Against the distant background of the South Downs, a small church stands alone among fields and woodland. It is a modest building from the late 11th or early 12th century with extensive 19th-century alterations including the addition of a porch. This is St Peter’s Church in the West Sussex village of Terwick and here you’ll find The Lupin Field.
There has never been a village of Terwick as the soil near the church is poor. In 1646 there were only five houses in the parish but they may have been substantial households. Today, it is a lovely place to visit in late May or early June, depending on the weather, to see the lupin field at its best.
This field full of lupins separates St Peter’s from the A272 and is now in National Trust ownership. Until after World War II the field formed part of the rector’s glebe. The Reverend George Laycock planted the lupins which self-seeded and bloomed year after year. He was Rector of Terwick for over 40 years until his death in 1933 (he is buried in the churchyard). He lived nearby in the large rectory and as he was not burdened with many parish duties, he spent much of his time using the field behind the church as a market garden.
The lupin field was later owned by Mr and Mrs Hodge of nearby Fyning House. She adored the view of the lupin flowers in the field framed by the South Downs. The surrounding land is arable and Mrs Hodge wanted to ensure that the view was protected and the lupins would always be there. On the Hodges’ death in 1939, the field was gifted to the National Trust with the condition that they would continue to grow lupins in part of the field. Through the decades the National Trust has worked with the Rogate community and the local farmer to try and ensure new seed is planted and the number of lupins maintained.
Today, the lupin field still holds hundreds of lupin plants, but within this is a mix of wild grasses and flowers such as ox-eye daisies, poppies, vetch and meadow cranesbill, which have self-seeded and become part of the meadow. Harvest mice also live here and the space is now a ‘naturalised’ meadow which gives space and opportunities for wildlife to flourish amongst a more formal and farmed landscape. The NT manage the field in a similar way to a hay meadow. A cut is taken late in the year once the lupins have seeded and the grass is baled and removed. Russell mix lupin seeds are sown into the bare ground in spring. The lupins are commemorated in an altar frontal given to St Peter’s to celebrate the millennium.
A272 ROGATE to MIDHURST ROAD National Grid Reference: SU 81784 23512. Signpost to St Peter’s Terwick and parking behind the church.
Walks from here turning east back along the road from the church and then crossing the A272 can take you north to Borden where you connect to the Serpent Trail.
On Saturday 21 May 2022, our Trustee Chris Steibelt was out in Singleton Forest with volunteers and Forestry England representatives for our first tree guard cleanup day, collecting redundant tree guards to be sent off for recycling.
Tree planting forms a key part of our goal to reach net zero carbon emissions in the next three decades. We all love trees! Most planted saplings need some form of protection from rodents and deer in order to survive until they are well established. The common solution is to use a tree guard. These need to be durable and translucent for at least five years and the most cost-effective solution to date is those made of plastic. The good news is, technology has advanced and not all that plastic is fossil fuel based. Today, many products made with UV stabilised polypropylene which is generally recyclable. Regardless, redundant tree guards remain a problem. National Park campaigners, like the Friends of the Yorkshire Dales, have called for a ban on plastic tree guards. And whether the tree guards are recyclable or not, the fact is they are forgotten for decades, choking the trees they are meant to protect or littering the forest floor.
“I’m pleased to report that our recent tree guard cleanup day, collecting ageing plastic tree guards in Singleton Forest, was a success thanks to help of our team of 10 volunteers supported by Forestry England,” Chris said. “Over 750 were gathered up, some 20 years or more after their original placement. It was sad to see that in a number of cases, the plastic tree guards had actually strangled the tree resulting in its premature death. After removing the non-recyclable plastic zip ties, they were stowed into jumbo bags ready for collection and recycling.
“It is reassuring to hear from Forestry England that of the seven million trees they plant each year only 2% are protected with this type of tree guard and what’s more they are now doing trials of biocompostable guards. In addition, they have taken steps to improve their record keeping of exactly where and when plastic tree guards have been used.”
That sounds relatively encouraging for the future but what about all the mess created in the past? Should it be it left for volunteer groups to tidy up or should we press for more accountability on the part of our forestry managers? What do you think?
“We continuously seek out environmentally friendly alternatives, but due to the lack of a credible, biodegradable alternative, we’ve used tree guards made from UV stabilised Polypropylene to protect the young tees from browsing by deer and rabbits and ensure the best chance of reaching maturity.
