The Blockhouse Wassail was established in January 2023 by The Village Hub’s Culture Club to help local people connect with each other and with the trees and nature in Blockhouse Park. Our Wassail continues historical traditions in cider producing regions of the UK (like Devon & Cornwall) where local people would sing songs to the trees and toast them good health for the new year.
In 2024, the Blockhouse Wassail also became part of the Tradfolk Wassail Directory.
Local residents take part in the 2024 Blockhouse Wassail.
Image credits: Josh Greet
Yuletide & Wassailing
Yule is a mid-winter festival celebrated historically, and into the present, by the groups of people that once occupied Northwestern Europe (including the UK), Central Europe and Scandinavia. This included our Anglo-Saxon ancestors who used the term Yule to describe the modern months of December and January1.
The word “wassail” is borrowed from the Old Norse salutation ves heill, corresponding to Old English hál wes þú or wes hálwhich literally means ‘be in good health’ or ‘be fortunate’, and would often be used in the way we say ‘cheers’ and clink glasses with each other today.2
Today, we’re reviving the ancient practice of wassailing an orchard – bringing good health and good fortune to all of the trees in Blockhouse Park.
The tradition of wassailing has been around for a very long time! People have been gathering in cider-producing regions of England (particularly the West Country) for centuries to sing songs under trees, beat trees with sticks and adorn them with cider-soaked toast, make loud noises (to wake up the trees), share drinks, and pour cider over tree roots.
In 1648, poet Robert Herrick wrote “Wassaile the Trees, that they may beare You many a Plum, and many a Peare”,3 so we can tell it was not only apple trees that we should look after in this way!
Traditionally, the wassail is celebrated on Twelfth Night, which marks the end of traditional Christmastide celebrations (on either 5 or 6 January or “Old Twelfth Night on 17 Jan).
It is often a merry and rowdy celebration – a chance to get together and let loose at the end of a long period of feasting as the new year begins. Wassailers often travel from tree-to-tree and orchard-to-orchard, so you might want to continue the wassail to include the other trees and plants near you too!
Local residents looking after the trees in Blockhouse Park throughout the year. Image credits: Rachel Dobbs
Songs
As part of the Wassail, we sing traditional songs together so that we can all join in wishing good health to our trees (and to each other) – here are two we have chosen. One is traditional orchard wassailing song, and one from the tradition of going house-to-house wassailing (which is most like the more modern tradition of carolling).
Apple Tree Wassail
Old apple tree, we wassail thee
In hope that thou will bear
For who know where we all shall be at apple time next year
Oh and to fare thee well, and to bear thee well
And merry oh let us be
Let everyone take off their hats and sing to the old apple tree
(repeat 3 times)
Oh and to fare thee well, and to bear thee well
And merry oh let us be
Let everyone take off their hats and sing to the old apple tree
Here we come a-wassailing
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand’ring
So fair to be seen.
CHORUS:
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God send you a Happy New Year.
We are not daily beggars
That beg from door to door;
But we are neighbours’ children,
Whom you have seen before.
CHORUS
Call up the butler of this house,
Put on his golden ring.
Let him bring us up a beer,
And better we shall sing.
CHORUS
We have got a little purse
Of stretching leather skin;
We want a little sixpence
To line it well within.
CHORUS
Bring us out a table
And spread it with a cloth;
Bring us out a mouldy cheese,
And some of your Christmas loaf.
CHORUS
God bless the master of this house
Likewise the mistress too,
And all the little children
That round the table go.
CHORUS
Good master and good mistress,
While you’re sitting by the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Who are wandering in the mire.
CHORUS
Costumes
We encourage people to join in with dressing up to mark the occasion! Traditionally, people may often have dressed in winter greenery, and brought pots and pans to bang and ward away bad spirits.
Wassail Coat
Our Creative Community Builder, Rachel Dobbs started to make a special Wassail Coat for the Blockhouse Wassail during autumn 2022. The coat will continue to be added to each year, with new embellishments and decorations.
Bells, Noisemakers & Face Paint
The Green Man
The Green Man is a motif and figure that pops up regularly in architecture, art and local customs across England4 – in places as varied as Christian churches, country pubs, and even in modern-day garden centres!
At the Blockhouse Wassail, we invite the Green Man to join us as a symbol of rebirth – representing the cycle of new growth that happens here every spring.
Tattercoats
Tattercoats are any pieces of clothing with rags or strips of cloth sewn onto the outside of them.
Example of tatter coats worn by Otter Morris at The Black Prince festival in Kingsand/Cawsand in 2023 – Image Credit: Rachel Dobbs
These were originally the type of costumes worn by English agricultural workers for traditional Mummers’ plays (and later became popular with morris dancers, especially Border Morris style). They were made from worn out clothes and scraps of cloth or rags.
In the off-season (Winter & early Spring), when there was little farming work, some of these workers would perform plays, songs and dances to make extra money or to gain food & drink (at a time when their usual pay might be reduced or not paid at all)5.
Today, our tattercoats for the Blockhouse Wassail are made from the by-products and leftovers of our current economic system – secondhand clothes from charity shops, and industrial offcuts from our local Scrapstore.
Contributors:
- Haidee Dampney
- Jess Duffy
- Rachel Dobbs
References:
- Wikipedia (accessed 2023) Yule – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule ↩︎
- Oxford English Dictionary (1923) Wassail – etymology – https://www.oed.com/dictionary/wassail_n?tab=etymology#14996482 ↩︎
- Featured in WILD APPLES: THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. Various Authors (1862) The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 – https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11158/pg11158.html ↩︎
- Wikipedia (accessed 2023) Green Man – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man ↩︎
- Jenny Howard (accessed 2023) “What is a Tattercoat?” – http://www.jeh-communications.me.uk/whatisatattercoat.htm See also: How to make a tattercoat ↩︎