Old Ball is a
folk custom
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
that existed in the
Forest of Rossendale
The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall and ...
in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
,
north-western England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
during the nineteenth century. The tradition entailed the use of a
hobby horse
The term "hobby horse" is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. They are particularly associated with May Da ...
that is mounted on a pole and carried by an individual hidden under a
sackcloth
Sackcloth ( ''śaq'') is a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat's hair. The term in English often connotes the biblical usage, where the ''Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible'' remarks that haircloth would be more appropriate rendering of the ...
. It represents a regional variation of a "hooded animal" tradition that appears in various forms throughout the UK.
The Lancashire Old Ball custom differs from other animal head traditions in Britain by being associated with Easter; most of the others were instead carried out at
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
time. Demonstrating potential links to other regional traditions is the use of the name "Ball" for hobby horses in other areas. At
Ashford Ashford may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Ashford, New South Wales
*Ashford, South Australia
*Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia
Ireland
*Ashford, County Wicklow
*Ashford Castle, County Galway
United Kingdom
* Ashford, Kent, a town
** ...
and
Little Hucklow in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
, the
Old Horse
Old Horse was a folk custom found in an area of north-eastern England. Geographically, the custom was found in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and part of Yorkshire. The tradition entails the use of a hobby horse that is mounted on a pole and car ...
tradition was recorded as using hobby horses named "Ball", while at
Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. In 2011, it had a population of 4,780.
Alderley Edge is northwest of Macclesfield and south of Manchester, at the base of a steep and thickly wooded sandstone escarpment, Alder ...
in
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, the hobby horse was called "Young Ball".
Description
The Old Ball tradition took place around
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
. The term "Ball" or "Old Ball" was the name of the hobby horse that featured in it. This hobby horse consisted of a horse skull affixed to a pole, with the bottom of glass bottles for eyes. The pole was carried by a man hidden beneath a sackcloth, and there was sometimes a tail affixed to the outfit.
The hobby horse was taken around by a group of about six men, who disguised themselves by blackening their faces or wearing masks. This group sang a song, although its lyrics and tune were not recorded. Old Ball itself would chase people in order to obtain money from them.
History and regional distribution
The southern point of the custom's distribution lies near the foothills of the
Forest of Rossendale
The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall and ...
. It was also recorded in neighbourhoods of
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
and
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...
, near the northern margins of that forest about 15 to 20 miles north.
All of the settlements in which it was recorded were
industrial town
An industrial city or industrial town is a town or city in which the municipal economy, at least historically, is centered around industry, with important factories or other production facilities in the town. It has been part of most countries' i ...
s; those in the south were mostly connected to cotton spinning, while the two in the north were associated with cotton weaving.
Recorded accounts of the Old Ball tradition all come from the first three quarters of the nineteenth century.
Old Ball was part of a wider "hooded animal" tradition that the folklorist E. C. Cawte identified as existing in different forms in various parts of Britain. Features common to these customs were the use of a hobby horse, the performance at Christmas time, a song or spoken statement requesting payment, and the use of a team who included a man dressed in women's clothing. In South Wales, the
Mari Lwyd
The Mari Lwyd ( cy, Y Fari Lwyd, ) is a wassailing folk custom found in South Wales. The tradition entails the use of an eponymous hobby horse which is made from a horse's skull mounted on a pole and carried by an individual hidden under a sackcl ...
tradition featured troupes of men with a hobby horse knocking at doors over the Christmas period. In south-west England, there are two extant hobby horse traditions—the Padstow
'Obby 'Oss festival
The Obby 'Oss festival is a folk custom that takes place each 1st of may in Padstow, a coastal town in North Cornwall. It involves two separate processions making their way around the town, each containing an eponymous hobby horse known as the ...
and
Minehead Hobby Horse
In the coastal town of Minehead, located in the southwest English county of Somerset, there is a folk custom on May Day entailing the parading of a brightly decorated hobby horse around the locality.
The origins of the custom are unknown. The e ...
—which take place not at Christmas time but on
May Day
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...
.
Although the origins of these traditions are not known with any certainty, the lack of any late medieval references to such practices may suggest that they emerged from the documented elite fashion for hobby horses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this, the hooded animal traditions may be comparable to England's
Morris dance
Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...
tradition, which became a "nation-wide craze" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before evolving into "a set of sharply delineated regional traditions".
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
Further reading
*''Lancashire Folk-Lore'' by John Wilkinson and T.T. Harland
External links
Old Ball's Dance at The Traditional Tune Archive
{{Ritual Animal Diguise in the British Isles
English folklore
English folk dance
Folk plays
Ritual animal disguise