“Forestry England’s policy is for all tree shelters to be collected and removed from sites at the end of their useful life – about 10 -15 years after planting. We’re now able to keep track of areas where tree guards have been used, so that once they’ve served their purpose, we can send them to be recycled.
“Forestry England plants seven million trees each year across the nation’s forests and of these only around 2% need to have tree guards to protect them from damage. This amounts to approximately 150,000 tree guards per year. We are continuing with trials of sustainable alternatives to plastic tree guards and as soon as products become commercially available which are high enough quality and durable, we will be ready to switch over and use them for all new tree planting.
“We are already making positive changes and nearby at Queen Elizabeth Country Park and Forest we have used biodegradable alternatives for our tree planting this year and hope to scale this up nationally in autumn and winter of 2022/23.”
Out on a walk with my dog Ruby recently around the Mardens, at the west end of the South Downs, we stumbled across a shoot. Whilst their target was pheasant, the sound of gunshot ringing around the densely wooded hillside clearly had an unnerving effect on the other inhabitants of this otherwise tranquil area. As we skirted the large, open field, giving the shoot a wide berth, Ruby couldn’t believe her luck when at least 10 deer, one of the clever local herds, leapt out of the hedge in front of us.
Photo: Graham Stockley
Given that Ruby was on the lead, 12 years old and covered in lumps and bumps, I wasn’t initially concerned but in the heat of the moment she somehow managed to slip her collar. An intervention or more accurately, a bellow, was clearly required! To my great satisfaction and pride, she stopped dead in her tracks and returned to my side, with just the slightest look of regret in her eye!
An encounter with deer these days, whether out on a walk or less fortunately, on the road, is fast becoming a normal occurrence. The UK’s deer population is believed to be at its highest level for 1,000 years, with some two million deer in our countryside and semi-urban areas.
In conversation recently with Steve Walker, Manager of Kingley Vale Nature Reserve, north of Chichester, I learnt that he’d spent the previous night up on the Downs thermal imaging the fallow deer population with the tech wizards from Digital Fauna. The clever local herds have apparently gotten so clever at avoiding detection that night-time is the best time for getting concrete evidence. The images below clearly show how large some of the herds have become. While the Downs are not part of the reserve, these herds roam vast areas of the Hampshire/West Sussex borderlands, of which the Mardens and Kingley Vale are part.
Unfortunately, at Kingley Vale the future of the famous Yews is under threat from the deer. Yew is famous for its longevity and regeneration properties, but even it needs to produce new shoots for the long-term survival of the forest. With the young, juicy stems being eaten by the deer, the age diversity of the grove is being put at risk. Similarly, most of the woodland understorey has been browsed off. This is already leading to the decline of wildflowers, insects and woodland birds such as the Nightingale, Nightjar, Bullfinch and Marsh Tit, which all rely on this layer for feeding or breeding.
The nature reserve is also home to an active dew pond restoration programme. Traditionally, their saucer-like design provided sheep with a safe means of accessing water, but their fragile ecology cannot cope with vast herds of deer descending for a drink. Barriers have had to be erected to stop them from eating all the marginal plants, which other wetland species require. Another problem associated with deer, that walkers will surely have come across in recent years, are the ticks that they carry.
Although deer are a beautiful part of our woodland ecology, in the absence of a natural predator like the Lynx, their population needs to be managed. This can only realistically be done by man in an ‘enlightened nature-mimicking way’. This will not only stop damage being done to protected areas, farmland and forestry by these clever local herds, but also ensure the herds themselves remain healthy. However, the ‘Bambi-effect’ is a significant hurdle to a humane cull. Furthermore, even if it was considered publicly acceptable, Covid and Brexit have seen the bottom drop out of the venison market.
If we are to solve all these problems, conventional wisdom suggests that we need to start eating more venison. This will help drive up demand for deer carcasses and make it economically viable for stalkers to carry out a selective cull. As a food source, venison ticks many of the key boxes: it is low in fat and carbon, high in protein and welfare, and full of iron, zinc and B vitamins. If you are yet to give venison a go, perhaps you might be tempted to try it the next time you are out for a meal. If anyone questions your gluttony as you tuck into a venison steak or burger, your rebuttal is clear, you are doing your bit to protect the South Downs…just as Ruby had clearly been hoping to do on our walk!
This Easebourne/Langham circular walk is an easy walk starting either in Easebourne or at Langham Brewery and takes you through open fields with views of the South Downs and patches of woodland with a small amount of road walking on the end by the brewery.
