RAMBLINGS AND RUMBLINGS: THE HAXEY HOOD

The Fool has been caught and is being taken to the village square to be burnt.

Haxey is a small, friendly village in North Lincolnshire, England. It normally has a population of under 5,000 people and everyone seems to know everyone. Each year on the 6th January Haxey hosts an event known as 'The Haxey Hood'. Villagers from Westwoodside and Haxey dress up and compete for 'the Hood'. This event has been repeated each year for over 700 years making it "Britain's oldest traditional tussle". This year I not only attended to photograph the event but I participated as well.

The Haxey Hood originates from when Lady De Mowbray was riding through the village. Her hat blew off and one of the farm workers retrieved it, but he was too afraid to return it. Another worker took it back to her and she was so delighted she named him 'The Lord of the Hood'. The worker who didn't return it she dubbed 'the fool' and those who had helped in the chase she called 'Boggins'. She also proclaimed that the event should be repeated each year.

So each 6th January the villagers of Westwoodside and Haxey gather in a field and try to 'sway' or push the 'Hood' into one of the four public houses. The winner gets the honour of keeping the Hood until the following year. The event begins with a pub crawl. The fool is dressed like a harlequin and the Lord of the Hood and his Boggins are dressed in red. They go to each of the four pubs, where drinks are had and songs are sang. Songs are rural songs, like Farmer's Boy, John Barleycorn and Drink Old England Dry. I was very pleasantly surprised with how beautifully and passionately these songs were sung.

Then the fool is chased and caught and taken to the village square, where he is ceremonially burnt and the rules of the Hood explained. The crowd then parades to a nearby field and hessian hoods are thrown for youth of the village to scramble over, each containing a two pound bounty. The real Hood, a leather cylinder, is then competed for. This resembled a giant Rugby scrum or maul, but with hundreds of villagers joining the push. It continues until the 'scrum' makes its way to one of the pubs and the hood is handed to the publican.

Although there are hundreds joining in, and many more watching, the whole event is carried out in good spirits. It begins with the following words:

Village against village,
House against house,
if you meet a man,
knock him down,
but don't hurt him

and that's the way all good sports should be played. Every time people fell over in the melee the whole thing stopped and they were quickly helped to their feet before it continued. As competitors put everything into pushing jokes were cracked, conversations were had and there was even time for more than one person to show me the right way to push so that I didn't get hurt. At one stage the whole 'scrum' broke into a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' for one of the participants. This year the 'Hood' was relatively quick, lasting just over two hours. And although there were a few minor injuries there were no broken legs or arms.

When the Hood reached the village of Haxey, and it was obviously not going to end up in Westwoodside this year, sections of the crowd stared singing "Bye bye Westwoodside", but any taunts or teasing were extremely good natured. The honours for this year went to the King's Arms, but there really seemed like no winners and no losers......the whole village celebrated well into the night.

This was an absolutely wonderful event staged by the friendliest village I have ever visited. I had such an enjoyable time and am in debt to Paul and Monica, owners of the Duke William, to their staff, and especially to three of the locals Ian, Craig and Mark who looked after me the whole time I was in Haxey.