaine Bradke's article in this publication for more details on the history.) Plough Monday used to be a farmer's holiday in England - not so any more, and certainly not so in Canada. For this reason, we moved the event forward one day so that it occurs on the weekend.
In Vancouver, Plough Sunday has become closely linked with our 12th Night celebrations, which now always take place on the Saturday night before Plough Sunday. These celebrations, involving all three Vancouver morris/clog sides, are presided over by an appointed Lord of the Bean and include many Cambridgeshire Feast dances, social dances on which the Molly appears to have been based. Since it was first organized in Vancouver in 1993, the 12th Night/Plough Sunday weekend has become one of the favourite events of the year, not just for the VMM, but also for the many friends and spectators who support the event.
SOURCES
There is not a lot of material on traditional Molly dancing.
Even though Ashley Hutching's "Rattlebone & Ploughjack" album had been passed around the side extensively, the VMM's first real exposure to Molly was in 1992 when Graham Baldwin attended the Saddleworth Rushcart as a dancing guest of the Silurian Border Morris Men. Also at Saddleworth were the Belchamp Morris Men, calling themselves the Belchamp Ploughboys for the weekend, who performed a suite of Molly dances. Available source material was soon obtained from Ray King, the Morris Ring archivist at the time. This was supplemented later by Cyril Papworth's booklet and audio cassette.
The Belchamp Ploughboys, extensively filmed by Graham Baldwin at Saddleworth, provided the basis of VMM's adopted visual style: loose and heavy-footed. The Morris Ring archives provided the basic history and development, while Cyril Papworth's booklet, articles and audio cassette put considerable "flesh" on the "bones" of our Molly knowledge.
A complete list of our Molly sources is given in the appendix.
MOLLY DANCES: WHAT ARE THEY?
Molly dances appear to be renditions of local popular Feast dances of the day. While the Feast dances were social dances for mixed couples, the Molly dances were for men only, and were danced exclusively on Plough Monday. The only recorded Molly dances are from the villages of Girton and Comberton, Cambridgeshire.
The Molly dances comprises six or eight black-faced dancers in casual country clothing lead by a top couple, the "Lord" and "Lady", more elaborately dressed than the rest. Lallygags (or upcatchers, as they're called In Norfolk) are worn. These are straps worn by farm workers round their trouser-legs just below the knee. Sashes, rosettes and ribbons are sometimes worn.
The steps are simple, the dance form being a progressive longways set (much like modern contra dancing) using the duple minor or triple minor figures. There are no stick dances, and hankies are rarely used.
The word "Molly" may be simply a derivation of the word "Morris". Indeed, the use of this term is not uncommon in the Welsh Border area also.
THE EVENT
It was decided in the Fall of 1992 to have a Plough Sunday celebration in Vancouver involving Molly dancing, a mummer's play, seasonal singing, drinking (of course!), a plough and community involvement.
VMM's enthusiastic Mumming Instructor, Norman Stanfield, tracked down the text for the Wooing Play from Bassingham, Lincolnshire, as recorded by C.R. Baskerville in 1924 from a manuscript in the British Museum and edited by E.K. Chambers in "The English Folk Play" (1933). This play was traditionally performed on Plough Monday, though there is no record of any dancing associated with it.
Since the dances are simple, we decided to take one month out of our Winter Border Morris practice season, with Molly practices starting in December and ending with the climax of Plough Sunday. For our inaugural Molly dance-out on Plough Sunday 1993, we had four dances in our repertoire: Special Molly, College Hornpipe, Birds a Building and Up the Middle & Down the Sides.
A committee was formed to find a plough, and within a matter of days we had located a farmer in the Fraser River delta who had a small old plough ideal for our purposes. The farmer (who just happens to be of English descent) was quite pleased to see his old, previously unused plough put to some use for one day per year, and receive a bottle of whiskey from us as a token of thanks!
