WINTER 2016/17 EASTFOLK CHRONICLE Eastfolk Chronicle

WINTER 2016 NO.6 FREE OF CHARGE FOR ALL FOLKS EAST A CRAZE FOR CRIME

WINTER FEAST Tales of Squit by Hugh Briss

As the nights draw in we turn to the various historic Ronald ‘Ronnie’ and Reginald ‘Reggie’ Kray playing the part of the fabled Eastfolk Countywide ceremonies that celebrate By our undercover reporter Detective Dinsdale Twins in the film ‘ Spandau Ballet’s Wishlist’ (1990) the dimming of the day and the waterlogging of the Superintention John ‘Jack’ Kerrison fields. Quite where these events came from, when they were started are lost in the mists of time, many The East End of London in the 1950s and 60s was a themselves in Hadleigh. They were billeted with a Mrs lay claim to Dwile Flonking’s origins, so much so that poor, predominately white working class area of the Styles at East House in George Street. rival sets of rules have sprung up (The Dwile League capital where families lived cheek by jowl in run-down and Flonking Union) and those lucky enough to be cramped housing. It was ruled by criminal gangs like sober may have spotted the Yanny Mac Original The Firm, led by the notorious twins, Reggie and Dwile Flonking Re-enactment (Y.M.O.D.F.R.) at Ronnie Kray who were involved in armed robberies, the recent Folk East Festival using members of the arson, protection rackets and assaults, with a top- Sealed Bartowel sporting period-correct dungarees dressing of extreme violence. It seems ironic that and feathers in the hat all named ‘Macaroni’. This was these two vicious killers, who ran organised crime in followed by the ever-popular Conker Championship London also had had a soft spot for Suffolk, Eastfolk held over 5 days at the Geldeston Locks Inn. Based and its beautiful bucolic countryside. on the Noman Trial-By-Wrist execution imported by The two brothers were born in Hoxton in 1933 to William The Conkerer in the mid 11th Century, the Violet and Charles Kray (Sr.) an itinerant scrap gold Hold on Reggie, there’s a snooping photographer, hand me your current version, though historically correct is now dealer, who was frequently absent from home as he catty nah! played throughout the land by school-children intent plied his trade around the country. The family, which on doing some damage to their opponents arms and included the twins’ older brother Charlie (Jr.) moved The young Krays embraced country life, busying wrists which is why steel gauntlets, chain mail and eye to 178 Vallance Road, Bethnal Green in 1938. Their themselves in the usual schoolboy pursuits such as protection is now insisted upon in order for a gaming father Charles was conscripted into the Army at the ritual bullying, scrapping and scrumping. Come license to be granted. beginning of the Second World War but decided it later life, Ronnie, whilst interviewed in Broadmoor Come early December the Rumburgh-based Old was not agreeable to him and went on the run, making Hospital for the Criminally Insane, recalled fondly Glory Molly Dancers and Musicians take to the streets sporadic reappearances but leaving their doting how he and his brothers and friends had tobogganed again, dancing a heavy step with faces disguised by mother to bring the children up alone. Frequent on Constitution Hill, on the Rushbrooke Estate, blackening with burnt cork, the woman musicians are raids by the police looking for him, at all hours, owned by the Rothschilds on the edge of Hadleigh. to be found playing instruments concealed behind any instilled a dislike for the forces of law and order from Photographs from the time with their new schoolmates available shrubbery. Money is demanded with Menaces an early age. depict a group of ordinary schoolboys, with no inkling by The Box Man who has an advantage in as much as of what the twins were to become. Brother Charlie he is disguised by the black face paint, whereas the initially found employment in a fish and chip shop in reluctant audience member is not and if he or she fails Scarper Hadleigh and later as a tea boy at a mattress factory. to donate they can expect their front lawn to be nicely When the Luftwaffe made its intent clear during He and his mother Violet did not share the twins love ploughed up later that dark night. Be sure to witness nightly bombing raids many children were evacuated of the Suffolk countryside, she hankered for her home the clash between old Glory and Northampton’s own to the safety of rural areas and it was at this time, and family in the East End. Charlie recalled later Witchmen who will take it upon themselves to raid in 1940, that the young Reggie and Ronnie along that the twins, who were registered in a local school, Continues on page 3. with elder brother Charlie and mother Violet found Continues on page 2.

