Planting the Blockhouse Flax Circle is a new annual tradition established by local resident Vicky Putler of The Flax Project CIC. Each year since March 2022, Vicky has been working with friends, neighbours and local people in the area to plant a circle of flax (the plant that grows fibre for making linen, and flaxseed to eat) at the community growing space in Blockhouse Park. The flax plants take 100 days to grow, before they are harvested for use in future creative activities.
Photo credits: Chris Smith, Josh Greet, The Flax Project CIC
Alongside planting the Flax Circle, Vicky shares her skills and knowledge to show us how to make Flax Corn Dollies – drawing on traditional pre-Christian farming practices across England and Northern Europe. The name Corn Dolly is a generic term for symbolic objects woven from straw of any kind, usually wheat or grain crops.
Corn dollies were traditionally made from the first or last stems of the harvest. It was believed that the spirit of the field was saved in the corn dolly until the following spring when the dolly would be planted back into the field and this would release the spirit for the next crop.
The Flax Corn Dollies we make are a reminder of a healthier past relationship to nature, one that we have all but lost. This speaks of the looming disaster but also, if we listen, it gives us the key to regain what we have lost. They are uses as part of the Beltaine Feast, and in a celebration to welcome the Seed Guardian to Blockhouse Park when we plant the Blockhouse Flax Circle.
Welcome the Seed Guardian!
The Seed Guardian is a new mythical figure created by local residents who care for and about Blockhouse Park. During 2024, Rachel Dobbs (our Creative Community Builder) and Vicky Putler are working together to encourage the development of this new myth and figure who appears once a year to help with the planting of the Blockhouse Flax Circle.
The inspiration for this comes from the first giant Flax Dolly that Vicky made in Blockhouse Park, and from a range of revived folk practices in the UK & Ireland (including the Whittlesea Straw Bears1, the South Queensferry Burryman2, Irish Wrenboys3, and English Jack in the Greens4), masked traditions from across Europe, and contemporary artists like Holland Otik5 (whose work echoes pre-colonial traditional masks from West, Central, and Southern Africa).
Contributors:
- Vicky Putler
- Gin Farrow-Jones
- Rachel Dobbs
References:
- Straw Bear history – https://strawbear.org.uk/history ↩︎
- The Burryman – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burryman ↩︎
- Wren Day – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day ↩︎
- Jack in The Green – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_in_the_Green ↩︎
- Holland Otik – https://www.instagram.com/holland_otik/ ↩︎