Notes on the Calder Valley Folk FestivalAuthor(s): Mary RobinsonSource: Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Dec., 1956), pp. 234-236Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1258249 .

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234 Collectanea either died on the spot, or soon after. He could save himself only by falling flat on his face immediately, and remaining in that position, with hands and feet crossed, until the spectral host had gone by. These hounds are said to hunt the ghost of a certain drunken squire every New Year's Eve. As it is considered dangerous in this area to name either the fairy- people or the Devil aloud, the term " fairy-hunt " is not used ; it is wiser to refer to the pack as the " Hounds of Hell ", or better still, to call them simply " They Dogs ".

Another canine apparition is occasionally seen near Stapley. This, my informant told me, " is bigger than a hound-dog ", and has " eyes so big as saucers ". It too is a certain omen of death. Accounts of its colour vary ; some say it is white, others black or grey, but all agree that it has glowing saucer-eyes.

Lingering traces of a prejudice against white dogs may have some con- nexion with memories of the fairy hound. One occasionally comes across hints of dislike for white dogs with brown ears, including even stag-hounds with this colouring. As a child I was solemnly warned by a North Somerset woman never to play with a strange white dog. " The death hounds are white with red ears," she told me, by way of strengthen- ing the warning, " and you hear them on a windy night coming for the wicked." In some districts it is said that all white dogs should be shut up for the night on New Year's Eve. If any one sees such an animal after dark on that night, he will die within the year.

Some Somerset barrows are haunted by ghostly dogs, but these are always black. I have not so far been able to trace any traditions of churchyard dogs, such as one finds in other parts of the country.

RUTH L. TONGUE

NOTES ON THE CALDER VALLEY FOLK FESTIVAL

ON Saturday, May 12th, 1956, the Youth Festival of Calder Valley Folk Music, Dance, and Drama was held at Calder High School, Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire. This Festival was organised by the West Riding County Council Youth Service in an attempt to interest both young people and adults in the folklore of the Upper Calder Valley, and thus to preserve the folk-traditions of the area.

The programme included three local Page-Egg Plays. Very wisely, these were not shown on the excellent stage, but were acted in a room where the audience sat around in much the same way as they stand around when the plays are performed in the streets.

It is believed that there was no hiatus in the street performance of the Midgley Play up to the time of the first World War, the play being spon- taneously acted by the lads of the township. In 18oo it was well estab- lished. An elaborate wooden sword known to have been used for genera- tions in the Pace-Egg Play, and now preserved in Midgley School, is

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Collectanea 235

thought to date back to about 1780. After the 1914-1918 war, the Play was revived in 1931 for the purpose of a radio broadcast, and was taken on to the streets again at Easter, 1932, by the boys of Midgley Day School. Apparently by that time there was some Act of Parliament which forbade children under sixteen to collect for themselves, so they collected for school funds. When Calder High School (which is in the ancient township of Midgley) opened five or six years ago, it took all youths over eleven, and the Play passed from Midgley School to Calder High School. I understand that it was not performed in 1949 owing to the change-over of the schools.

At that time, fearing that the Midgley tradition would be discontinued, Mr. T. E. Tyler, Drama Adviser to West Riding Schools and Chairman of the Brighouse Children's Theatre, revived the Brighouse Pace-Egg Play from a version published in the Yorkshire Folk-Lore _ournal, Vol. I. 1888. Mr. Tyler thinks that the Brighouse Play was not performed between the 'eighties of last century and 1933, when he produced it. There was then another gap until the revival in 1949. Members of the Brighouse Children's Theatre now perform the Play. It is obvious in several ways that this Play is directed by someone with a sense of theatre. Bold Hector is treated as a humorous character-a quavering coward. This is Mr. Tyler's innovation. At first it is a little startling, but it certainly added to the popularity of the play, and is therefore likely to prolong its life. Mr. Tyler's father-in-law took part in the Shipley Pace-Egg Play: the Shipley humour was to have a red-headed man as the Black Prince of Paradine.

The Heptonstall Play is the most recent revival. It was last performed about 1912 or 1913, and the present version has been collected by Mr. A. Dobson, a Heptonstall school-teacher, from men who took part in per- formances at that time. It was revived in 1955 and, like the Brighouse Play is performed on Good Friday morning. The Midgley Play is also acted normally on Good Friday at Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge; but the date of future performances is uncertain.

Some of the Yorkshire dales folk-dances were danced at the Festival. These were collected in the late 'twenties and early 'thirties by Miss L. M. Douglas, but were not then, so far as I can ascertain, generally danced in the Dales.

Some children's singing-games were also included in the programme, together with local ballads, poems, and the hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, composed by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould when he was in the locality. Plays about items of local history were given, and a story was told about a witch, " Old Betty of Halifax." Members of the Brighouse Children's Theatre gave a delightful performance of The Second Shepherd's Play from the Wakefield Mystery Plays.

During the tea interval two local men, Mr. Milner and Mr. E. Standeven, played a game of Billets. This game is fairly similar to Knur and Spell, another ancient game once well known locally. Both have been gradually dying out for the past century or more, lingering on in the more isolated parts of the country. At Mytholmroyd they were played enthusiastically

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236

during the second World War, when travel was restricted, but faded out again when the war ended. Knur and Spell has recently been revived near Leeds, and there are still a number of men in this neighbourhood who remember these games.

Mr. C. H. Tomlinson, of Castleford, had collected a number of children's street games which are still being played, but unfortunately it was not possible to include these in the programme. He is, however, continuing his work of collection and comparison with games of former years.

The Festival aroused a great deal of interest and discussion, and I understand that similar Folk Festivals are being planned for the Colne Valley and the lower part of the Airedale Valley next year. There is, of course, a certain amount of danger in allowing old plays, games and customs to pass into the hands of the schools, but this is surely unimportant when compared with the possibility of losing them altogether. I feel that the West Riding Education Committee is doing very valuable work in thus encouraging and organising the collec- tion and preservation of all kinds of folklore and folk-custom which might otherwise be forgotten.

MARY ROBINSON

Folk Life and Traditions

FOLK LIFE AND TRADITIONS

THESE notes are compiled from current newspaper cuttings. The compiler cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained in the reports, or for the opinions expressed therein.

A Penny Hedge for Penance. Whitby Pays Again From the Manchester Guardian, May xo, 1956 An annual custom nearly eight hundred years old, the ceremony of the

Horngarth or the planting of the Penny Hedge, was carried out in the harbour at Whitby yesterday. The legend is that the Hedge is planted as a penance for the murder of a hermit in the year I 159 by a band of Norman nobles after he had sheltered, in his forest cell a few miles inland, the wild boar they were hunting. The penance was imposed by the Abbot of Whitby.

The planting takes place on the day before Ascension Day and is known as the Penny Hedge because the Abbot is supposed to have stipulated that the stakes composing it should be cut with a knife " of a penny price ". Should the hedge fail to withstand three tides, runs the legend, the lands once held by the nobles are forfeit.

TRADITIONAL REBUKE

A crowd of several hundred, including many schoolchildren, watched Mr. John E. Hutton plant the hedge for the eighth time. He represented

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