Common Ground

M A Y

This page will change from month to month - perhaps you can help us with information on seasonal fruit and vegetables, seasonal dishes, observations of customs and the natural world. Contact us - e-mail: info [at] commonground . org . uk.

May in the Fields

Maia was the eldest daughter of Atlas in Greek mythology, and goddess of fields. To the Romans she was goddess of Spring, and they dedicated this month to her.

What's happening in May?
What's in Season?

What's happening in May?

1st May 

 
May Day
"At one time 1 May was regarded as the most auspicious moment of the year, heralding summer and all that goes with it - supplies of food and warmth. The Celts celebrated Beltane with hilltop fires on 'Tan Hills', around which they danced 'sunwise' ... Nature's fecundity was mirrored by human activities, such as 'bringing in the May', which involved young women and men going into the woods at midnight to collect branches, preferably in flower (not just hawthorn, but birch, sycamore in Cornwall and rowan in the North and West), which they brought back at dawn for decorating the outsides of their houses ... Tall, straight trees were cut for maypoles. They were decorated with foliage and flowers and bound with coloured string, then raised on village greens, where dancers wove in and out of one another among much eating, drinking, tug-of-war and other games, archery, morris dancing, bawdiness and irreverence ... Today, many towns and villages crown their May queen. Some hold a May fair ... Some erect maypoles for a day of festivities, including games and morris dancing ... Garlands were a central part of may day ceremonies. Children used to make them and take them around houses, singing garland songs, to collect money. Garland days still linger on in a few places."
(From 'May Day', p.275)

The international distress signal "Mayday!" derives from the French "M'aidez" - 'help me'. "May Day? What's he talking about? That was weeks ago, it's nearly June!" as Tony Hancock declaimed in 'The Radio Ham' on BBC TV in 1962.

 

'Obby 'osses
Maypoles
May Fairs
Jack in the Green
Beating the Bounds
Cheese Rolling
Well Dressing
Garlands
Other Calendar Customs in May

 

'Obby 'osses

"Hobby-horses, for such is their refined title, could be ancient - they may have arrived with the Anglo-Saxons - but not until the fifteenth century do we find documentary evidence of their presence and activities. Two main 'breeds' exist: the tourney, or tournament, horse, in which a 'rider', often masked, protrudes above a skirted hoop that disguises not four but two legs; and the simpler mast, or pole, horse, in which a powerful head (sometimes a real horse's skull) sits on a pole with cloth concealing both pole and bearer."
(From ''Obby 'Osses', p.306)

Minehead, Somerset
Minehead 'obby 'oss, known as the Sailors Horse - proceeds from the Quay around town on Warning Night, May Day Eve . On May Day morning at dawn, the horse proceeds from the Quay again and later the crowning of the May Queen takes place. He goes around town throughout the day, and then on to Yarn Market, Dunster Castle and Dunster Village in the evening. It proceeds through town over the next two evenings.    On Wednesday 3 May there is a booting on the outskirts of Minehead when victims are caught and booted by the horse while being held by the crew, said to be the most lively evening of the whole event. There is a further penalty of having to dance with the horse without being lashed by its tale. There is also live music on Friday Night. The Horse, as one legend says, may have been a way of scaring Danes and other invaders from the coast. There is also a legend locally that a cow was washed ashore from a shipwreck and its tail was cut off, attached to the Hobby Horse and used to chastise people. Contact Minehead Tourist Information Centre +44(0)845 3452465 or Peter Kreech on +44(0)1643 821040.

 

May Day Bank Holiday
Padstow, Cornwall
The Padstow 'obby 'oss is reputedly the oldest dance festival in Europe. There are two 'osses, the older Red 'oss and the Blue "Peace" 'oss which dates from the early 1900s. The Red 'oss starts the procession on May Day around 10am and the Blue 'oss sets off on a different route an hour later. Both are goaded by a Teaser and lead a procession of onlookers carrying spring flowers and singing the May Song. The event runs into the evening. Contact: Tourist Information Centre +44(0)1841 533449.

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Maypoles
"The earliest maypoles were cut from the forest. Philip Stubbes, writing in the 1580s, described it thus in The Anatomie of Abuses: 'their chiefest jewel they bring from thence is the Maiepole ... their stinking idol, rather, which they covered all over with flowers and hearbes, bound round with strings with variable colours, having two or three hundred men, women and children following it with great devotion. And thus equipped it was reared with handkerchiefes and flagges streaming on the top, they strawe the ground round about it, they bind green boughs about it, they set up summer halles, bowers, and arbours hard by it, and then fall they to banquetting and feasting, to leaping and dauncing about it, as heathen people did at the dedication of their idols' ... If the maypole arose from some form of tree worship, it is ironic that some of the most recent maypoles are no longer made from wood (wooden ones usually last for about 25 to thirty years). In Gloucestershire, Welford-on-Avon's seventy-foot-high maypole is made from the shaft of an aluminium ship's mast, and the huge maypole on the green at wellow in Nottinghamshire is of steel."
(From 'Maypoles', p.276)

May Day Bank Holiday
Ickwell Green, Beds
May Day bank holiday sees dancing & a procession at Ickwell Green, Beds, known since the 16th century. This year event starts at 11.30am at the Crown Pub in Northill with morris dancing, the decorated hoop contest and assembly of procession which leaves for the Green at 1.30pm.  There are stalls and refreshments on the Green, the procession arrives at around 1pm and the May Queen is crowned at 2pm followed by dancing until 4.30pm. Contact organisers on +44(0)1767 651899.