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A CRAZE FOR CRIME continued upmarket nightclubs in the West End, hobnobbing would have been happy to stay in the countryside. In with the likes of George Raft, Judy Garland, Diana spite of their protests and with great reluctance the Dors, Barbara Windsor, Rocky Marciano and Frank Eastfolk boys moved back to Vallance Road. As they entered Sinatra. In their Suffolk local they certainly displayed their teens the twins began to box, encouraged by none of the traits and behaviour which had made their grandfather, “Cannonball” Lee, a former fighter. them the most feared gangsters in the country. On Chronicle Ronnie was a very talented amateur and was fearless, the contrary they lived the life of country squires, (not to be confused with War Cry magazine) while Reggie was regarded as having the potential to going on antique-buying trips, involving themselves become a professional. in charitable works in the community and giving Crowd Copyright. After school, the twins began their National Service but donkey rides to local children as well as buying them Established some time ago and registered with they found it almost impossible to accept discipline, ice creams. The past two activities may bear some re- all Fish and Chip outlets as potential spending much of their time in the Glasshouse Army visiting and scrutiny today. wrapping paper Prison. After the compulsory two years, Reggie and Ronnie moved back to Vallance Road and embarked Winter 2016/2017 Issue No. 6 on a career of crime. Using violence and intimidation Editor: Cally at Antar ([email protected]) they took over a number of night clubs, ran protection or (cally@hyreujfbcyehhjchdw if sending rackets, and rid lorries of their cargo of cigarettes. They complaints) were effectively untouchable by the police as witnesses were too afraid to testify. Ronnie was particularly Advertising Manager: Ruth Crome feared because of his extreme violence and instability, ([email protected]) he had been diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic just Hot metal setting: Nik Rose to add to the glamour of it all. In 1966, Ronnie Kray (www.nikrose.co.uk) went to the Blind Beggar pub in Bethnal Green and shot fellow criminal George Cornell dead because it Printed by Sharman and Company was believed he had killed a cousin of the twins. A year www.sharmanandco.co.uk 01 733 424 949 later, egged on by Ronnie, Reggie stabbed a fellow All material contained remains laughingly criminal, Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie to death in a vicious copyright 2016/17 by The Eastfolk Chronicle attack. McVitie had taken money from the twins for a contract killing he did not carry out. Foolishly he had who accepts very little responsibility for matters Tom Driberg and Lord Boothby enjoy cocktails arising or marriages ending from any of the kept the money and also made detrimental comments contents herein, heretofore and hereabouts. about them. Accurate accounts of these events are to Any similarity to International Times, The be found in the infamous Dinsdale sketches of Flying Cock Tales Waveney Clarion, Country Bizarre or Caught Circus:- M. Python. By 1968 the Kray’s fortunes were changing as the By the River is purely aspirational on our part. While secure in the knowledge that there would be no new head of the Flying Squad Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read For further details please ask for further details. witnesses the Krays decided to hide out for a while and made it his priority to ensure their reign of terror headed to Suffolk. They holed up at Gedding Hall, ended. For many years they had seemed untouchable www.eastfolkchronicle.co.uk owned by Geoffrey Allen, a criminal known as the and their criminal operations had been carried out Editorial address: The Old Printworks, ‘Godfather’ who was a friend of the twins. Only two with impunity. No-one who witnessed their crimes Marlinspike