Hello. Just to remind all you readers that next Monday or Tuesday is the summer solstice (I’m never sure if Midsummers Day is on the 20th or 21st). Whichever day it turns out to be it has been a joyous event for millennia, that’s if the local populace weren’t too bladdered to attend or simply forgot what day it was. If they did remember the good folk of ye olde Beckworth gathered at the ancient Hammerite standing stones for all-day celebrations. From before dawn until way past bedtime the local druids danced, sang and fornicated naked amongst the stones to invoke the sun to rise (and set). Hundreds of animal sacrifices were made to the Gods, until health and safety busy-bodies banned them in the 1980s, and for quite-a-few years the Beckworth Bothamers performed morris dances and skinny dipped in the river to cool off. It’s an idyllic, historical day for all ages, with school children encouraged to attend and pensioners bused in for the occasion. This year, as midsummer falls on a work day and as most of the Druids and Bothamers can’t get the day off, we’ll be celebrating a bit early. On Sunday. So please join us for the mid-morning “conjoining” of Beckworth’s Maiden In White to the Old Slocombe Codger and in the evening the burning of a wicker effigy of the Old Dick of Beckworth. As is tradition the mummers will be enacting mystery plays for 18 hours, or maybe less if they get tired, non-stop and there will be much merriment, berry-harvesting, dancing and singing for all the family to join in with. Food and drink stalls, including one serving Beckworth’s famed Devil’s Punch (made from rotting fruits gathered at last summer solstice), will be set up and music will be performed by local naturist folk bands. Local pop band Coldplay have said they’ll be stripping off to play in late afternoon, so that will be a must see. For the youngest family members there will be a bouncy castle within the stone circle, pin the fig-leaves on the virgin and donkey rides (if we can find some “new” donkeys as the old ones are now sadly deceased). For older residents there will be wheelchair races and an incontinence paddling pool. So come to the Hammerite stones on Sunday and be at one with mother nature.
Clifford Pinner. The Beckworth Bothamers Morris Dancers
