May Day

Then we gathered ourselves together and processed past St. Mary's Church where they were ringing the bells in honour of the event. After walking down Parsons Street andf through the Market Place we ended up back by the bandstand where each school performed a spot. there was a lot of waiting round but we were really patient and performed our Maypole and stick dance beautifully.

After a break for lunch 2.00 came and we formed up our procession again and lead round on to the playground to put on our show for parents and the rest of the school.

The procession arrives.

So what is it all about? Here is some history:

May Day in Banbury -The Neithrop May Pole Riots of 1589

Did you know that by the1580s, during the reign of Elizabeth 1, May Day had become a big public festival in Banbury?

Each year great tree trunks were decorated with garlands of flowers and erected as maypoles, around which the local community danced and made merry on Mayday, and during the May games and Whitsun ales which followed.

Looking at other parallels it is likely that a May Queen was crowned. Morris dancers performed and humorous plays were acted out on the streets with such characters as: Robin Hood, Maid Marion (a man dressed as a woman) and Friar Tuck , who also joined the morris men in their dancing. The performers might even have included fools, hobby horses and a “Jack in the Green” , a kind of walking bush covered from head to toe with forest greenery. The fun and games, accompanied by feasting and sports, were commonplace in towns and cities up and down the country between May and July,

So when did it all stop and why?

In 1589 the Neithrop maypole hit the national headlines when it became the subject of a bitter row between local puritans and other townspeople. A group of puritans, apparently led by Anthony Cope M.P. Lord of the Manor of Hanwell, attempted to prevent the raising of the Neithrop Maypole by force.The revellers, supported by John Danvers, Sheriff of Oxfordshire, of Calthorpe House, vigorously resisted intent on their merrymaking, and a riot ensued.

In the weeks that followed both Anthony Cope and John Danvers used their power and influence in Banbury to challenge the other’s position. Richard Wheatley, Constable of Banbury, wrote to William Long, Constable for Neithrop and Calthorpe instructing him to take down any maypoles in his area, and to suppress any celebrations around them.

On May 20th 1589 John Danvers appealed to Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council in London who agreed, in a reply sent on May 24th, that these traditional celebrations should be allowed on condition that they did not interfere with people going to Church on Sundays.

Anthony Cope complained that John Danvers had insulted and threatened him, and Richard Wheatley, and the matter was finally taken to the Oxford Assize Court in July 1589, which found in favour of Anthony Cope and his puritan followers. Anthony Cope and his followers went on to destroy Banbury’s famous market crosses eleven years later in July 1600.

So how do we know?
Letters and other documents about these events still exist today in the Acts of the Privy Council , and the Domestic State Papers.