Easebourne/Langham Circular Walk
You can start the Easebourne/Langham circular walk by parking at Langham’s Brewery carpark and walk clockwise or anticlockwise around the whole route (5.7miles) or make it into a figure-of-eight. If this is too far for you, just do the first half of the figure-of-eight (2.5 miles). If you do the whole route and would like to make the walk a little longer, the delightful Easebourne Street is lovely to wander down beside the little culvert which is the River Ez. You will be treated to a very unspoiled selection of the old houses and gardens of Easebourne village.
Alternatively, if you start from Easebourne Street, where there is parking on-street (left hand side of the map), you can use the brewery as a half-way rest point. Warning! After a beer and Langham’s delicious pizza, the second half of the route seems longer!
Primroses in the River Ez
Langham Brewery offers a delicious range of fresh keg beer, cask conditioned real ale, bottles and cans – lovingly brewed at their award-winning microbrewery in West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park, near Petworth. The brewery is the perfect destination experience; walkers, cyclists, hikers and day-trippers are all warmly welcomed.
The Brewery’s Taproom and Shop are open 6 days a week, and this month the Taproom turns a year old. Please save the date for the celebrations: Saturday 16th April, from 5pm – 9.30pm. Expect live music, a hog roast (delicious veggie options also available) and a well-stocked, award-winning bar. This is a free-to-enjoy event, but please bring loose changes (and notes!) as there will be a collection for the https://davidnottfoundation.com
As well as an extensive range of beers, the team also serve soft drinks, delicious cakes, local, authentic Italian pizzas, and more. Try 4 Langham brews in a single purchase via their ‘flights’ – the brewery’s flight attendant (formerly BA!) is happy to guide you through your tasting experience. The Taproom is also available for private hire.
For loved ones who enjoy craft ale, a gift voucher makes an ideal gift – available for Brewery Tours, beer and merchandise, as well as the new ‘Be A Brewer For The Day’ voucher.
Easebourne/Langham Circular Walk leads to Langham’s taproom!
Our campaign to create more awareness on plastic tree guards takes a hands-on approach in March 2022. In partnership with Forestry England we are organising a clean-up of old tree guards which are littering an area of Singleton Forest. Our trustee, Chris Steibelt, explains why we’re doing this here. Read the press release regarding plastic tree guards here. We need volunteers. Best estimates are that these were originally installed 20 years ago and should of course have been removed and recycled as soon as the trees no longer required their protection. As happens all too frequently, they were overlooked and now present a hazard to our environment.
We need volunteers to come along and support us on Saturday 26 March from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm to clear this area.
The location details are:
The site is accessed from the A286 via a tarmac road that leads to the IGAS oil well. It’s 0.8 mile from the top of Cocking Hill on the A286 heading South or 1.5mi from the bus stop in Singleton on the A286 heading North. There’s no signpost and the traffic flows quick quickly down that section. There is room for parking opposite the IGAS site entrance at the top of the tarmac road on Forestry England land. The area where we will be working is grid ref SU884153/ What3Words: fewest.reduction.detect
Equipment: Forestry England will supply high viz jackets so all you will need is a pair of gloves. There’s some bramble covering the ground, so do make sure you have suitable footwear too.
If you would like to help play a part, please message us or contact us using the above contact button.
National Park campaigners call for a ban on plastic tree guards as Government considers banning other types of single-use plastic
Friends of the Dales Chair Bruce McLeod clearing plastic tree guards from the Yorkshire Dales National Park
Campaign for National Parks, Friends of the Dales, Friends of the South Downs and nine other National Park Societies have joined forces to call for a ban on plastic tree guards. Chris Steibelt, Trustee of Friends of the South Downs, is leading this project for us and tells us here why we have decided to launch this campaign.
The campaign coincides with a Defra call for evidence over problematic single-use plastics – which the National Parks campaigners have responded to, highlighting the ongoing issue of plastic tree guards.
“We want to see a complete end to the use of single-use plastics in the supply of tree guards (much of which will inevitably become highly polluting micro-plastics),” says the joint response, “as well as the introduction of more effective controls and auditing in order to require a greater focus on recovering old tree guards and preventing further pollution.”
Eleven National Park Societies in England and Wales have joined Campaign for National Parks, the only independent charity campaigning to protect and improve all National Parks in England & Wales, in signing a joint statement (see full text below) urging National Park Authorities to restrict the use of new plastic tubes for tree and hedge planting in National Parks by the end of 2022.
