Bagpipolorum!

This coming Saturday (9th March 2013) will be International Bagpipe Day.  As English bagpipes make a regular appearance in our work we'll be celebrating the day with fellow pipers in Chester.

It should be an exciting mix of happenings and we're looking forward to playing in some atmospheric places. 

From 10.30-11.45am, we'll be running a workshop 'Introducing the Bagpipes' at St Peter's Church, by the Cross, in the centre of Chester.  We'll be playing tunes, revealing the history of the instrument and letting people have a try for themselves.

At 12.15pm we'll be setting off from the Cross for a 'Pipers Perambulation' through the city and along the walls. It should catch people's attention and hopefully raise the profile of the instrument.  Here's some of the pipers and other musicians enjoying a similar procession last summer as part of the Minstrels' Court event. 

We'll be stopping in some of the medieval towers on the walls to enjoy their acoustics, paying a visit to bagpiper carvings in the cathedral and giving a brief performance in the Roman amphitheatre before arriving at St John's Church at 2pm to play more tunes there in the glory of the romanesque nave of the city's oldest church.

At 3pm there will be piping in the pub at the Cross Keys on the corner of Lower Bridge Street and Duke Street.  Other instruments are welcome too, we should have a friendly session there.

Then at 7.30, the main event will be a special concert at the Grosvenor Museum, entitled Bagpipolorum!, featuring bagpipes from across Europe and tunes from medieval to modern.  We're very excited to be joined by the wonderful Blast from the Past, with their lively, upbeat versions of traditional tunes.  Chester's own Time Bandits will present Renaissance dance tunes and Anglo-European Folk.  Mike Billington of Corvus, will be showcasing the Spanish gaita, Hungarian duda and Bulgarian gaida, and there will be performance from the Chester Dudey Quartet on their sweet sounding Renaissance smallpipes made by Sean Jones.  There will also be folk tales of pipers.

If you'd like to join us for the concert, then do come along, doors open 7pm and piping starts at 7.30pm.  Tickets are £5.  Take your chance on the door, or email pilgrimandposies@aol.com to reserve a ticket.

If you can't get to Chester then there are also exciting happenings at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and across the world too.  Happy bagpiping!

St Werburgh's Day

Today is St Werburgh's Day.  Werburgh is the patron saint of the city of Chester and so her story features prominently in our pilgrimage work.  Her story is a good one but, sadly, not well known amongst Cestrians.  So we're trying to change that through our living history and storytelling work.  And this year, her tale will be amongst those in a major exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum - 'Discover a Medieval City: Places, Voices, Journeys'.

Werburgh was the daughter of Wulfhere, King of Mercia and Erminilde of Kent.  She studied under her aunt Etheldreda, the first Abbess of Ely, and when Etheldreda died, Werburgh came to be second Abbess. 

Her most famous miracle took place when she was at Weedon Bec on one of the abbey's farms, and Werburgh was helping sow seeds for crops in an attempt to avert the famine which was ravaging the land, when a great flock of wild geese descended and began to eat the seeds.  Werburgh was angered as the food was intended for the poor and so she chased the geese and penned them into a sheep pen.  Although the geese had wings, they did not fly out of the pen, and you might consider that a small miracle in itself.  Werburgh told the geese they should be kept there for one night as punishment, but they were God's creatures and wouldn't be harmed and would be released the next day. 

That evening, one of Werburgh's servants, walking past the pen, decided he would like some goose stew and so took one of the geese, killed it and ate it.  When Werburgh found out, she gathered what was left of the stew, the bones and the skin and feathers and began to pray.  The goose was restored to life!  It joined its fellows and when they were released from the pen, they never came back to trouble the fields again.  And that is the story of Werburgh and the goose.

Some years later, in 699, Werburgh died and was buried at Threekingham in Lincolnshire, one of the churches which had been set up by the Abbey.  This was the time of the great spread of Christianity in England and every new church was required to have a relic in order to be consecrated so there was great demand for the remains of saints.  Thinking that she might be a saint, the people of Threekingham then dug up Werburgh's remains and found that her body was a fresh as when she had been buried, a decade earlier.  Taking this as proof of her sanctity, she was moved to Hanbury in Staffordshire.  There she remained until 907 when the Danes were approaching that area.  The nuns of Hanbury feared Werburgh's relics would be stolen and so moved her remains to Chester, 80 miles away.  That same year the city walls had been rebuilt to keep out the Vikings, so it was the perfect place for her to rest.