Hall, Walpole, Halesworth, weeks after the murder he allowed the twins to borrow would come forward with evidence. Homosexuality Eastfolk, IP19 9AR, Europe. the hall for a day to meet Frank Taylor, a famous film was illegal in those days (now ‘pardoned’ in 2016 as producer, who had produced The Misfits, starring if it were ever a crime) Ronnie Kray’s association with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. Taylor wanted to members of the Establishment such as Tory peer Lord discuss the possibility of making a biographical film Boothby, a bisexual, and Labour MP Tom Driberg, about the twins’ life of crime. They felt that kidding a homosexual, served to protect them further. A him into believing that they owned the hall and lived newspaper story linking Ronnie and Boothby in a the life of country squires would make them more homosexual scandal was buried after Boothby sued appealing to him. It has been suggested that McVitie’s the paper and won £40,000 damages, allegedly with murder was also a ploy to make them appear more Government support. It has often been claimed that tasteful for a career in film. the two politicians as well as other prominent figures Nine years after selling the hall to Rolling Stone Bill had taken part in parties at a house in Tattingstone Wyman, Geoffrey Allen was jailed for an insurance owned by the twins and that Ronnie Kray had Folk East Patrons: The Young’Uns swindle. He had claimed £300,000 for fires at Briggate provided the nibbles and young men. On 16th January Mill near North Walsham in Norfolk and Sholtgrove 1967 farm worker Fred Burggy found two suitcases at Hall near Saffron Walden in Essex. Allegations that he General Enquiries: [email protected] the edge of a field he was ploughing on Bentley Lane caused the Great Treacle Mine fire of 1973 in Eastfolk’s Tattingstone. Inside them were the dismembered body Production and planning by John Marshall Iken Teanertirner were never proved. After his death of 17 year old Bernard Oliver from Muswell Hill, who Potter: [email protected] Allen was buried in St Mary’s church in Gedding, had been sexually assaulted and murdered. The murder Marketing and fortholding by Becky Marshall where his tombstone bears the inscription ‘Godfather’. remains unsolved. Potter: [email protected] The ‘Quiet One’ Wyman still lives at Gedding Hall. By 1968 the Krays’ fortunes were changing as the new Whether or not the Kray’s self-imposed stay renewed head of the Flying Squad, Detective Superintendent Pubic Relations Jane Brace their affection for the county is not known but in Nipper Read, made the positioning of the twins [email protected] 1967 they bought a substantial house in the village behind bars his priority. The police had an informant Coverage of Folk East by our 2017 of Bildeston for £11,000 and set about renovating it. inside the Firm and, acting on information, were able Media partners It is a yellow washed mansion called The Brooks and to arrest the three Kray brothers and put them on is just behind the High Street. In the same street is a remand. Suddenly the wall of silence began to crumble BBC RADIO SUFFOLK pink washed cottage near the Post Office which they and people came forward to give evidence against www.bbc.co.uk/radiosuffolk purchased for their parents. The twins were popular them. They were convicted of the two murders in 1969 GRAPEVINE MAGAZINE members of the local community, drinking in both the and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum www.grapevinelive.co.uk Red Lion and the Crown. While some villagers were term of 30 years. aware of their notoriety and celebrity status in London The garden at The Brooks and the lake at Gedding others had no idea who they really were: owners of Hall were searched for McVitie’s body but it was never

Eastfolk NOV16.indd 2 21/11/2016 17:40 WINTER 2016/17 EASTFOLK CHRONICLE THREE WINTER FEAST Continued from front cover. Eastfolk for a nights dancing on December 3rd. (see broadsheet in this issue).