It follows a commitment from The Woodland Trust to stop using plastic tree guards on their estate by the end of 2021, and efforts by the National Trust to explore, and trial, alternative options – moves supported by National Park Societies and Campaign for National Parks. Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust is also embarked on a plastic-free woodlands project to remove redundant plastic tree guards and champion alternatives.
Friends of the Dales Chair Bruce McLeod says: “Society and governments are increasingly calling for a reduction in plastics in the environment. Due to the Climate Crisis and declarations of a climate emergency, they are also calling for an acceleration of tree planting in order to sequester carbon and off-set carbon emissions. We believe that an increase in tree planting should not equal an increase of plastic in the environment.
“Plastic tree guards are a product of the fossil fuel industry, thereby a contributor to global heating. We support the collection and recycling of redundant tree guards. However, the size of that task only serves to underline that we should not add to this waste. There must be more accountability for the removal of plastic tree guards once they have served their purpose. Alternative (compostable) guards and methods of woodland creation are increasingly being used; they replace the polypropylene tubes that have a life span of centuries either in dumps, other plastic products or as micro plastics in the ocean and soil.”
Campaign for National Parks Policy and Research Manager Ruth Bradshaw added: “Our National Parks and the Climate Emergency report released last year explored how National Parks were adapting to and mitigating climate change. There are huge efforts underway to do both and it’s clear that tree planting has a role to play in this, but the benefits – carbon capture, habitat creation etc. – are undermined when each sapling is surrounded by a new, single-use plastic tree guard. Plastic waste is a huge issue in National Parks – from the carbon footprint of making such disposable items to the long-term impact on the landscape of non-biodegradable items. Plastic tree guards are part of the problem, not part of the solution and we must treat them as such.”
Full statement:
Society and governments are increasingly calling for a reduction in plastics in the environment. Due to the Climate Crisis and declarations of a climate emergency, they are also calling for an acceleration of tree planting in order to sequester carbon and off-set carbon emissions. However, we believe that an increase in tree planting should not equal an increase of plastic in the environment.
We believe that the current practice of using plastic tree guards in woodland creation is unsustainable. Plastic tree guards are a product of the fossil fuel industry, thereby a contributor to global heating. We support the collection and recycling of redundant tree guards. However, the size of that task only serves to underline that we should not add to this waste. There must be more accountability for the removal of plastic tree guards once they have served their purpose. Alternative (compostable) guards and methods of woodland creation are increasingly being used; they replace the polypropylene tubes that have a life span of centuries either in dumps, other plastic products or as micro plastics in the ocean and soil.
Major tree planting organisations such as the Woodland Trust have decided to cease using plastic when planting by the end of 2021. We support this sea change in our relationship to single use plastics, woodland creation and the natural world. We support the campaign to reduce single use plastic in our National Parks and the landscape.
In an unprecedented show of unity, and supported by the Campaign for National Parks, National Park Societies throughout England and Wales call upon the national park authorities to radically reduce the blight of plastic tree guards in our precious and protected landscapes. Further, we challenge National Park Authorities in England and Wales to make a similar pledge to that made by the Woodland Trust in 2021: to restrict the use of new plastic tubes for tree and hedge planting within the National Parks by the end of 2022.
Signed:
Friends of the Dales, Friends of the South Downs, Snowdonia Society, North York Moors Association, Exmoor Society, Brecon Beacons Park Society, Friends of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Friends of the New Forest, The Broads Society, Friends of the Peak District, Dartmoor Preservation Association and Campaign for National Parks
The Environment Act is the current version of the Environment Bill. This Bill should make provision about targets, plans and policies for improving the natural environment; for statements and reports about environmental protection; for the Office for Environmental Protection; about waste and resource efficiency; about air quality; for the recall of products that fail to meet environmental standards; about water; about nature and biodiversity; for conservation covenants; about the regulation of chemicals; and for connected purposes. This is a statement from our president, Maggie Jones, regarding the Environment Act.
Over the last few months, I have been busy with the government’s Environment Bill in the House of Lords.
Maggie Jones, President
It was undoubtedly a landmark Bill, with ambitions across many aspects of our environment. However, opportunities like this do not come along very often so the Lords, across the parties, worked very hard to improve it to make it a piece of legislation about which we could all be proud.
