Mummers are one of the most ancient of Yorkshire’s Christmas traditions

Knaresborough Mummers

For Christmas in 2014, I visited Yorkshire’s  Knaresborough Mummers, who perform a unique story, local to the area, and called  the Blue Stotts.  Members take their heritage seriously, and have researched the history of the story.

Heritage

Team member John Burrell explains the name:  “It’s because ‘blue’ is a corruption of ‘plew’, the dialect word for plough, and ‘stots’ is the Scandinavian name for bullocks – the beasts that pulled the plough in this area of Yorkshire.  Traditionally, plough boys performed these plays to collect Christmas boxes from the local ‘big houses’.”

Nowadays, the team collects for local charities.

The play follows a traditional format involving the fight between good and evil.  There is a resurrection when the ‘good guy’ is killed.  The resurrection is believed to be an ancient symbol of the New Year.

The Mummers’ Fight scene

Christmas cheer

At Christmas, the Knaresborough Mummers generally perform in pubs, with a few drinks helping to raise a jovial atmosphere.

Mummers traditionally used what they had to make costumes: the black faces were originally made with soot from the chimney.  The Knaresborough Mummers, however, have performed some plays with more elaborate costumes, including, once, a dragon.

John recalls the dragon:  “It was a two person monstrosity, constructed from papier mậché, chicken wire, hoops and green cloth.”  Unfortunately, the dragon had poor vision, and, says John, “Once, it survived a head-on collision with a lamp post.  On another occasion, it entered a pub and couldn’t see where we were performing.  “Pssst…We’re over here,” caused the dragon to whirl round, catch its ear in the Christmas decorations, and bring them down.”

The Blue Stotts wear simpler costumes, in  keeping with the poverty of the plough lads who originally performed the play: simple farm clothes, jackets turned inside out, with tatters attached, a handful of soot rubbed on the face, and a hat to denote the character being played.

It’s a simple disguise, but it was interesting, comments Melodeon player Vince Doemling, “To go round the pubs of my home town and not be recognised.  I’d go up to people and say Hello, and they’d say, ‘Oh, it’s you!’  You wouldn’t think that a jacket with tatters and light make up would disguise so well.”

Disguised or not, the play has become an important part of Christmas in Knaresborough.

Read more in the December 2014 issue of Dalesman Magazine.