May Day Bank Holiday
Offenham, Worcs
A permanent striped maypole of 64 feet stands at the end of Main Street, once a green, now on the roadside.  On 1st May there is maypole dancing by villagers and displays of morris dancing. See www . offenham . org . uk

Whitsun Bank Holiday
Wellow, Notts
The maypole is topped by a golden weathervane and stands permanently on the village green. Maypole Day on the Whitsun Bank Holiday sees the crowning of the new May Queen and a procession from the church on the green to the maypole starting at around 2.50pm at the church. ON the green there is music, morris dancing, crafts stalls, refreshments and two pubs. Contact Ollerton Tourist Information Centre on +44(0)1623 824545. www . maypolecottage . demon . co . uk

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Ludlow May Fair, Shropshire.
2pm till Late in Castle Square and Mill Street. A 17th century fair celebrated by AE Housman in no fewer than three of his poems. Contact the Visitor Information Centre on +44(0)1584 875053.

Hereford May Fair, Hereford.
A fair granted to the bishop of Hereford in 1117 with amusements spread through the city centre, including the historic High Town and part of the cathedral green. At the opening ceremony, the bishop is presented with token rent for the fair - twelve and a half bushels of best wheat. Contact  +44(0)1432 268430.

Beaconsfield May Fair, Beaconsfield, Bucks.
A one-day fair that is spread along the crossroads at the centre of the town.

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Jack in the Green
"There are stories of leaf children in Norfolk, and a handful of green women exist across Europe, but the Green Man dominates. Roy Judge warned us against all assumption, however, for he found no Green Man in the origins of Jack in the Green ... Yet those who have resurrected Jack for May Day celebrations in both Hastings, Sussex and Rochester, Kent see him thus" ... "London's chimney sweeps too 1 May for their festival. May was a slack time for sweeping chimneys and they used the holiday to raise money to keep them going. The parading of a Jack in the Green - a frame covered in leaves, under which a man can stand - together with music and dancing, was a way of legitimising begging."
(From 'May Day', p.276 & 'Green Man', p.209)

Deptford Jack in the Green, The Borough to the City of London, London SE1
Fowler's Troop & Deptford Jack in the Green will be out on May Day. For the route, see www . deptford-jack . org . uk

Hastings Jack in the Green Festival, Hastings, Kent.
The Jack is the symbol of the summer. There is debate on whether it represents a garland from the 17th century or if the tradition is much older. There are now around 1,500 participants, 10,000 watching the procession, and 5,000 attending the Monday finale. Also live music, dancing, church services, crowning the May Queen, and general celebrations from Friday evening, and over the weekend.  May Day starts with 5am dancing on West Hill, the Jack is released from the Fisherman’s Museum at 10.30am after which a procession travels through town and the festival ends in the castle where the Jack is symbolically slain. Contact +44(0)1424 429154. www . hastingsjack . co . uk

Rochester Sweeps, Rochester, Kent.
Rochester Sweeps Festival on the first weekend in May originates from the Industrial Revolution when chimneys were swept by small children, or Climbing Boys. Chimney sweeps would perform in a colourful processions on May Day and collect money at a time of year when work was scarce. Jack-in-the Green was the central character in the procession and helped them to raise money without begging. After the Climbing Boys act of 1868 and the development of the chimney sweeps' brush climbing boys became redundant and the Sweeps' Day was no longer celebrated. In 1980 the Rochester Sweeps' Procession was revived. Now the Festival lasts for several days with music, ceremonies, exhibitions, dancing and the Sweeps' Procession. Contact the Tourist Information Centre +44(0)1634 843666.

If you're looking for the GREEN MAN, Good examples of foliate heads can be found in Southwell Minster (Notts), Exeter Cathedral (Devon), Beverley Minster, (Yorkshire), York Minster (Yorkshire). Read more on our GREEN MAN PATH.

