As can be seen from the title, this is a newsreel from Pathé Frères, the inventors of this new form of showing current events.   Although British Pathé has other archive films of maypole dances from around this time on their website, this one isn’t included.  There is no listing of the film on their online catalogue, nor on either the British Film Institute's online database or the British Universities Film & Video Council’s online British Universities Newsreel Database (BUND). The...

As can be seen from the title, this is a newsreel from Pathé Frères, the inventors of this new form of showing current events.   Although British Pathé has other archive films of maypole dances from around this time on their website, this one isn’t included.  There is no listing of the film on their online catalogue, nor on either the British Film Institute's online database or the British Universities Film & Video Council’s online British Universities Newsreel Database (BUND).

The Société Pathé Frères was founded in Paris in 1896 by the four Pathé brothers, led by Charles.  They became the first company to begin newsreels, with the first one appearing in Britain in 1910 under the name of Pathé's Animated Gazette.  Others soon followed: the Gaumont and Éclair (both French), Warwick Bioscope Chronicle, Williamson’s Animated News and Topical Budget.  They would appear twice weekly along with the normal films in cinemas.  Although in general they were normally longer than the actualité films which preceded them, and had more of a structure, this particular example differs little from many films from around this time made by local filmmakers which simply filmed local events with little or no commentary by way of captions.  It is noticeable that this film has no reference to it being British, although of course the title is in English.  Noticeable too is that many of these newsreels were far from having just ‘news’ stories, but included many aspects of social life.  Later on, with the coming of sound around 1930, this branched out more with Pathétone Weekly, the Pathé Pictorial, the Gazette and Eve’s Film Review. 

Gawthorpe is a small village on the northern outskirts of Ossett with historic ties to Dewsbury and the settlement of Kirkhamgate (via the Gawthorpe Lane footpath) in Wakefield. For many years Gawthorpe was considered a separate hamlet, but in 1866 it was joined with Ossett and South Ossett to become Ossett-cum-Gawthorpe.  Gawthorpe is one of the few places where a permanent Maypole may still be seen.  Indeed the Maypole and its cul-de-sac setting are two characteristics by which Gawthorpe is remembered by visitors.  The only other village nearby that still has a Maypole celebration is Barwick-in-Elmet, to the north-east of Leeds.  For well over a century the Gawthorpe Maypole Procession has raised money for elderly members of Gawthorpe village. The May Queen leads a procession of themed floats, majorettes, vintage vehicles and marching bands along the High Street.   The popular Gawthorpe Maypole Festival and Procession has been held each May since 1874.

When, precisely, a permanent Maypole was first erected in Gawthorpe is not easy to say. There was certainly one standing in the present site in 1840.  As local historian Stephen Wilson recounts it, in 1850 a Gawthorpe resident by the name of Mr. A. Pollard suggested, and bought, the first recorded permanent Maypole for the village.  Previously, each year a birch tree from local woods had been cut down and used as a Maypole.  The new Maypole, complete with weathercock on top, was duly erected. At this time the 'Streetsiders', i.e. people living in the vicinity of the Waggon and Horses public house, helped in the organising of the May Celebrations and they were represented on the Maypole Committee.  A problem dealt with by the Committee led to a dispute between the Gawthorpe and Streetside elements in the Committee. The 'Streetsiders' were in a minority and were outvoted. This made them resort to other methods and so, one night, a party of 'Streetsiders' sawed down the Maypole and carried it away, placing it in the yard behind the Wagon and Horses.  That Maypole never came back to Gawthorpe.   For more on this, and anything else relating to Ossett, see the truly amazing website put together by Stephen Wilson, ‘Ossett - the history of a Yorkshire town’ (References).  For more on maypoles see the Context for The Fall and Rise af the Barwick Maypole 1978.

What is most outstanding about the film is the quality of the dancing.  During the mid-nineteenth century many of the old village traditions of mayday celebrations the re-emerged just as the gap between the city and the countryside was growing ever larger.  Thanks largely to the efforts of Cecil Sharp and the English Folk Dance Society, English country dancing became common in schools in Edwardian England.   This coincided with a period, at the height of the British Empire, when all things that might be considered distinctive of English or British identity, especially relating to the countryside, were being assiduously promoted – the magazine ‘Country Life’ began in 1897.  This fed into, and was in part promoted by, several English composers of the time, led by Elgar, Bax and Vaughan Williams, who elicited an Arcadian view of the British countryside in their music – re-enacted in Danny Boyle's opening ceremony for the London Olympic Games.

English country dancing was seen as a part of this folklore.  Thomas Hardy, who was less inclined to romanticise about country life, provides an image of country dancing in his novel of 1872, Under the Greenwood Tree, although he considered the more 'genteel' country dancing as having superceded and extinguished the more traditional, and “boisterous”, folk dance. For more on maypole and English Country dancing see the Contexts for Birdwell Primary School Queen 1958-60 and Tickhill May Queen (c.1929)

The dancing on display here is exceptional, certainly among the best to be found within the YFA’s vaults.  Stephen Wilson’s website also sheds light on why this may be the case.  In 1906 the local school children, both boys and girls, were taught the intricate steps of Maypole dancing by Mrs Stephens, a teacher at the school. In 1927, a Miss Green joined the school and assisted in the instruction of the various dance sequences.   Very helpfully, he goes on to list these –  Ropes, the Barber's Pole, the Single Plait, the Double Plait, the Spider's Web, the Gypsy’s Tent and the Centenary Polka – and claims that they “consist of one of the most comprehensive plaiting sequences in the country if not the World.”   

References

Peter Ackroyd, Albion - the Origins of the English Imagination, Chatto & Windus, 2002

James Ballantyne,  Researcher's guide to British newsreels. Vol. 2, British Universities Film and Video Council, London, 1988.

Roger B. N. Smither, Wolfgang Klaue, Newsreels in Film Archives: A Survey Based on the Fiaf Newsreel Symposium, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

Roy Strong, Visions of England, Bodley Head, 2011.

Ossett - the history of a Yorkshire town: Gawthorpe

Gawthorpe Maypole

Thomas Hardy & Country Dance