It was debated during preparations for COP26 and we were keen to emphasise that globally we face a biodiversity emergency as well as a climate emergency. In fact, recent reports have shown that the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with 41% of our species declining and 1 in 10 threatened with extinction.
So, one of our first achievements in the Bill was to introduce challenging measures to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2030.
This will be supplemented by the introduction of ‘biodiversity net gain’ as a condition for awarding planning permission locally. This would mean that new buildings would have to be offset by investment in alternative environmental projects. This is an exciting concept but still needs much more work – particularly on how it would relate to the government’s planning reforms.
Another issue which was hotly debated was the need to protect our ancient woodlands. These have been disappearing from our landscapes at an alarming rate. While the government’s promise to plant 30,000 hectares of new woodland each year is welcome, progress so far is slow; these new trees do not provide a comparable rate of carbon capture to that of existing established woodlands, so it was pleasing to get extra commitments to protect our ancient trees.
The Bill also included new commitments on waste recycling, creating more resource efficiency and cutting back on plastics. We were pleased to introduce new measures to charge manufacturers the full environmental impact costs of single-use items such as cups, plates and cutlery which create huge amounts of litter and marine pollution.
Air quality and tackling air pollution turned out to be a hugely controversial issue. We know that there are some 40,000 early deaths a year from the health effects of breathing in polluted air. We tried, unsuccessfully, to write into the Bill the introduction of World Health Organisation air quality standards by 2030. We will continue to campaign on this issue.
The challenge to prevent water companies discharging raw sewage into our rivers and seas was a major debate and it was fantastic to see the public campaign and support for the action we were proposing.
As a result, we made significant progress on controlling unauthorised discharges for the future, as well as requiring water companies to invest more resources into the outdated infrastructure.
These are just some of the many issues which we pursued over the months of debate.
However, we remain concerned that so much of the Bill has deadlines and targets in the distant future and we failed to win amendments to introduce interim targets which would have provided measurable data on progress at an earlier date.
Finally, a huge amount depends on the success of the Office of Environmental Protection which is a new organisation set up to replace the oversight of our environmental laws previously carried out by the EU.
We remain concerned that this new body is not sufficiently independent of government, nor does it have the same powers of redress.
So, overall, we were pleased with the progress we made in improving the Bill which has now become law, but only time will tell if the ambition of the Environment Act really will live up to its promise.
Maggie Jones
President, Friends of the South Downs, and Member of the House of Lords
Within weeks of our ‘South Downs Schools Living History Project’ starting in January 2020, we were hit by Covid and the first lockdown. Given that the focus of this project was for primary age children to interview the older people in their communities, this could have been a fatal blow, but through ingenuity and modern technology, we managed to overcome this huge and unexpected obstacle. We offered oral history training online and interviews were conducted online. It wasn’t the same, of course, but it allowed us to continue when other projects around the country were being suspended. Now, after two years, the South Downs Generations project launches the new heritage website.
In between the lockdowns, project manager, Chris Hare, was able to visit our partner schools, including Shipley, Bury, Findon, and Chesswood (in Worthing). He gave talks to the children about South Downs history, from the earliest times to the coming of the railways. In the summer months, Chris took parties of school children on field trips to search out the archaeology of the South Downs landscape, with visits to Cissbury Ring and Highdown. There were also heritage walks around the villages where our partner schools are based, as Chris joined local teachers and their pupils in exploring the rich heritage to be found in our downland parishes.
“It has been a fascinating experience,” Chris explains. “I have run many oral history projects over the last 20 years, but none so rewarding as this one. Together, these interviews provide the very ‘living history’ we were hoping to record with this project. To watch and listen to the interviews is to be taken back and led through time by knowledgeable and wise guides, from the 1930s to the present day.”
There are videos of all the interviews and all the school trips and talks on the new heritage website, www.southdownsgenerations.org.uk. We really hope that as many people as possible can watch the videos and then give us their feedback. The Friends of the South Downs wants the website to become a resource for all schools, and the public at large, throughout the South Downs and beyond.
Topics you can learn about from the new heritage website include –
Sussex Folklore, including articles about highwaymen and ‘rough music’
The changing face of the South Downs – farming and recreation
Archaeology on the Downs
Stories of gypsies and itinerants
Memories of country life, including folk singing
Memories from the Second World War, including plane crashes on the Downs
‘Then and now’ slideshows, contrasting the images of 100 years ago with those of today
Mystery photographs – can you tell what they are?
