In change to our usual scheduling, we are now going to bring you something completely different. Not folk music this time, although there are some songs on the tapes, but a peep into the arcane world of folk plays. On the sound player you will find audio recordings of the Knaresborough Mummers performing two plays - King Arthur and the Saxons, recorded in November 1977, and Tom's Wooing recorded in Easter 1978. The sound quality of these recordings is fairly basic, but hopefully should be good enough to give you a flavour of the Mummers in full swing. Below, Max Johnson interviews John Burrell, who has been an integral part of the Knaresborough Mummers since their inception in 1974.  First, however, he attempts the heroic feat of attempting to sum up the essence of the mummers' play in a single paragraph...

A Rough Guide To Mummers’ Plays

Mummers’ plays are short, costumed plays, usually performed in rhyme. The performers’ faces are frequently ‘blacked-up’ or otherwise obscured, to disguise the performer. The plays are performed in public, usually with humour and sometimes local, topical references, and are generally structured around particular themes. Perhaps the most common theme is that of a Hero, such as St George, King George, Alexander or Robin Hood, battling such worthy foes as Bold Slasher or a Saracen knight. Others feature a Recruiting Sergeant and might take the form of a ‘wooing’ play which includes one or more wooing scenes. Each will be accompanied by their own cast of characters, some of whom are ubiquitous: for example The Quack Doctor almost always appears to 'resurrect' the dead hero or villain of the piece, whilst characters like Beelzebub and Little Wit may appear in minor roles in any play. In different parts of the country plays may be associated with a sword dance and include songs to introduce or finish the play. 

If you would like further information, we recommend that you visit the Folk Play Research Home Page.

For more detailed research please take a look at Master Mummers.

LFT: The Knaresborough Mummers first formed in 1974. Who started the Knaresborough Mummers, and why? Who was in the first team?

JB: I started a Folk Club in Knaresborough that October with my old mate Richard Hardaker, down at the Royal Oak at Bond End.  He suggested we perform a one-off play that first Christmas at the Singers Night party and we persuaded two other regulars, Graham Bickerdike and Arthur Jackson, to join us to form the four core characters of a basic hero combat play – the Jester, St George, Bold Slasher and the Doctor.  We also added optional characters Little Devil Doubt and Beelzebub, enabling other participants to join in at short notice. These parts at first were taken by Dennis and Dominic Ward, and also Dave Dearlove, who was to become a team stalwart for the next twenty years. Due to the positive response, other performances were arranged at local pubs over that Christmas, further members were recruited and regular appearances started from Easter 1975.  The current tally shows that 38 performers have passed through the ranks over the years, but Jim Mayer, Stuart Rankin, Chas Marshall and Henry Ayrton were most influential in shaping the team in the early and hey-day years.

LFT: Do you just perform at Christmas and Easter?

JB: Initially we did, but as we became more entertaining, there was a demand to do folk clubs, village fetes and then folk festivals.  There was a period when we were going out just about every week or fortnight and the team performed at venues from Carlisle to Towersey and many points in between.

LFT: What are the sources of your traditional plays? How much of what you perform is traditional and how much do you write yourselves? 

JB: The first play was based on William Walker’s chapbook The Peace Egg Play and later adapted with text from other chapbooks to accommodate more characters.  Chapbooks and booklets from the Alex Helm, Tiddy, Chambers and Cawte collections were our initial sources, but we soon began to branch out as our own humour crept in, though we nearly always kept a traditional text as the basis, be it a wooing play from Lincolnshire, for example, or a Robin Hood play.  For a special show, Jim Mayer wrote a play in the Mumming style which we supplemented with appropriate folk songs, all about the historical characters of Knaresborough.  Most of us were brought up on a diet of the Goons, Tony Hancock, Monty Python and the like – this influenced our portrayal of the various characters in the plays.  We thought that plays should continue to evolve, just as they seem to have done in the past, with historical heroes and villains appearing at significant times in history.  We wanted to continue this process rather than perform the plays as a 'slice in time' museum piece.  The Sherlock Holmes play is all our own work – I was in the garden one day and I got the idea of the death and resurrection being represented by something horrible and lumpy dying, but then a butterfly bursts out of this chrysalis to end the play.  We then worked backwards from there to make it a Sherlock Holmes mystery!  In the late 70s we met regularly as mates in the World's End pub and we were always bouncing ideas off each other to make the plays that bit different. 

LFT: Some of the Knaresborough Mummers are local singers. Have you always performed songs in the plays?

JB: I think there’s only one play that hasn’t got a song at the end.  We used to have a different song for every play, the task usually falling to me to perform it.  These days, I usually get away with the last verse of the song that goes with the wooing play!

LFT: Has there been much change in the line-up over the years and how much has your style of performance changed? How difficult is it to encourage youngsters to join?