Werburgh's relics were installed in the Minster Church of St Peter and St Paul.  In 1092, the Normans turned this into the Abbey of St Werburgh and later still it would become Chester Cathedral.  The people of medieval Chester revered their saint, and pilgrims came from as far away as Salisbury and Southwark, as souvenir pilgrim badges depicting Werburgh's miracle of the goose have been found in those places. 

Henry Bradshaw, a monk of St Werburgh's abbey in the 16th century wrote about how her relics protected the city of Chester many times.  On one occasion a great fire was ravaging Bridge Street but when the reliquary was carried to the seat of the fire it stopped.  Another time, the Welsh were attacking the city and the reliquary was carried to the city walls.  But the Welsh showed no respect and one man flung a stone at the relics.  Immediately, he and the rest of the attackers were struck blind.

In the fourteenth century her shrine was reworked to attract more pilgrims and the quire had newly carved misericords, including one depicting the miracle with the geese.  Her feast day being in winter on 3rd February would never attract too many pilgrims so it was decided that the translation day, when her relics had been moved, had been 21st June.  This idea was nothing new, it had also happened with Thomas Becket in Canterbury for the same reason.  So Werburgh got a second feast day, and this one at the start of the great Midsummer Fair in Chester.

You'll be hearing more about Midsummer Fair and its associated Minstrels' Court on here soon...

The Cheshire Prophet

We use storytelling a lot in our work with schools, presentations to groups, living history events, and increasingly at festivals, which is a great thing.  I'm very keen to get more people involved in telling and listening to tales as once was so common in the past.  It's also a great way to find out more about local folklore.  Here's my version of a lesser known Cheshire legend...

Yes, I remember the lad. You’d find it hard to forget him, he'd a face like a Buckley panmug, such an ugly thing he was and cruel with it. Even when he were young, that Robert Nixon would be tormenting animals, and worse than that, just for the fun of it. So I’ve no idea why he got such a gift, or curse as it turned out.

Well, we were lads together at Over, you know, near Wine’s Ford, where the devil dropped the church. This was in the days of King Dick, or was it Edward, no, it would have to have been Dick wouldn’t it?

Now there he was, Nixon, in the fields where he should have been following the plough but he was sitting idle as he did all too often. Next I recall was a great skriking which made me to run from my tilling over to where Nixon was sat. He was there staring at the sky, and there were nothing there, just clouds.

Then he starts to shout, “Oh, ill done Dick! Well done Harry! Harry has gained the day.” Then down he goes and when he comes to he can’t remember any of it. And me and Thomas Buckley who were there too couldn’t make anything of it.

But by and by, we got word brought here from a place called Market Bosworth, or some such, saying king’s dead after a battle and new king is a Welshman called Harry. Well, we thought on this and what Nixon had been saying in that field and reckoned he mun have seen this in the sky.

Now, you know as well as I that word spreads of these things, and I reckon Thomas Buckley had been telling folk at Namptwich market, but soon enough we have all sorts of folk we’ve not seen before coming to Over and asking after Nixon. And they’re calling him a prophet and it’s gone to his head and he’s telling them all sorts like Northwich will be devoured by water and that Vale Royal abbey will become a raven’s nest. But like pilgrims listening to a pardoner, they’re all taking it in with good faith.

Folk started saying of Nixon how he was strong i’th’arm and wick in the head. You know, wick, like alive, quick of wit. Well, they must have been seeing a different side to him. But then this feller all in blue and red as you’ve never seen before comes to Over and says he’s been sent by the king to fetch Nixon.

Now Nixon starts saying how he won’t go and king’s man says he had to, king says so. But Nixon tells him that if he goes to king’s palace he will starve to death. So I say, it’s a palace with great kitchens and plenty of food and he won’t starve and anyroad if king says you have to go you can’t say no.

So he didn’t like it but goes along all the same. Now the rest I shall have to tell you as I’ve heard from others. They say that King Harry took a liking to Nixon and let him stay in the kitchen so he’d have no fear of being clemmed. King Harry gave him a test where he told Nixon he had lost a ring, but he just tells him back, “Who hides can find it himself.” Now, I could have made that guess an’all but it seems the king started to believe Nixon was a prophet. He asked him where a man might find safety at Domesday and Nixon says back to him, “In God’s croft, twixt Mersey and Dee.”

But soon enough King Harry had tired of his prophet and gone off hunting and suchlike. But there he was left living in the kitchen and all the while licking and picking at the meat until the cooks can’t thole it and shut him in a cupboard and lock it. And there he is left with food all around him but can’t get at it and he starves to death.