The Ceremony Of The Cutting Bread Though many a youngster may call their weekly pay packet full of ‘bread’ the term stretches far back to various ceremonies, not least the night of the Cutting Bread held in Middleton often on boxing day where a razor-sharp ‘wit’ (axe) is taken to a ‘loaf ’ (lover) which symbolizes the ancient act where the women of the town descended onto the local ale-houses to stop their husbands spending any gotten-gains (hence ‘bread’) behind the bar. Eggseptional Egg Pacing is yet another pastime out of which we can draw such a hilarious sub-heading. Local eggs THE OLD YEW are sourced and placed in a line on the floor of any village hall and with shouts-a-plenty they are ‘egged on’ along the course, the winning egg is declared HEART BOAR Leonard Read in uniform Head Egg (egghead) and is kept over for a year found (Bill Wyman is still sweeping his lawns with until the next championship. The rest make for fine By Ash Dai Bach metal detectors) Both properties in Bildeston were umlauts in Göbbles, the nearby 1940s themed sold because, as Ronnie Kray later said, “we didn’t have German Restaurant. Life in Eastfolk is suitably lubricated in the many fine any more use for them”. So ended the Kray connection pubs to be found tucked away in small villages and with Suffolk – but not quite Norfolk. the many town high streets. On the one hand you can Reggie Kray was eventually downgraded to a Category The Ballad Of Nick Clogg hunt for the Sweffling White Horse (open Fridays to C prisoner and transferred to Wayland Prison near Predating Suffolk’s Step-Dancing by some 200 Mondays evenings only) or you can try and get to the Watton. It was there that he was diagnosed with years, the Eastfolk Clog Dance came across from bar at the Wetherornots Chain of pubs in Bally Dowse. terminal bladder cancer and on 26th August 2000 Holland, with Dutch Bargees who traded freely up One gem that needs a visit is the Old Yew Heart Boar Home Secretary Jack ‘The Hat’ Straw freed him and down the Eastfolk coast. Some of them settled in Bad-Weathersettin. The pub is famous for the tap on compassionate grounds. He was transferred to in the Eastfolk coastal town of Ballydowse where room (but they also allow step dancing) and their the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and on 22nd the rhythmic patter of their wooden shoes on the range of beers are all culled from the nearby Green September was discharged and moved into the Town cobbled streets inspired local musicians to invent Jack Brewery in Lowerselfesteem. Green Jack are an House Hotel on Thorpe Road in Norwich, where he a whole new time signature to which they could multi-awarding winning traditional real ale brewery died on the 1st October 2000. So endeth the final dance. Famous amongst these were ex-liberal Nick who were founded in 2003 by Timothy Dunford. Kray connection with our region, and today the new Clogg celebrated today in the ‘Where Are They From humble beginnings Green Jack have now grown criminals rob the innocent with the click of a mouse Now File’ who objected to the clatter and was into one of the largest real ale breweries in Eastfolk. rather than a snooker ball in a sock. said to be driven to the depths of Diss Pier. At this point we are reminded of a local Nonsense Rhyme Green Jack Brewing Co. moved into a brand new sung by the fishwives in Ballydowse to which the purpose-built brewery in 2009, enabling Green Jack clog dancers dance, it goes like this: to produce significantly improved volumes of their award-winning real ales. There was an old woman from Wymondham Green Jack now deliver beers both nationwide and Who caught ‘em and killed ‘em and Skymondham globally and also sell online via a Real Ale Shop. Green And to make doubly sure Jack beers are known for their hoppy character, they They should bite her no more produce beers of their own design along with their own She salted and pickled and tymondam contemporary take on traditional English beer styles, such as Waxwing, Orange Wheat Beer, Trawlerboys Best Bitter, Baltic Trader and Ripper, which was voted Supreme Champion Winter Beer in the UK in 2006. If you’re lucky you may get a taste of the legendary Ploughboys Ale, served mainly in pubs such as The Old Yew Heart Bore when Old Glory Molly Dancers and Musicians dance out there in winter, plus the famous Green Jackalope ale available at the Folk East Festival.

“Green Jack Ales are well-known for their hoppy Beccles Skatepark Community are looking to character. Brewed with locally malted wheat and barley, raise funds to build a new, permanent and safer traditional English cone hops are blended with hops from concrete skatepark. If you’d like to participate in the New World in generous proportions to give our beers making a donation, please get in touch. a robust hop character.” www.becclesskate.co.uk Time to pop along to the greenjackshop.co.uk if you can’t find the pub mentioned above!

