Not so merry month of May
Last updated 08:55, Friday, 02 May 2008
A band plays. Villagers in fancy dress make their way from the vicarage to the village green where children dance around the Maypole as the May Queen is crowned.
A glorious English springtime tradition, as enjoyed by generations in Melmerby on May’s second Saturday. But not this year. Melmerby’s May Day celebrations have been cancelled due to a lack of children to take part in the activities and a lack of volunteers to organise them. It is thought to be the first time for more than 80 years that May Day will not be celebrated in this picturesque village near Penrith. Organisers hope the event may be revived next year but that would require an influx of enthusiasm.
The merry merry month of May is becoming a little more sombre. Once nearly every village celebrated the coming of spring with dancing and the crowning of a queen.
But these traditions are dying out and the reasons echo wider concerns about 21st-century life. A decline in community spirit; a lack of volunteers; children reluctant to take part – even health and safety concerns over falling Maypoles.
Pat Coyle of Workington has spent decades teaching schoolchildren the art of Maypole dancing. Last year was the first time she hasn’t done it for more than 40 years. “It’s the cult of insurance,” she explains. “One or two people used to say ‘Have you not had anybody asking you about insurance? What if the pole falls down? This could happen, that could happen...’
Pat used to teach at Ashfield primary school in Workington and she shared her skills with children around west Cumbria. She taught manoeuvres such as the spider’s web, the gypsy’s tent and the single plait. “A plait is where girls face one way and boys the other and they weave in and out. It’s the most beautiful effect. You aim to have an equal number of boys and girls but it’s not always easy to get the boys.
“When they were younger it was the boys who were keen, at least until they went to senior school. I used to tell them the footwork would make them good at dribbling a football.
“All the old people used to love it. At Ashfield School the people at the old folks’ home opposite the playing field used to ask us to practice further down so they could see us. Sometimes people would say ‘We like to see them when they get in a knot,’ which would usually happen at some point, although I wanted to do it well.
“There’s no one I know of now who’s teaching dancing. There don’t seem to be the traditional May Day events. I think it’s a shame that it’s tailing off. It was a spring celebration.”
Susan Cartwright-Smith is a Morris dancer with Solway Morris, which performs around Cumbria. She says: “The Morris Dance calendar starts on St George’s Day and really kicks off on May Day. It’s a busy time of year for us but the kind of event has changed. I think it’s moving more towards big fetes and galas rather than each village having its own event. It’s becoming more centralised and maybe less spontaneous.”
Things have changed since Ethel Fisher’s childhood. Ethel, 81, was awarded an MBE in 1997 for services to the community of Seaton. She grew up on St Helens farm near Workington and recalls: “When I was little May Day was a big occasion. There were six of us in my family – four girls and two boys – and we would go with half a dozen friends around local farms on the first of May every year until I left school at 14.
“I would put on a nightdress and dress it with flowers picked from the roadside and fields and use some paper and a comb to play music. We used to visit about 10 houses. There were 12 of us so we didn’t make much, about half a penny each.
“Once when we were little we went on our procession to my grandmother’s house. She was so busy, she said ‘I haven’t got time for this!’ and she threw the dishcloth at me.”
Increasing numbers of communities are throwing a dishcloth at May Day – but not Langwathby. May Day has been celebrated every year during peacetime here since 1905. The village, five miles from Penrith, retains a traditional celebration with children dancing around a Maypole on the village green and the crowning of a May Queen. This year’s event is on Saturday May 17, from 1pm.
Carol Merrie spent 25 years on Langwathby’s May Day committee. But her involvement goes back to the 1950s. “I danced round the Maypole for 10 years, from the age of five to 15,” says Carol, 62. “In those days boys still danced around the Maypole until they were 15. Now they stop at about seven.
“The May Queen always used to be 15. Nowadays by the time they get to secondary school they’re thinking that they’re a bit too old. We’ve brought the age down so now the May Queen is 12. There’s plenty of children in the village. It’s just getting them to take part.
“May Day when I was a girl was much the same as today. Some years we would have a concert party from Penrith. And it always ended with a dance. I used to go to the dance and eat ice cream at midnight, which was a rare treat. The May Cart used to be drawn by horse. Then we couldn’t get a horse so we used a tractor and trailer.
“They used to have May Day celebrations in Patterdale and Lazonby. There’s not as many interested in it as there were. In Langwathby things have gone more in the direction of the Scarecrow Festival. There seem to be more villagers joining in with that than with May Day. But everybody seems to help on the day.”
Langwathby Scarecrow Festival started in 2004 to raise money for the village hall restoration fund. More than 100 scarecrows decorate the village during summer.
Sarah Greenop is on Langwathby’s May Day committee. “The day is still popular,” she says. “People have come into the village and embraced the event. And people come from further afield, from Cumbria and even from the north east. It’s a really pleasant atmosphere, very relaxed.
“Over the years we have tried to improve the entertainment. This year we’re having a motorbike stunt team. For the 100-year anniversary we had a Chariots of Fire display, with horses and carriages, jumping over people and going through flames.
“It’s a real event for every age. Young kids come and dance and go on rides. The older children play sports. Young adults hang around enjoying the music. Mothers and grannies are happy to see children enjoying themselves. It’s very diverse.”
And what would May Day be without the crowning of a May Queen? These days in Langwathby the queen’s name is drawn from a hat. “We think it’s the fairest way,” says Sarah.
May Day is one of the aspects of British life featured in a new exhibition which opens at Carlisle’s Tullie House museum next week.
Taking its title from a famous statement by Margaret Thatcher, No Such Thing as Society: Photography in Britain 1967–1987 opens on Saturday May 10 and runs until July 13.
The Hayward Gallery touring exhibition looks at British life and culture from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, a time of unrest and transition, de-industrialisation and the rise of Thatcherism.
The exhibition’s 150 photographs by 33 photographers are divided into six themes. A Social Carnival (1967-75) shows British leisure time – such as Maypole dances, seafront beauty contests and Ascot races.
Portrait and Place (1973-77) is a record of differences in society, from industrial workers to youth culture.
Ethnicity, Community and Street (1972-80) explores the nation’s sense of belonging.
The changing face of society is captured in Picturing the Civic Crisis (1976-81) from houses bedecked with Union Jacks at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee to women campaigning against domestic abuse.
Wastelands (1976-82) is a stark look at industrial change, where once thriving communities were left to decay.
Society in Colour (1984-87) is a view of life in Thatcherite Britain, from seaside sunbathers to the gloom of a DHSS waiting room.
May Day’s origin goes back to a pre-Christian Pagan festival called Beltane.
The beginning of May was also a popular feast time for the Romans who came to occupy Britain. The rituals of pagans and Romans gradually combined and many of these remain in May Day.
By the Middle Ages every English village had a Maypole. The pole was decked with leaves, flowers and ribbons while people danced and sang around it.