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Beating the Bounds

"The traditional day for beating the bounds of the parish was Holy Thursday, Ascension Day, forty days after Easter. It fell on the last of the Rogation Days - also called Cross Days, Gang Days or Grass Days in different places - the four days from the fifth Sunday after Easter ... Rogationtide, an ancient festival to invoke a blessing on fields, stock and folk, emerged after a sequence of natural disasters in fifth-century France. By the eighth century in England it involved parishioners 'ganging' (walking) after the Cross around the edge of the parish. This helped everyone to remember the boundaries before maps were commonplace. Along the way prominent trees - Gospel Oaks - often became places for preaching ... The enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which 'fixed' so many common lands into fields and bounds, killed many of the perambulations. But where they do survive they provide a sociable way of exploring. Afterwards you may be offered ganging beer and Rammalation biscuits"
(From 'Beating the Bounds', p.34)

Read more about Rogationtide.

Exmoor Stallion Parade, Exford, (Somerset)
Exmoor Pony Stallion Parade and Exmoor Pony Society AGM at Ralegh's Cross. Contact +44(0)1884 839930 or see www . exmoorponysociety . org . uk

What's in SEASON?

Fruit & Vegetables

The English asparagus  6- 8 week season starts in earnest in May. The Round o’ Gras pub in Badsey, Worcs is well known for its asparagus memorabilia, and asparagus dishes. An annual asparagus auction takes place on the Sunday of the last bank holiday in May at the Fleece Inn, Bretforton, when some of the highest quality bundles are sold. Perhaps there will be a Formby Asparagus Feast this year? The first was in May 2005 (see www . formbycivicsociety . org)

Carrots, Cauliflower, Garlic, Purple sprouting broccoli, Radishes, Spinach, Swiss chard, Turnips (baby), Watercress

New potatoes – look out for Cornish Earlies and Jersey Royals. (At this time of year we often confuse ‘new’ potatoes with baby potatoes from Egypt or Israel – which could be six or more months old).

If you live in or near Hay-on-Wye, be sure to visit Charlie Hicks Greengrocers, 27 Castle Street, a new kind of greengrocer, where much of his produce is home-gown and local. His website is elegant and informative – it tells you what he has in stock week by week, what is in season every month. www . charliehicks . com

Signs of Spring

A number of plants are named after their month of flowering. Hawthorn’s alternative name, May, is the obvious example. May blossom was widely used in May Day celebrations (before the calendar changes in 1752 when 11 days were ‘lost’, May Day would have been on May 12).  In Flora Britannica, Richard Mabey  gives a fascinating account of why the hawthorn was  endowed with such significance and  describes its role and uses in May Day celebrations.

Mayflower, May-blobs, the herb of Beltane are all names for the marsh marigold. This plant was also a central part of May Day celebrations – the flowers were woven into garlands with other ‘significant’ plants. Unfortunately, the widespread draining of wetlands has led to a big decline in this plant’s distribution.

May flies belong to the Order Ephemeroptera because their adult life often lasts only one day. The aquatic larvae emerge in May as adults. After shedding their skins twice, the males form a dancing swarm over the river, dangling their long tails which attract the females. After mating the females release their eggs on the water, and then die – as do the males, starting a feasting frenzy by trout, other fish, and birds. Game fishermen try to imitate mayflies by making artificial flies to attract trout…The spectacle of hundreds of these delicate looking flies wafting over a slow-flowing river on a perfect day in mid- late  May is one of the wonders of nature.

When was the last time a May Bug or cockchafer flew into your lighted window at night? These beetles which belong to the scarab family have been hit hard by pesticides, but their populations are slowly recovering in some places owing to a switch to biological control methods instead. Adults fly in late April to May for  about 6 weeks. Particularly noticeable are their feathery antennae. You can tell the sexes by counting their ‘leaves’ – males  have seven and the females, six.

Fruit trees in blossom

APPLE TREES

Two apple trees grow in my garden,
Five hundred in my head,
Two trees confer dawn’s colour on the town air
Giving it, if only for a season,
The appearance, though not  the heart, of Eden.
But the hundreds in my head,
Blow triumphantly on my boyhood hill,
Massed, orchards of them,
Transmuting Severn’s skies
To every shade of pink,
Taming the primroses at their feet,
And so full of song, the hill
Is one continuous fire of trembling sound.
Blenheim’s at peace with Cox, Beauty of Bath
Passes the time of spring with stout James Grieve,
Laxton’s superb, Edmund’s Russet is neat,
Ribston’s Pippin wears an everlasting face;
They are huge with the promise of fruit.
My nameless trees have no proud harvestings,
They go like two old cripples into age,
Their true identity is long remembrance,
They have their blackbirds still.

What could be more lovely than fruit trees in blossom? Then we have the bonus of the fruit…Why aren’t more fruit trees planted in housing developments, parks, new hedgerows, field corners…..?

Lord Lambourne

Baker's Delicious

Many gardens, orchards, woods, local wildlife trusts and rangers organize blossom walks during April and may - check your local paper to see if anything is happening near you. In the Vale of Evesham, you can follow the Blossom trail signposts.

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Common Ground can accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the information given on this page. Events may be altered or cancelled without our knowledge - Always check first with organisers before travelling.