So, I don’t know what to think after all this. I’ve not seen any of his prophecies come to pass but there’s time yet.

Like many other prophets, nobody is quite sure whether Robert Nixon ever really existed and the earliest surviving records of his prophecies post-date many of them having come to pass.  Some people say he lived in the late 15th century, which is the version I use, but others say he lived during the reign of James I, but if that was the case many of the supposed prophecies had already happened.  In the mid-eighteenth century visitors to Over, near Winsford, would be shown Nixon's old cottage and a handful of pamphlets of his foretellings were published in doggerel verse.  Egerton Leigh made his story known again in the mid-nineteenth century in his 'Ballads and Legends of Cheshire', but few people now know about him.  Not so long ago Sue bought me a rare surviving pamphlet of Nixon's life and in it was  this late eighteenth century engraving.  Though comic in style, it is intriguing as the earliest known depiction of the Cheshire Prophet. 

Bowmen of Cheshire

As the year closes, I'm getting things done to the blog that I've meant to for some time and moving some of the writings about local themes that feature on our old website over on to this one.  The idea was to have a range of simple articles that would answer some of the regular questions we get asked when we are at events, or by email.  So, here's the first one which looks at the renowned Cheshire Archers.

The bowmen of Cheshire are often renowned as the best, and most notorious, archers of medieval England. The powerful longbow had become the most important weapon in the many wars of the 14th and 15th centuries. The men of Cheshire had developed their skills further than many other Englishmen, perhaps because of the closeness to Wales and the frequent conflicts requiring Cheshiremen to keep well practiced with shooting their bows.

 

The Cheshire archers were paid more than bowmen from elsewhere and had been recruited as the royal bodyguard by 1334. They could be recognised by their green and white livery which was issued to them by the chamberlain of Chester castle. They were taken into France by Edward III, and later the Black Prince, and played important roles in the English victories at the battles of Crecy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356.

The earliest extant military leave pass was issued in 1355 to William Jauderel, (Jodrell), one of the Cheshire Archers. Translated it reads, Know all that we, the Prince of Wales, have given leave, on the date of this letter, to William Jauderel, one of our archers, to go to England.

Some of the Cheshire archers were richly rewarded for their skills and were even granted pardons for crimes they had committed, including murder. This led to their notoriety across the rest of England. The troubled King Richard II kept the Cheshiremen as his bodyguard and they guarded his bedchamber all night and on one occasion surrounded the new Westminster Hall during a trial of the king's enemies until the "right" result was reached.

King Richard II intended to leave from Chester for Ireland in 1399 to quell uprisings there. Eighty of the best archers were recruited from the Northwich area and mustered outside the Watergate in Chester to accompany him. However Henry Bolingbroke's return from exile caused Richard to abandon this plan and face Bolingbroke's challenge for the throne.

Richard II was eventually deposed, imprisoned and starved to death, but the Cheshiremen remained loyal and joined the rebellion of 1403 against the new king, Henry IV. The resulting battle at Shrewsbury saw Cheshire archers on both sides.

The battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 was the first occasion where English archers had fought each other. In the 1470s Jean de Waurin wrote of this battle, "the archers drew so fast and thick…that the sun lost its brightness so thick were the arrows".

Some Cheshire archers later fought with Henry V in France in 1415 and 1417, but they no longer enjoyed the same importance as in the previous century. The Cheshire archers formed part of the Lancastrian forces at Blore Heath in 1459, the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, but this time they were on the losing side and Cheshiremen formed the majority of the dead. A tale is told in Cheshire that there was once a song celebrating the archers, but that it was never sung again after the losses at Blore Heath.

Wassail!

As we move through the dark nights of winter and towards a New Year we're looking forward to celebrating with some wassailling.  There is a wonderful variety in the winter traditions known as wassail and we'll be taking part in a good mix of them.

For instance, on the evening of Friday 28th December 2012, Jones' Ale Soul Cakers will be hosting their Winter Wassail at the Cross Keys, Lower Bridge Street in Chester.  It's an evening of winter songs, storytelling, and music as well as performing their folk play dating back to 1788.

Then as dusk falls at 4pm on Saturday 12th January 2013, marking (one of the several dates for) Old New Year, there will be Apple Tree Wassailling at Stretton Watermill near Malpas pouring cider on the roots of the old apple tree, hanging toast in the branches for the birds and making loud noises to drive off the witches and thereby ensure a good harvest in the coming year.  This is all marked with much merriment and mulled cider before heading off for more music at the nearby Carden Arms pub.

