When I was a lad at junior school, country dancing was still part of the curriculum. I don’t think I could have been any good at it even though I excelled in sports. I still have my school report and in it for Country Dancing the teacher described my prowess in one single word – “Heavy!”

We had a maypole that used to stand in the corner of the hall. During the spring and summer terms it would be wheeled into the middle and for about 15 minutes we ‘danced’ around it supposedly weaving the ribbons in an ornate way. I think that was a bit of an over statement. A tangled mass of knots would be more accurate. Anyway, we must have got it right eventually because at the summer fete the maypole would find its way out into the playground and we would put on a display for our parents. From those early beginnings, maypole dancing became synonymous with summer for me.

Maypole dancing is a traditional feature of life in many villages across England. It is usually done between Mayday and Pentecost. In a village not far from where I live in the Yorkshire Dales, a maypole is a permanent feature on the green. I covered the Mayday event one year and this is a small collection of the pictures.

It was May Day and up and down the country people continued to celebrate various folk traditions that have been part of our history for hundreds of years. Morris dancers hauled themselves out of bed in the dark early morning hours in order to dance the sun up. Druids greeted the new day at dawn and whole villages gathered on the green to perform intricate dances around a maypole. The earliest evidence of maypole dancing is from the 14th century when a Welsh poem recounts how people danced around a birch. By 1350, it was a common tradition in the southern counties. In the following century maypoles were being erected in many villages and smaller hamlets got together and erected one to share. It is not surprising that some villagers began raiding others and stealing their maypole resulting in local violent outrages. Also, people obtained timber for poles illegally by going onto large estates at night and chopping trees down much to the lord’s annoyance. The maypole celebrations traditionally begin up in Yorkshire with the brass band leading a procession from the schoolhouse down to the village.

Maypole dancing was believed to have started in Roman times in Britain. 2000 years ago, the Roman soldiers celebrated the end of winter by dancing around trees to thank their goddess Flora for the arrival of spring. The traditional dance involves participants positioning themselves in a circle around the pole. Boys alternate with girls. Each holds a different coloured ribbon. Boys go one way and girls the other. A boy would go under the first girl’s ribbon and then over the next creating a coloured pattern that wraps around the pole. They retrace their steps resulting in the ribbons unwrapping. This represents the lengthening of summer days. They all then toss their ribbons up into the middle at the finish.

The younger children do a mix of country dancing and maypole dancing. In so doing the folk traditions are being kept alive. Country dancing often involves partnering up. As I watched the children being organised into partners I remembered how awkward I felt when I was a child. At best, you might have to hold the hands of another boy and both swing around. Of course as kids we overdid this bit, and spun ourselves around with such velocity that if you let go you flew off in an uncalculated direction. Any child who happened to be in the way would become the victim of a collision! Yes, we enjoyed this bit. But at worst, you might have to partner with a girl! Little did us boys know that what was something we feared the most would become something we wanted more than anything as we became teenagers but were far to awkward and scared to do.

Following the Reformation, Maypoling  started to be viewed negatively with the Church of England regarding May Day celebrations as idolatry. Eventually maypole dancing was banned and maypoles were removed. Mary the First reinstated Roman Catholicism and maypole dancing was once again acceptable. This did not last with the coming of Oliver Cromwell. What happened next was very interesting and typical of the English. Maypole dancing started to become a kind of resistant protest against the oppressive dictatorship.

My experiences of dancing around maypoles and country dancing did not feel very rebellious. Although I was a child of the 60s, free spirit and doing your own thing had not permeated into my world. We had to wear white shirts and ties. We were herded into position and given a piece of ribbon tied to this enormous pole. What now seem like simple dance moves were a mystery. Tangles and knots occurred miraculously around the pole. Our teacher exerted a great deal of patience...but no matter how hard she tried, we were far from what you would call dancers. Needless to say, we did not make the A-team and were rarely put forward to represent the school at fairs like the children in this picture.

Some places were even named with a Maypole influence such as the church in London called St Andrew Undershaft. A maypole was stored under the overhanging eaves and got out each year in spring until 1517 when a riot broke out causing a ban. The actual maypole remained at the church another 30 years until a mob of Puritans discovered it and destroyed it because they believed it was a pagan idol. This view persisted into the 19th century and was fuelled by anti-Catholics. The addition of ribbons appears to be a relatively later feature of maypoles. They were added in the early Victorian period.