The Rearing Of The Stripy Stick!

Of course, the other thing I promised to 'enthral' you with, dear reader, is the fascinating tale of our famous village maypole. At some 90 feet it's one of the tallest in the country and the only one to be lowered, redecorated, and raised - amidst much festival and celebration - every three years. This year was one such year.

Mrs V and I, for our sins (which are many fold), are heavily involved with all things stripy stick, ably aided and abetted by a small band of - let's be fair - fellow oddballs who forgoe regular meals, a social life or time with their family to ensure the continuance of a centuries old tradition in organizing all things maypole related. There's an awful lot of work involved and - it must be said - a particularly large proportion of it falls upon Mrs V and myself, so we found ourselves having to 'hit the ground running' when we got back from Barbados in early May to discover that plans and preparations well behind schedule.

The garlands - seen here in pride of place, half way up the stripy stick - are hand-sewn by a small group of ladies from the village, ably led by Mrs V. She sewed the majority of the cloth rosettes - a thousand of which adorn each garland - and then had to put all four garlands together in just three weeks. It was then my job to organise the afore mentioned fellow oddballs, friends and families to help carry them, door-to-door, around the village. This is (a) all part of our great stripy stick 'tradtion' and (more importantly) (b) a fantastic way to raise much needed cash. On top of garland duties, a stage had to be built from scratch on which our Maypole Queen and local dignitaries could watch the village school children perform maypole dancing. My father (also foolish enough to be on the Trust) stepped into the breach and turned out a stage fit for the RSC to strut their stuff on, bless 'im. It was a very, very busy few weeks.

The stripy stick is lowered at Easter (as noted in my last post, I think you'll find) and raised again on Spring Bank Holiday. We have a parade through the village - led by the Maypole Queen - followed by traditional maypole dancing. Then, to end the day's festivities, some loon climbs 90 feet up the newly raised pole to spin the weather vane on top. Why? Well, because it's there, I suppose, though you'll see Leeds United win the Premiership or Gordon Brown manage a natural smile before you'll catch me attempting it.

It's a strange but wonderful old tradition which we're pretty darned proud of preserving. I could rattle on far too long about the problems we when the village considered abandonning the tradition due to 'health and safety concerns', how we've had to work our arses off since then to get much needed support from the villagers (and cash from the their pockets) and the sleepless nights we've endured since getting involved over 6 years ago, but I think it's probably all a little dry and arcane for this blog - after all, we like to keep things light and airy around here.

However, I'm posting the following photos to try offer something of the flavour of our big day, which really went surprising well. I think it will also give you an idea of what can happen in a small northern village when too many like-minded people spend just a little too much time together in a pub...

The newly painted stripy stick is carried by men of the parish - stout and true - to its home in the centre of the village

The 90 foot stripy stick is slowly hoisted into place

The stripy stick stands, once more, resplendent in the centre of the village

Brave? Stupid? Who cares, as long as it's not me?