Throwing the Hood at Haxey

Well, I’ve been known to throw a handkerchief or too in my time, but unlike Lady de Mowbray I’ve never chucked my hood away!

In all fairness to the Lady, it is actually said that she lost her scarlet hood while out riding toward Westwoodside across the hill that separates it from the village of Haxey, in Lincolnshire. It was blown away by an errant gust of wind, only to be chased down and picked up by a nearby farm worker – who, overcome by the Lady’s beauty or shyness (take your pick), was unable to return it personally to her.

A more self-possessed individual took the hood and handed it back to her –it was said (versions vary here), either by the Lady or the chivalrous one, that ‘He had acted like a lord, while the other had acted like a fool’.

Apparently, Lady de Mowbray was so amused that she donated 13 acres (you can do the maths for square metres if you really must), on condition that the chase for the hood should be re-enacted each year. Over the centuries this has become to be known as “The Haxey Hood”

Like all myths it is difficult to know just how much reliance can be put on the story, however the nobles mentioned in the tale did actually exist, records show a John De Mowbray who was born in 1310 and died in 1361 could have been the husband of the lady, and as Baron Mowbray of Axholme he would have had enough land to give some away – although I note that there appeared to have been little consultation by the lady before handing it over.

Actually it doesn’t matter whether it is true or not – what it does is give a really good excuse for engaging in a highly robust contact sport, probably a fair amount of beer drinking, some cheerful English folk songs and a satisfied sense that it can be done all over again next year.

What more could a village want – well probably to win it next time if you are regulars at the Carpenters Arms!

So what does it entail? The Game is played on 6th January every year unless it falls on a Sunday of course. It starts in the afternoon, when the fool and his twelve Boggans parade up the street to the Haxey Parish Church. The Boggans are the official players in the Game and need to be strong and vigorous young men, as they put themselves up against all comers. It is no surprise that they are often recruited from the local football team.

Chief among the Boggans is the King, who carries his roll of thirteen willows bound with thirteen withy bands. Traditionally the Boggans should be wearing red coats, but even those that don’t still keep the traditionally red somewhere about them in memory of the Lady’s Hood.

The Fool – representing the one that was too shy to hand the hood back – leads the procession and has the right to kiss any lady he chooses throughout the ceremony. Now that certainly is out of character if you ask me; or perhaps he has gained courage over the centuries.

He too wears red about him in honour of the hood, blackens his face with soot and carries a whip filled with bran to lay about those who come too near – how that helps with the kissing bit confuses me.

Before the game begins in earnest the fool mounts a platform and makes a speech before he reminds all combatants of the rules of the game:

Hoose agen Hoose

Toon agen toon

If tho’ meet a man knock ‘im doon

But don’t ‘Ut ‘im!

Strangely, while he’s making these pronouncements a small fire doused with damp straw creates a cloud of smoke which pours around him, known as Smoking the Fool. This appears to be the remnant of a more sinister activity where the Fool was hung from a tree over a smoking fire and then allowed to drop into well wetted straw. Occupational Health and Safety are probably having a fit!!

Now the game begins, and the hood is thrown up. As far as I can tell the aim of the game is to seize the hood and carry it over the boundary to their village while everyone else attempts to stop them.

I got all excited the first time this happened – but I gather they were just preliminaries it is when the ‘Sway’ is thrown into the arena that the fun really begins. A ring of Boggans surround the area while either the Fool or some other unsuspecting notable throws the leather hood high into the air. The ring of Boggans break up and that’s the last we see of any sense of order.

Every able bodied man or woman is encouraged to take part in this mass of heaving humanity, even bystanders have been caught up in the general melee. The goal is to get the Sway to the village pub and while it cannot be kicked it can be pushed, pulled or dragged in the general direction. Movement is not rapid.

In fact it can take hours and in the meantime there is no safety for hedges, animals or stray stone walls. Eventually the Sway arrives at one of the pubs and the landlord takes charge of it and the party begins!! The winning pub hosts the Hood until the same time next year when it all begins again.

What a way to spend Epiphany! And if you want to see what it’s all about watch this and listen to the songs that they are singing – that should please ‘Show of Hands’ – in some places we do still hark back to our Roots and celebrate our English Heritage with Gusto.