The location of our Plough Sunday celebration was to be Granville Island public market, a place where the VMM are well known for their monthly dance-outs throughout the Fall and Winter.
The plough was picked up on the Sunday morning and deposited outside the Arts Club Bar around 12:30pm. where the rest of the VMM and their friends were meeting. As will all VMM dance-outs, we start off with a drink to get us "in the mood".
Around 1:30pm. we set off with the plough on our procession around the island. The procession is lead by a caller with a large bell to "clear the way". He is followed by the Molly band, usually comprising a melodeon, concertina, triangle, tambourine and bones playing a selection of Molly tunes. The plough is carried by three pairs of men, the front two pairs using sticks to carry the plough, with the last pair on the handles at the rear. The rest of the dancers follow behind, with our entourage. This procession goes around the island chanting "Penny for the Plough Boys, only once a year!, The bullocks are thirsty and want some beer!"
We conduct two perambulations of the island, each lasting about one hour. During each tour, we stop once to Molly dance and perform the Wooing Play, with the plough forming a picturesque backdrop. Between each tour and at the end, we return to the Arts Club Bar (or another local drinking establishment) to replenish lost fluids, sing a few seasonal songs and play a few tunes. The day ends about 5:00pm.
Plough Sunday has become one of the most popular events on our seasonal calendar. We have had visitors come out with us: the two local women's sides, Tiddley Cove Morris and Britannia English Clog, often make an appearance and join in the festivities; we also had the MossyBack Morris Men (for Seattle, WA) join us one year.
The Granville Island authorities and merchants see the event as a traditional fixture on their calendar. In recent years, our perambulation has even travelled right through the market area, between the stalls of fruit, fish and vegetables. The event has now taken on a life of its own, and will evolve as we add more Molly dances (we currently have six), and more participants and spectators participate.
We feel we have successfully captured something of the essence of the Molly dancers, even though we have not yet had to resort to "ploughing up a front yard" because no ale or food was forthcoming. It seems that the Granville Island community is very appreciative of our involvement with them in bringing this old seasonal event back to life here in Vancouver.
APPENDIX
Baldwin, G.: "Belchamp Ploughboys at Saddleworth Rushcart", video 1992.
Davenport, P.: "Molly Dances (East Anglia)", A summary of the Morris Ring Archives (date unknown)
Hutchings, A.: "Rattlebone & Ploughjack", LP record, HELP 24, 1976.
Needham, J. & Peck, A. : "Molly Dancing in East Anglia", Journal of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1933.
Palmer, W.: "Plough Monday 1933 at Little Downham", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1974.
Papworth, C. "The Comberton Broom Dance", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No.1, 1974.
Papworth, C.: "Polka Round: The Cambridgeshire Feast Dances and the Comberton Broom Dance", Cambridge 1984.
Papworth, C.: "Folk Customs of Comberton: Dance, Heritage, Music" audio cassette (date unknown).
Wortley, R: "A Penny for the Plough Boys", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1974.
Wortley, R. & Papworth C.: "Molly Dancing in South-West Cambridgeshire", English Dance &Song, Vol. 40, No. 2, 1978.
An article by Graham Baldwin, written for the American Morris Newsletter
The Vancouver Morris Men (VMM) were formed in 1982 to maintain the traditions of the English Morris in North America and to recreate the ritual and social activities of England's pastoral past. From the beginning, VMM membership comprised a high percentage of native Englishmen, many of whom were seeking a way of experiencing and presenting their English culture in their newly adopted country. For the first eight years of existence, the VMM focused exclusively on Cotswold morris, and quickly adopted the habit of relying heavily on direct English, rather than North American, sources for its dances, style and overall presentation. This reliance on English sources resulting in a strong association with the English morris and attendance of members at many English morris events. Our first tour to England as a side, in 1990, resulted in our election to the Morris Ring, thus becoming one of only two North American sides to receive this honour.
