How local folklorists found possible proof of ancient winter tradition in Gloucestershire

Gloucester

Venue: The Folk of Gloucester, 99-103 Westgate Street

There’s a disheartening moment every January when the Christmas decorations come down. “Well, that’s all over for another year”, someone will sigh, while trying to wrestle a tangled string of Christmas tree lights back into the box. With nothing in your diary for weeks, all you have to look forward to is the return to work.

But what if the festivities were not over for another year? What if there was an centuries-old folk tradition that took place every January to welcome in the New Year and drive away the winter blues?

 

The Apple Tree Wassail is a custom practiced in the cider orchards of the south of England to bless the apple trees and bring in a year of fruitful harvests. First recorded as early as 1585, the celebration includes singing, Morris dancing, and pouring the last of the previous year’s cider on the roots of the trees. Often, children are lifted to hang toast on the high tree branches to attract birds to the orchard.

Local resident Bill Taylor grew up singing the traditional Gloucestershire Wassail song in his school choir and became interested in folk customs as a teenager. In the 1990s, he met fellow folklorist Eric Freeman, who spoke about reviving the apple tree wassail in Gloucestershire. Freeman knew the custom was still practiced in Herefordshire but could find no evidence that it had been a Gloucestershire tradition. Despite this, they started organising wassail events in local orchards just for fun.

Then, at a wassail at Byfords Farm in Taynton, they got talking to a 90-year-old resident who had lived and worked on the neighbouring farm his whole life.

“He remembered as a small boy he’d been lifted into a tree in the dark of the orchard. He could remember no more, but we felt that was a link to a lost wassailing tradition.”

This chance encounter shows the importance of community events as a catalyst for uncovering and sharing oral history. More worryingly, it also shows how easily folk customs can pass out of living memory unless we actively keep tradition alive.

“Having been involved in Apple Day at the Folk of Gloucester for about 20 years and hearing about the Ashmead’s Kernel tree in the garden [a specialist local apple breed], I suggested we should wassail it,” says Taylor.

The 18th of January 2025 will be the Folk of Gloucester’s third wassailing event. Taking place from 10am to 4pm, there will be a packed programme of Morris dancing, music, food, drink, stalls and free children’s activities. The day will be topped off by the traditional Wassail ceremony with a log fire, apple tree blessing and wassail song.

To Bill Taylor, seeing the community come together and celebrate a special moment in the year is a reminder of why folk traditions are still relevant and important today.

“Wassailing is part of my heritage and is part of the year’s traditional calendar of events. It’s a tradition we need to keep.”

The full schedule for the Apple Tree Wassail event can be found on The Folk of Gloucester homepage.

 

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