On Saturday 19th January 2013 there is perhaps the biggest wassail of the season, the Chepstow Mari Lwyd and Wassail organised by the Widders Morris Men where through the afternoon and evening there will be apple tree wassailing, folk plays, dancing from many morris sides, Mari Lwyd mischief and a ceremonial meeting of the Welsh and English at the middle of the old bridge over the Wye.

So, winter really is a season to get together and celebrate our old traditions.   Wassail!!

Christmas in the Apprentice House

We returned to the Apprentice House at Quarry Bank Mill to help celebrate a Victorian Christmas. 

This is a lovely event to be a part of, as it really feels like you are in the past, with little details everywhere.

There is no electric lighting in the house, just candles and the glow from coal fires, with little daylight at this time of year, but somehow this all adds to the atmosphere.

The stone flagged floor is cold though.  Sue wisely wore clogs, but I could feel the cold seeping up through my leather soled shoes.  At least there wasn't ice on the inside of the windows like we had last year.

Visitors make their way in to the house past the vegetable patch and wash-house,

through the apprentices' school room and dormitories,

past the Doctor's treatment room,

and down into the parlour where I was telling Victorian winter tales and ghost stories for Christmas, with intervals of piping.  For much of the day the room was packed full of people listening to tales of the Apple Tree Man, the Hobyahs, Samuel and the Worm, and the Cow that Ate the Piper.

Then our visitors made their way into the kitchen where Sue was preparing a Christmas pudding as well as letting visitors make their own spice bag for mulled wine.

We heard from the hundreds of visitors that the carols, decorations and jolly Father Christmas up at t'mill building were very good too.  We're back there next Sunday (16th December 2012) to do the whole thing again.  Why not come to join us?

Yuletide begins...

The lead up to Christmas is a busy time for us, with Tudor Yuletide workshops for schools each day now, interspersed with Victorian Christmas events at various historic places, talks on seasonal traditions for local history groups, a couple of craft fairs, lots of concerts that we're in, or watching friends play at - it's a wonderful time of year if you're into Early or traditional music.

Yesterday we went to the famous Ludlow Medieval Christmas Fayre with our friends, Chris and Joan from FayrePlay, but we were all just on a trip out, not getting medieval ourselves.  It was freezing cold as is traditional for a Ludlow Christmas Fayre and there were some great musicians and storytellers too.  We didn't spend much on the craft stalls though.

Today we went to the Christmas Fair at Norton Priory.  We've been along to this with our medieval displays for a number of years now, and it gets better every time.  This year we were in the museum area rather than squashing up in a crowded undercroft as before.  We had displays of medieval musical instruments, though I confess to getting a little tired of playing period Christmas tunes so made the odd venture into later eras and tunes which were not at all festive.  No one seemed to mind.

Sue had been busy for weeks stitching an enormous range of festive goodies which we also had on our stall, along with some of our medieval replicas, Cheshire folk tales books and little bagpipers which I'd made.  We did a very good trade indeed!

We also let people try making their own spice bag to prepare hipocras, a medieval mulled wine, which was a very popular activity.  There's nothing like cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs and cloves to evoke the essence of Christmas, though we also added long pepper and grains of paradise to follow an old recipe.

Alongside us was Tony Saxon with his beautiful replicas of historic bracelets and pins along with his chainmail jewellery and displays of armour and arrows.

And Norton Priory had their display of traditional skills, concentrating mainly on beekeeping in this instance.  I was very much taken by their replica Tudor beekeepers costume based on Bruegel's picture, which we've now hatched plans to recreate for a photo.

The medieval undercroft was packed with a wonderful farmers' market and lots of beautiful crafts too.  We managed to get lots of Christmas presents very quickly.  It's rare these days to find a real craft fair where people have made the goods themselves, and can fascinate you with the history and background of their craft, but you got that at Norton Priory.  The only problem perhaps was that no-one seemed to be charging anywhere near enough for their efforts.

A micro-brewery was set up at Norton about a year ago, but despite us being there several times for their events, we hadn't yet got to try their Priory Ale, but rectified that today, and very good it was too!

So, as I type this, Sue is making yet more Christmas crafts for the other events we've got coming up, having sold more than we expected today.  And I have to check on some pies and pasties which I've got in the oven now ready to lay the table for a Tudor Yuletide tomorrow...