Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance

Abbot's Bromley is a small village in Staffordshire which has held an annual Horn Dance since 1226. Twelve dancers, including six Deermen (from the Bentley family up until 1914, from the related Fowell family up to the present day) are accompanied by a hobby horse, a bow man, a Maid Marian (a bloke in drag) a Fool, a boy with a triangle and a man with an accordion. The ensemble perform their rites at various stops on a prescribed route. After a twenty mile round trip, they go to the pub.

The antlers used in the dance were carbon dated in the seventies, and found to be from circa 1065 ad. They are Reindeer antlers, which must have been imported from Scandinavia (even in 1065, Reindeers had been extinct in Britain for about 8,000 years). As ever with these ancient rituals there is an ongoing debate about just how ancient it is, with some experts suggesting that the dance may have originated much later in the 16th century, making it a mere 500 years old. Either way, it's the oldest traditional dance we have in this country.

Since 1660, it has been celebrated on Wakes Monday, which is today, so you'd better get your skates on if you want to see it.

Interesting Postcards

The Crooked House,

Himley,

Nr. Wolverhampton,

Staffordshire.

These are very early Edwardian postcards, the second one being postmarked 1902, the first taking its detail from an item in 'T.P's Weekly' originally published on June 17th, 1904. It says it all so much better than I could, so here it is in full:  

Near the eastate of Earl Dudley, at Himley, there is a very curious habitation known as 'The Crooked House'. It is a red brick building with a wide passage right through, leading to back premises. It is altogether out of the perpendicular, and slanted towards the south end, which is heavily shored up with thick red buttresses. Some part of the outer wall is buried several feet in the ground.

These peculiarities are the result of mining operations - the under-stratum of the earth is these parts being completely 'honeycombed'. It is as difficult to walk steadily through the doorway as to pace the deck of a vessel in a rolling sea. as you walk along the warped floor your head and shoulders lean very palpably across the passage, and to maintain the equilibrium is a matter of the greatest difficulty. The rooms of the house are equally out of joint, and present some remarkable optical illusions.

The clocks on the walls, although absolutely perpendicular, as their pendulums testify, appear to be hanging sideways at a very pronounced angle. A short glass shelf, one end of which appears to be a foot higher than the other, proves to be absolutely level, while in the tap room, is a table which is apparently slanting, but on which if round marbles are placed at the seemingly lower end they roll to all appearance uphill to the top of the table, and fall over with a bump. These do not exhaust the remarkable features of this curious tenement, but those quoted fully justify its title to the name of 'The Crooked House'.  

Remarkably, despite modern ideas about about Health & Safety, The Crooked House is still in situ and, even better, it's now a pub!

The back of this postcard threw up one of those haunting messages from the past that collectors sometimes find. It's not terribly clear, but it appears to say: 

Dear Aunty, am sorry to tell you that Frank was killed on Thursday and is going to be buried at at Pensnett on Tuesday at 3.30.' 

I can't really read the rest, but it signs off 'love to all'. Fancy using a postcard of a Crooked House to convey all of that pain. Over a hundred years later, it still hurts to read.