The prophetic writings of many Sussex writers, such as Richard Jefferies, and Hilaire Belloc
There are also articles that draw on information to be found in school logbooks, some of which date back to the mid-Victorian period. You can read about the harsh discipline, the illnesses and diseases that were still killing children and making others gravely ill, in an era only just outside of living memory.
From our research, it would appear that winters really were colder in the past. The school log books often reveal how schools struggled to stay open following heavy falls of snow, and no winter was more harsh than the ‘dread snow tempest’ of January 1881. Several of our interviewees recall the bitterly cold winters of 1947 and 1963.
There really is so much to watch, listen, and read about on the website. Please go and have a look now, you will be pleased you did and please don’t forget to give us your feedback!
Normally, across Great Britain, from mid-November until Twelfth Night, you might be lucky enough to witness the performance of The English Christmas Mummer’s Play. “What is a Mummer?” you ask. Glynn Jones is going to give us “one man’s view”!
What I am about to share with you is “one man’s view” on the tradition of The English Christmas Mummer’s Play. This is my opinion, not a thoroughly researched thesis. I am not an academic or a scholar but I have been performing in Mummers’ plays for over twenty years and am currently the Captain of Sompting Tipteers. “What I do – I do plainly before your face and if you can’t believe that – it’s a very hard case”.
The following is a mixture of recorded history and plausible conjecture. I am going to give you some of the background to Mumming as I understand it and introduce you to the play that Sompting Tipteers perform.
What is a “Mummer”?
Dating from the Mediaeval period, a Mummer is one who delivers a masked or disguised performance also known as Guisers or Rhymers, Pace-Eggers, Soulers, Galoshins and in Kent and Sussex-Tipteerers. The name, perhaps, came from the Greek word “Mommo”, meaning a mask, the wearing of which became popular at royal functions in the fourteenth century, the practice of such being termed as “Momerie”. A group of Mummers or Tipteerers is now known as a “Side” or “Team” and it is usually led and (loosely) organised by its Captain.
The Plays as we now know them
The plays performed today are mostly Hero Combat Tales – depicting battles between good and evil – light and darkness – life and death; they may have differing story lines and characters but the format is broadly similar. Traditionally, an all-male cast even for female characters. An heroic or villainous figure enters and grandly announces himself – he makes a boast about his prowess – this leads to a fight – one of the protagonists falls wounded or dead – the wounded man is then resurrected promptly by Father Christmas or by a doctor figure who makes much fuss about his skills and his fee. The actors divide into the “Principle” parts and the “Fancy” or smaller parts. A study of scripts gives the impression that Fancy parts were made up and added at will to give opportunities for others to take part and share the spoils. The Hero-Combat tradition with its boasts, battles and rebirth is represented in many cultures throughout the world, for instance, Katha Kali dancers in Kerela, southern India, perform a very similar tale in their travels around the rural villages.
There are three main theories regarding the origins of our plays.
Prehistoric Ritual. Many say that Mumming, like Morris Dancing is not Folk entertainment but a survival of pre-Christian ritual activity. For these purposes we will define “ritual” as a ceremony carried out by a Shaman and/or his/her acolytes to bring about a desired outcome.
Three witches chanting Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble around a steaming cauldron is one example, aboriginal people dancing to bring the approval of their gods in a forthcoming hunt or battle is another. Broadly we would describe pre-historic activities like these as pagan and as such unacceptable to the Christian Church.
Mediaeval Period – The Dark Ages As the name suggests we have very poor records of life in this period. There are tantalising references to mummers from the mediaeval period but no surviving evidence of the nature of the performances other than the idea that they involved disguise and were intended to educate or entertain. It is therefore unsafe to assume that they were performing early versions of today’s hero–combat play or survivals of prehistoric rituals. It is reasonably certain that Mummers had no connection with the Mystery Plays of that period
Mid to Late Eighteenth Century In the late 17th to Early 18th century European Commedia dell’arte spread from mainland Europe to England, it was an important milestone in the development of theatre as we know it and a source of inspiration for several genres including Pantomime and Punch and Judy. Said to be the first entirely professional form of theatre often performed in the open (Street Theatre) and funded by passing the hat. Commedia is a very physical type of theatre that uses dance, music, the slapstick, tumbling, acrobatics and buffoonery. The plays were based on a selection of Stock Characters, easily recognisable “Types” who the public loved to ridicule. One of these was El Dottore who represented a (supposedly) learned man but not necessarily a man of medicine. It would appear that disdain for “Experts” by the less well educated has a long history.
