Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 219 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| TICKHILL MAY QUEEN | c.1929 | 1926-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 8 mins 36 secs |
| Summary This film contains footage from a May Day event that was held in Tickhill, near Doncaster. There is footage of the May Queen procession and the many games and sports in which the local children take part. |
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Description
This film contains footage from a May Day event that was held in Tickhill, near Doncaster. There is footage of the May Queen procession and the many games and sports in which the local children take part.
The film opens with a shot of a lake taken from one side looking across to a village on the other side; a man with a camera walks up to some Scouts who are looking at swans in the water. Following this are more shots of buildings from around the village including a big Tudor-style house on...
This film contains footage from a May Day event that was held in Tickhill, near Doncaster. There is footage of the May Queen procession and the many games and sports in which the local children take part.
The film opens with a shot of a lake taken from one side looking across to a village on the other side; a man with a camera walks up to some Scouts who are looking at swans in the water. Following this are more shots of buildings from around the village including a big Tudor-style house on the edge of the road.
In the next scene a procession of children, led by a young girl in a white dress, walk down the main street. The girls all wear dresses and hats and carry arches of flowers for the May Queen to walk under. Then some of the girls start dancing for the large crowd that have gathered in the street to watch. Then there are shots of some girls dancing around a May pole. Again there is a huge crowd of children and local gathered around to watch.
In another field some boys and girls do the three legged race, jump hurdles and take part in agility races along wooden poles raised off the ground. In another game the children have to throw small balls into buckets that are high up on sticks, take a bite out of an apple that is hanging on a string and do the high jump. The camera pans to show the rest of the children cheering for the competitors.
The next race is a skipping race for the girls who speed down the track towards the camera; one of the girls falls down. Following this is another dance around the May pole in a field with a wooden fence around it. Then there are shots of a large group of boys and girls dancing in this field; they dance in twos and in formation with the other couples.
In another field a crowd of men and women watch as cyclists race around the grass track and following this are several long distance and sprinting races.
Following this is a sequence of shots which depict all of the games that the boys take part in. A group of young men gather at one side of the field and get ready for the sack race, then there is a game where the young men stand on wooden boxes and blow up balloons, another one is where they have to carry many eggs in their arms and then another assault courses. All this time the field is surrounded by a large crowd of spectators.
The last scene takes place in another field where young adults are on their ponies riding around and over jumps. Then a huntsman and his hounds run around the field.
Context
This is the earliest of over thirty films held with the YFA made by local filmmaker Mr Copley. The Copley family have lived in Tickhill for generations, and he continued making films right up to 1968, including one of a Nazi procession in Berlin in 1933. For more on Tickhill, and some slightly more recent examples of games and maypole dancing, see Tickhill Coronation Celebrations (1953). There are also more examples within the Copley Collection of three- legged races and egg and spoon races...
This is the earliest of over thirty films held with the YFA made by local filmmaker Mr Copley. The Copley family have lived in Tickhill for generations, and he continued making films right up to 1968, including one of a Nazi procession in Berlin in 1933. For more on Tickhill, and some slightly more recent examples of games and maypole dancing, see Tickhill Coronation Celebrations (1953). There are also more examples within the Copley Collection of three- legged races and egg and spoon races from some ten years later at Brocksford Hall School, in Derbyshire.
May Queen celebrations can be traced back to at least two separate sources. One is that of the Roman occupation where they were one of four main pagan festivals before the coming of Christianity to the Island, and which have been preserved despite many mutations. These derive from the original Roman Spring Festival of Floralia, held between the 28th of April and 3rd May. The dressing of garments with flowers and garlands can be traced back to this time. Then there is also a lineage to the ancient Celtic celebration of Beltane, the Celtic god of light or the sun, which may be connected to the Middle Eastern god Baal. A central part of the festivities was the choosing of a ‘fair girl’ as the May Queen, who would be crowned with a garland and played the role of a queen for the day. Another aspect was of course the dancing around the maypole. Mostly it is the standard dance that is most often seen, with the boys dancing clockwise and the girls counter-clockwise, resulting in a plaited pattern of ribbons round the pole – the modern version apparently choreographed by John Tiller of the Tiller Girls fame. What we also see in the film is the rarer double version which results in a tangled cat's cradle, as well as a plain circle dance around the maypole. For more on maypoles see the Context for The fall and rise of the Barwick Maypole (1978). May celebrations, or Maying, were one of the many things banned by Oliver Cromwell during his time as ‘Lord Protector of the Commonwealth’ (1653 to 1658), along with Christmas, most sports, gambling, make-up, colourful dresses and anything non-religious on a Sunday. Nevertheless, the festivals survived, and after a period when they all but disappeared, due to the industrial revolution, they re-emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. They were ‘re-discovered’ and popularised by folklorists, in particular Cecil Sharp, the founder of the English Folk Dance Society, at the beginning of the twentieth century. May Day ceremonies also spread to schools across England after the influential art critic John Ruskin had suggested a May Day festival, with a May Queen, at Whitelands Training School for Schoolmistresses in Chelsea, in 1881. For more on May Queens and English country dancing see the Contexts for Children’s Day Leeds (1951) and Birdwell Primary School May Queen 1958-1960 The first dance in the film, with the dancers in historic costume, may well be one of the rural dances that were taken up in Elizabethan times and have been passed down to us as part of the English country dance tradition. As with Morris dancing and maypole dancing, this tradition is being kept alive in many parts of the country – the folkscape website gives a list of current Mayday festivals. The Tickhill Local History website has some photographs of the May Queen for 1938, and it also has an interview with Ronald Hill about his memories of his schooldays in Tickhill in the 1920s. One of the more strange traditions that Ron notes from that time was Oak Apple Day (29th May), the anniversary of the restoration of Charles II, when, “ we used to wear oak leaves and those boys who didn’t were lashed with nettles by the others.” This unusual custom has probably passed into history now, but the annual Gala, together with the crowning of the May Queen, lives on in Tickhill. References Douglas Kennedy, English Folk Dancing: Today and Yesterday, Bell and Sons, London, 1964. Francis Rust, Dance in Society, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1069. Folkscape: Maypole & Country Dancing Streetswing: Dance History Archive Tradamis, History of Maypole Dancing Ronald Hill interview |