JB: The original team was made up of guys that were interested almost exclusively in the performance of song and folk drama, who wanted to perform at as many places as possible.  This lasted for about 10 to 15 years, but gradually changing commitments and re-location saw most of that team gone.  New recruits tended to come in from a Morris Dance background, their priorities being to their dance teams rather than the Mummers – so we do a far smaller number of performances these days.  Let’s just say the current team aren’t as extrovert as the old team!  I think the character of the folk scene has changed from that of the 70s and 80s and although young people are most definitely interested in the song element at festivals, certainly in our area, recruitment to Morris and Mumming is very difficult.  Our youngest is 40!  Young people are very often puzzled and don’t know how to react when they see us – is it “cool” or is it not “cool”?  Perhaps if it was on Eastenders!...

LFT:  What are the most memorable moments? 

JB: We got a big break when, having been busking in Whitby on the final day of the festival, we were hastily called up at the final ceilidh in the Spa to perform whilst New Victory Band set their gear up.  Our Robin Hood play went down a storm.  We did the same gig some years later as the booked festival team and did the same play, but modified it to include Graham as Robin Hood, who picked his wife out of the audience and performed an exhibition standard jive as I sang Blue Suede Shoes with piano and drums!  We often incorporated hastily thought up gags for added amusement – once we tied the Farmer’s Boy’s whip to a pile of chairs which then yanked him back as he made his dramatic entrance!  One of our props for Guillemar in King Arthur and the Saxons was a duck that Jim Mayer appeared to be riding, with false legs dangling over the front.  This was balanced by a kettle full of stones which, with perfect timing in the debut performance, decided to work loose and drop to the floor with a cartoon-like plop, pitching the whole duck forward and bringing the house down.  I think it was the same tour, when taking the play up to the Miners Arms at Greenhow, up a very steep hill, the back doors of the van burst open and the legs fell out, much to the horror of cars following behind!  Jim was always looking for the most dramatic entrance and once finished up getting stuck climbing in with the duck through a window.  We certainly had some fun!

LFT: The Knaresborough Mummers are the only group interviewed by Lost Folk Tapes so far to have a beer named after them!

JB: Being a lifelong CAMRA member, myself and the team having made, let’s say, a substantial investment in the brewing industry! We did a bottled beer called Bold Slasher to celebrate the first 10 years.  On the 30th Anniversary, we persuaded Sean Franklin of Roosters to supply the Tap & Spile in Harrogate with one of his beers re-branded as King Slasher, which was available when we did our Christmas tour.

LFT: How long have there been mumming teams in North Yorkshire? Historically, were any local to Knaresborough?  

JB: Evidence from the existence of plays in chapbooks suggests at least 150 years, but there were plays associated with sword dances that have been documented probably going back to the late 1700s.  From the beginning we were interested in finding something directly linked with Knaresborough, so Chas and Stuart did a lot of research in the various collections.  Their research led them to identify a particular type of play in and around the Vale of York which was based on the basic hero combat style, but had its own characteristics and was called the Blue Stots play.  This had been recorded as being performed in Knaresborough and Harrogate, as well as many villages to the east. We first performed the Blue Stots in 1980 and have been doing so ever since, performing five different tours from Christmas to Epiphany.  Chas and Stuart went on to publish a booklet called 'Return of the Blue Stots' documenting their research. 

LFT:  What are you doing these days? 

JB: We are still here, though since the 70s and 80s, as members have moved on and the folk scene has gradually throttled back, regrettably no younger members have come through to fill the ranks, and current members have many other commitments, particularly to folk dance.  However, the team has survived to the present day not only performing the Blue Stots over the Christmas period, but also resurrecting one of the longer plays when the occasion demands and members’ availability allows.  We appeared at the 2011 Beverley Festival which gave The White Boys and Tom’s Wooing an airing during the course of the weekend. 

LFT: Tell us about The Knaresborough Mummers’ charity work.

JB: We have always made collections, which usually go to a number of local charities which benefit every year from the Blue Stots Tours.  We also support one off appeals, like North Yorkshire Air Ambulance or funding an overseas aid worker we know.  We always try and keep an eye out for local appeals when they are in the news.  I think we’ve raised about £7000 over the years.

LFT: Who is Eric and where does he fit in?

JB: You mean Eric the Horse?  Eric - probably named after the late Eric Binnington, landlord of Mummers HQ, the Worlds End in Knaresborough - was constructed by Dennis Ward for Tom’s Wooing way back in 1976.  Unlike some of the props (we are on our third duck) he has survived the passage of time and has appeared in a number of plays spanning hundreds of years, from being a Victorian doctor’s horse to carrying one of Thomas Becket’s murderers, Hugh de Morville, from Canterbury to Knaresborough!  He had major spinal surgery some years ago to enable him to fit in a car boot, but he got over that and still has his outings!