It is generally accepted that this was a major influence on the Mummers’ Play as we know it today. This type of theatre is likely to have been seen or heard about by common working people and the ideas and the style may have been adopted to put on their own entertainments.
Later Developments Christmas was a lean time for many agricultural workers. There was little employment at that time of the year and not much to celebrate. It is suggested that the poorer members of the parish would put on an entertainment for those with something to spare. The plays would typically be performed at the grand private houses, the pubs and inns around the village, hence Father Christmas’s common opening line – “In comes I Old Father Christmas, am I welcome or am I not?” The players would be rewarded with a drink, something to eat or a few coins, all of which helped Christmas cheer. These folk would not have access to expensive theatrical make up and the easiest way for them to transform their appearance was to use soot or burnt cork. It is unfortunate that this has more recently been interpreted as “Blacking Up” or “Cultural Appropriation” and is now officially frowned upon when it certainly wasn’t the original intention.
Most rural villages in the South would have had their own play which was part of oral tradition; many of the players would have been illiterate and written scripts would be of little use. This has led to “mission creep” with ideas, lines and characters changing through time and from village to village. Adjoining villages would have very similar plays but the small differences would accumulate with distance and a play on the other side of the county would be recognisable but very different. Characters can change sides from good to evil and their lines become swapped around. The various elements of the play may stem from several sources, though these are hard to pin down.
Many of the people who the play had been handed down to had been killed in WW1, but a renewed interest in folk customs occurred and R.J. Sharp headed the revival in Sussex, forming the Boxgrove Tipteerers in 1927. Mr. Sharp first saw the play, revived by a Mr. Foard, when he was living in East Preston. Mr. Foard learned the play when he was a boy. Our Play
The play, currently, performed by Sompting Tipteers is not the Sompting Play. The Sompting play is said to have been recorded by a Mrs Pullenberry of Sompting in the late 1800s. The script survives but, for reasons unknown to us, we in fact perform the, very similar, Steyning Play. This is yet another mumming mystery.
Would you like to go strolling with the Romans, along the road from Noviomagnus to Londinium? Stane Street, the Roman road that ran from Chichester (Noviomagnus) to London, was originally up to ten metres wide. Much of it is buried under modern roads following the same route. The exact date of construction is uncertain; however, on the basis of archaeological finds, it was in use by 70AD.
Stane Street photo by Judy Robinson
Stane Street shows that Roman roads were not always as straight as we used to believe. A straight line alignment from London Bridge to Chichester would have required steep crossings of the North Downs, Greensand Ridge and South Downs and so after the first section, the road was designed to exploit a natural gap in the North Downs cut by the River Mole and to pass to the east of the high ground of Leith Hill, before following flatter land in the River Arun valley to Pulborough. Although at no point does the road lie more than 6 miles from the direct line.
The Stroll
There is something special about walking along a route that was constructed by Roman soldiers so long ago. Along the way you get a great view of the Channel on the horizon, which seems to be remarkably close and at one point the Roman road cuts through an earlier, prehistoric linear earthwork . The path descends into woodland and at the lowest point can be quite muddy until you start uphill again through the trees. Its a moderate stroll but if you would like to extend it, the route connects to both the Monarch’s Way and the South Downs Way.
Bignor is also the location of a Roman Villa of domestic proportions where you can really get the feel of how people lived. There are some good mosaics, a bath house and an example of a hypocaust (underfloor heating system). The site was discovered by George Tupper in 1811 when he uncovered the Summer dining room water basin after striking it with his plough.
Today the Villa is still managed by the Tupper family under the control of Trustees. It is open in the spring/summer months and has a tea room. (check website for 2021 opening times). It well worth a visit and needs support, as it is an ongoing battle to preserve the site from the elements and damp etc. You can see why the wealthy family who built it, chose the location, as it stands in a beautiful valley. Nowadays there is a vineyard right next door and as it is thought that the Romans introduced wine making into Britain, that seems very fitting.
What did the Romans ever do for us? Take a trip to this area and see for yourself.
We are deeply saddened to learn that our former trustee, Planning & Conservation Committee Chair and friend David Coldwell has passed after a long illness. He will be truly missed. ... See MoreSee Less
How can anyone resist taking photos of a #fingerpost? On a walk of about 16 miles, we get to see quite a few. These are along the #SerpentTrail in the #SouthDownsNationalPark
#fingerpostfriday
