Frank Hartley wrote an article for the Church Lawford and Kings Newnham Village Newsletter in 2018 regarding village May Day Celebrations.
The Maddest Merriest Day Springtime is, at last, here in Church Lawford. All the familiar signs tell us that it is so. The sun rides higher in the sky; winter woollies are cast aside; trees are looking greener; garden centres busier. Familiar sounds can again be heard in gardens throughout the village; the hum of mowers; the splash of fish in garden ponds emerging from the winter stillness; the sound of wives rebuking husbands for “planting it in the wrong place”; the chaffinch singing on the orchard bough; The gentle thwack of leather on wood”. Well, cricket is perhaps not played in every garden but it is a worthy emblem of an English spring day; for the merry month of May is upon us (or will be at the time you read this newsletter) and in step with the season, this article will celebrate an even more fitting emblem of spring, the Queen of the May.
The custom of going out on May Day morning before sunrise to collect flowers and greenery to deck streets, houses and persons is an ancient one (it was well-established in England by Tudor times) and several of the other traditional customs associated with May Day were present in the Roman festival of Flora. There was a renewed interest in May Day celebrations in Victorian times, captured most famously by the poet Tennyson in his poem, The May Queen, from which the title of this little piece is taken. Here is the first verse which evocatively reflects the spirit of merriness and excitement of the month and its Queen
“You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
To-morrow 111 be the happiest time of all the glad New Year,-
Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest merriest day;
For I am to be Queen o’ the May, mother. I’m to be Queen o’ the May”
It was a great honour to be elected May Queen or to take part in the pageant and crowning ceremony. In the inter-war years there was a great revival of interest in folk songs and dances generally and the celebration of seasonal traditions such as the May festival entered their heyday.
I have put together a list of girls who were May Queens of Church Lawford during those years, which may be of interest to readers, although there are quite a few gaps. 1920 – Florence Arnold: 1923 – Florrie Smith: 1924 – Marjorie Coles: 1925 – Hilda Barnes: 1927 – Hilda Riley: 1928 – Joan Thorn: 1929 – Joyce Chambers: 1930 – Hilda Smith: 1933 – Rosina Howell: 1934 – Amy Perry: 1935 – Mary Woodford: 1936 – Joan Sylvester: 1938 – Muriel Simmonds: 1939 – Gladys Chambers.
The local newspapers usually provided good coverage of the occasion and it is worth quoting extensively from the report on the 1924 festival as it is typical of the general pattern of events at a Church Lawford May Festival in the 20s and 30s of the last century as they unfolded on the day.
“On Thursday week (30th May) the children celebrated their May Day. They were very fortunate in the weather as it turned out an ideal day for the occasion. The Queen chosen was Marjorie Coles, who was prettily attired in white embroidered silk and carried a basket of white flowers. The Maids of Honour, who carried her train, were Mabel Pope, Hilda Barnes, Hilda Riley and Amy Reay, who were also gowned in white, wearing wreaths of flowers and carrying gold baskets filled with white and yellow flowers. Being Ascension Day, the scholars attended the Church after which they assembled at the Schools, where the ceremony of crowning the Queen, accompanied by suitable songs, took place in the presence of a good number of the inhabitants of the villages. The crown was carried out by Kenneth Davis, who handed it to Florrie Smith, the ex-Queen, by whom the ceremony of crowning the Queen was performed. After this, accompanied by their teachers, Miss Brook and Miss Cooke, the children paraded the villages, the girls all wearing a net cap or wreaths of flowers and singing their May Day songs.” After tea at 5pm, prepared by Miss Craven, headmistress, the children repeated the morning’s performance for the benefit of parents and spectators, followed by country dances. “The party then adjourned to a field, (kindly lent by Mr Woodford), where they had games till about 8pm when they returned to the Schools where they had buns etc., where they dispersed well-pleased with their day’s enjoyment.” It sounds like an excellent occasion for the children, most of whom, it is salutary to note, would now be over 100 years of age.
The following year, Hilda Barnes was the elected Queen supported by Maids of Honour, Florrie and Ethel Smith, Joan Thorn and Winnie Coles. The report tells us that “a pretty golden-haired little girl, Maud Wells, dressed as a fairy and Eddie Howell as train-bearer announced the Queen’s arrival and the children sang a song of welcome”. On the procession the Queen rode a donkey led by her sister, Jessie Barnes.
In 1928, Joan Thorn had assumed the floral throne, supported by Rose Thorn (presumably her sister who would, no doubt, have been familiar with the phrase, “no rose without a thorn”), Doris Reay, Peggy Earp and Joyce Chambers, with guest appearances by the fairy (Joyce Shepherd) and Bo-Peep (Emily Annis). “Little Maurice Howell” carried out the duties of the crown-bearer. Last, but not least, were the Maypole – bearers, Tom Smith and Billy Chambers. Friday May 23rd 1930 was a warm and sunny day for the crowning of Hilda Smith. Rosina Howell, Gladys Thorn, Violet Davis and Amy Perry “did the honours” with Kathleen Gibbs as fairy and Peter Woodford as crown-bearer. In keeping with the times the children performed a series of maypole and country dances.
“Brilliant sunshine” greeted the crowning of young Amy Perry on the eleventh day of May 1934. The ex-Queen, Rosina Howell, who had done sterling work as Maid of Honour in a number of previous years, performed the ceremony. We are told that Amy was “beautifully dressed in an ankle-length white satin dress and carried a lovely bouquet of lilies, narcissi and pink carnations. During the singing of a May song the Queen was preceded to her throne by two little girls May Cross and Elsie Mitchell who strewed flower-petals in her path.
I fear that my enthusiasm outstrips my metaphors because the merry month of May is almost upon us, and will probably have arrived when you read this.
Frank then added a footnote in the following June 2018 magazine.
Amy was escorted by four little Maids of Honour, who carried her train, namely, Joan Earp, Muriel Simmonds, Joan Sylvester and Rose Cresswell. A number of participants were attired to represent the flowers of spring “Month of May”, Gladys Thorn; “Buttercup”, Lily Cross; “Daisies”, Dorothy Gibbs; “Cowslip”, Gladys Chambers; “Bluebell”, Margaret Hancox; “Violet”, Violet Mitchell; “Primrose”, Frances Riley.
A glance at an adjacent article in the newspaper reveals what a poignant day it was for young Amy Perry because it was on that very day that her uncle, Leslie William Addison died in St Cross Hospital from pneumonia at the early age of 21. I believe that Amy was the daughter of George Perry and Amy Lilian Perry nee Addison who was an elder sister of Leslie. (One of Leslie’s elder brothers, Herbert, had been killed in the war in May 1917 at the Battle of Bullecourt and I was privileged to attend the commemoration at the church on 13th May last year when the bells were rung in his honour). Very touchingly, among the floral tributes at Leslie’s funeral was one from “Amy with love”; it was her May Queen’s bouquet. Amy was on duty the following year to crown her successor, Mary Woodford. The crowning ceremony was carried out in the Schoolroom, the twenty-fourth of May 1935 being somewhat cold. The last of Church Lawford’s May Queens to be crowned before the war was Gladys Chambers who was crowned, by the ex-Queen Muriel Simmonds, on 26th May 1939. Within four months of that event the country was again at war with Germany.
Frank Hartley