Following our first tour, we began to expand our interest to include the full scope of English dance and folk customs, and very quickly adopted first Welsh Border Morris, then Mumming, Molly dancing and eventually NorthWest Morris to our repertoire. We implemented this by dividing the calendar year into "seasons" which approximated the most common historical occurrence of each specific dance or theatrical style. We have, in fact, developed our own "seasonal year", with Welsh Border in the Fall and Winter, Cotswold in the Spring/early Summer, NorthWest in the late Summer, four distinct Mumming plays (Plough Sunday, Easter, Fall and Christmas), and Molly on Plough Sunday. This results in a very active and highly varied year, involving a diversity of dance styles, songs and plays.
PLOUGH SUNDAY
Historical records indicate that Plough Monday was the "big day" for Molly dancing in East Anglia, the day when the plough was dragged around many villages to the cry of "A penny for the Plough Boys, only once a year". On the preceding day, Plough Sunday, the plough was blessed in the local village church. (See Elaine Bradke's article in this publication for more details on the history.) Plough Monday used to be a farmer's holiday in England - not so any more, and certainly not so in Canada. For this reason, we moved the event forward one day so that it occurs on the weekend.
In Vancouver, Plough Sunday has become closely linked with our 12th Night celebrations, which now always take place on the Saturday night before Plough Sunday. These celebrations, involving all three Vancouver morris/clog sides, are presided over by an appointed Lord of the Bean and include many Cambridgeshire Feast dances, social dances on which the Molly appears to have been based. Since it was first organized in Vancouver in 1993, the 12th Night/Plough Sunday weekend has become one of the favourite events of the year, not just for the VMM, but also for the many friends and spectators who support the event.
SOURCES
There is not a lot of material on traditional Molly dancing.
Even though Ashley Hutching's "Rattlebone & Ploughjack" album had been passed around the side extensively, the VMM's first real exposure to Molly was in 1992 when Graham Baldwin attended the Saddleworth Rushcart as a dancing guest of the Silurian Border Morris Men. Also at Saddleworth were the Belchamp Morris Men, calling themselves the Belchamp Ploughboys for the weekend, who performed a suite of Molly dances. Available source material was soon obtained from Ray King, the Morris Ring archivist at the time. This was supplemented later by Cyril Papworth's booklet and audio cassette.
The Belchamp Ploughboys, extensively filmed by Graham Baldwin at Saddleworth, provided the basis of VMM's adopted visual style: loose and heavy-footed. The Morris Ring archives provided the basic history and development, while Cyril Papworth's booklet, articles and audio cassette put considerable "flesh" on the "bones" of our Molly knowledge.
A complete list of our Molly sources is given in the appendix.
MOLLY DANCES: WHAT ARE THEY?
Molly dances appear to be renditions of local popular Feast dances of the day. While the Feast dances were social dances for mixed couples, the Molly dances were for men only, and were danced exclusively on Plough Monday. The only recorded Molly dances are from the villages of Girton and Comberton, Cambridgeshire.
The Molly dances comprises six or eight black-faced dancers in casual country clothing lead by a top couple, the "Lord" and "Lady", more elaborately dressed than the rest. Lallygags (or upcatchers, as they're called In Norfolk) are worn. These are straps worn by farm workers round their trouser-legs just below the knee. Sashes, rosettes and ribbons are sometimes worn.
The steps are simple, the dance form being a progressive longways set (much like modern contra dancing) using the duple minor or triple minor figures. There are no stick dances, and hankies are rarely used.
The word "Molly" may be simply a derivation of the word "Morris". Indeed, the use of this term is not uncommon in the Welsh Border area also.
THE EVENT
It was decided in the Fall of 1992 to have a Plough Sunday celebration in Vancouver involving Molly dancing, a mummer's play, seasonal singing, drinking (of course!), a plough and community involvement.
VMM's enthusiastic Mumming Instructor, Norman Stanfield, tracked down the text for the Wooing Play from Bassingham, Lincolnshire, as recorded by C.R. Baskerville in 1924 from a manuscript in the British Museum and edited by E.K. Chambers in "The English Folk Play" (1933). This play was traditionally performed on Plough Monday, though there is no record of any dancing associated with it.
Since the dances are simple, we decided to take one month out of our Winter Border Morris practice season, with Molly practices starting in December and ending with the climax of Plough Sunday. For our inaugural Molly dance-out on Plough Sunday 1993, we had four dances in our repertoire: Special Molly, College Hornpipe, Birds a Building and Up the Middle & Down the Sides.
A committee was formed to find a plough, and within a matter of days we had located a farmer in the Fraser River delta who had a small old plough ideal for our purposes. The farmer (who just happens to be of English descent) was quite pleased to see his old, previously unused plough put to some use for one day per year, and receive a bottle of whiskey from us as a token of thanks!
The location of our Plough Sunday celebration was to be Granville Island public market, a place where the VMM are well known for their monthly dance-outs throughout the Fall and Winter.
The plough was picked up on the Sunday morning and deposited outside the Arts Club Bar around 12:30pm. where the rest of the VMM and their friends were meeting. As will all VMM dance-outs, we start off with a drink to get us "in the mood".
Around 1:30pm. we set off with the plough on our procession around the island. The procession is lead by a caller with a large bell to "clear the way". He is followed by the Molly band, usually comprising a melodeon, concertina, triangle, tambourine and bones playing a selection of Molly tunes. The plough is carried by three pairs of men, the front two pairs using sticks to carry the plough, with the last pair on the handles at the rear. The rest of the dancers follow behind, with our entourage. This procession goes around the island chanting "Penny for the Plough Boys, only once a year!, The bullocks are thirsty and want some beer!"
We conduct two perambulations of the island, each lasting about one hour. During each tour, we stop once to Molly dance and perform the Wooing Play, with the plough forming a picturesque backdrop. Between each tour and at the end, we return to the Arts Club Bar (or another local drinking establishment) to replenish lost fluids, sing a few seasonal songs and play a few tunes. The day ends about 5:00pm.
Plough Sunday has become one of the most popular events on our seasonal calendar. We have had visitors come out with us: the two local women's sides, Tiddley Cove Morris and Britannia English Clog, often make an appearance and join in the festivities; we also had the MossyBack Morris Men (for Seattle, WA) join us one year.
The Granville Island authorities and merchants see the event as a traditional fixture on their calendar. In recent years, our perambulation has even travelled right through the market area, between the stalls of fruit, fish and vegetables. The event has now taken on a life of its own, and will evolve as we add more Molly dances (we currently have six), and more participants and spectators participate.
We feel we have successfully captured something of the essence of the Molly dancers, even though we have not yet had to resort to "ploughing up a front yard" because no ale or food was forthcoming. It seems that the Granville Island community is very appreciative of our involvement with them in bringing this old seasonal event back to life here in Vancouver.
APPENDIX
Baldwin, G.: "Belchamp Ploughboys at Saddleworth Rushcart", video 1992.
Davenport, P.: "Molly Dances (East Anglia)", A summary of the Morris Ring Archives (date unknown)
Hutchings, A.: "Rattlebone & Ploughjack", LP record, HELP 24, 1976.
Needham, J. & Peck, A. : "Molly Dancing in East Anglia", Journal of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1933.
Palmer, W.: "Plough Monday 1933 at Little Downham", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1974.
Papworth, C. "The Comberton Broom Dance", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No.1, 1974.
Papworth, C.: "Polka Round: The Cambridgeshire Feast Dances and the Comberton Broom Dance", Cambridge 1984.
Papworth, C.: "Folk Customs of Comberton: Dance, Heritage, Music" audio cassette (date unknown).
Wortley, R: "A Penny for the Plough Boys", English Dance &Song, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1974.
Wortley, R. & Papworth C.: "Molly Dancing in South-West Cambridgeshire", English Dance &Song, Vol. 40, No. 2, 1978.