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It contains roughly the same heat energy as diesel fuel. It is not advisable to drink it; it is related to the laxative paraffin wax and regular ingestion can lead to A FESTIVAL OF LIGHT respiratory diseases (nevertheless it is widely used by circus fire-breathing acts). Prolonged exposure to high outhouse. Such lamps are also still in use in connection concentrations of vapour may result in headaches. In with wonderful creations of yesteryear that don’t wear this respect lamp oil is far superior to paraffin as it is out if you look after them: wooden boats and elderly almost odourless when burnt. However ventilation is bicycles. Some modern garden lamps and ‘oil candles’ always required when used indoors to avoid the build- also run on lamp oil. up of carbon monoxide. The generic term ‘paraffin lamp’ suggest the use of paraffin as fuel, but in fact these devices work better, Where can you find it? give more light, smoke less and generate less odour if Most good hardware shops and boat chandlers will sell run on lamp oil. It was originally distilled from coal - lamp oil in plastic litre bottles for around £4, usually an expensive process - but in the 19th century began labelled ‘Clear Lamp Oil’. (EU regulations outlawed to be distilled from crude oil. Growing consumption coloured oil in 1999. The relevant British standard is of lamp oil was the original driver of the oil industry; BSS 2869C1. ) There are various brands – Bird Brand, before its widespread availability lamps of all kinds had Barretine, Lumea, etc – and larger quantities up to run on whale oil and the emergence of refined lamp 25 litres can be found. Even in bulk the price doesn’t oil was the chief reason for the worldwide decline in come down much below £2.50 a litre. The author Mr de Selby demonstrates an oil lamp in whaling in the 1870s. The daily world consumption of broad daylight kerosene and its near relatives is over a million barrels Why bother? Our recent article concerning Pine Tar a day; its use is still widespread in less-developed Whether your garden shed isn’t wired for electric originated from the writer spending an countries for cooking and lighting. illumination, you want a little extra light round the enjoyable 6 minutes in the shed of Mr De In the USA paraffin is known as kerosene; it’s the bonfire or your yacht needs an anchor light that won’t Selby who promptly put a tub of the stuff on stuff that jet aeroplanes run on and indeed if you have flatten the ship’s batteries, you can’t beat a hurricane his heater so to warm the nasal passages of access to a source your oil lamps will run quite happily lamp for a gentle, trouble-free, atmospheric light all within. The response to this article was a on Jet A-1. It’s cheaper, but they’ll go much better on source. Chinese-made hurricane lamps can be found clamour for more plus three insurance claims lamp oil which is refined to provide light rather than everywhere, particularly in ‘antique’ emporiums and for burned-out sheds from various Insurance heat energy. Although, as with the electric light bulb, garden centres, often regarded as ornaments; it may Companies. Undeterred we bring you chapter you don’t usually get one without some of the other. not even occur to the new owner that it can be used two in which Mr. De Selby describes the to provide light. Better made German ‘Feuerhand’ delights of a glowing oil lamp in these darkest Is it safe? hurricane lamps are surprisingly cheap, at around of nights. Its flash point is around 150 degrees F. In practice £11, from army-surplus type shops. It’s rare for a this means that if you drop a lighted match into a paraffin light with a decent wick (also available from What is lamp oil? container of lamp oil it will not ignite. It needs to be good hardware stores), clean fuel and clean glass not It’s the correct fuel for what are commonly known heated to burn, a function taken care of by the wick to work, even if it hasn’t been used for 50 years. Old as paraffin lamps, widely used in this country until in a lamp and by the tortuous path of the fuel to the carriage lamps, bicycle lamps and table lamps, often the coming of mains electricity - not that long ago burner jet in primus stoves and old-school blowlamps with a green glass shade, can often be found in bric- in some parts of rural Suffolk. Many houses will still that run on paraffin. In very cold climates additives a-brac shops; but beware, the latter may be a modern have a hurricane lamp rusting away in a cupboard or like benzene are added to make it easier to ignite. Chinese-made ‘retro’ copy with electric innards. If you are a fan of elderly bicycles, a pair of flickering oil lamps provides perfect period illumination, preferably backed with a modern high-power LED for safety. A note to those who care … tucked up in your bunk reading a novel by HE Bates, PG Wodehouse or WE Johns, a snifter of the hard stuff to hand, as the mellow amber light of your oil illumination dances across the varnished mahogany panelling and the sound of water lapping against the hull begins to lull you to sleep, you may just have located a rare heaven on earth. And, come the end of the world, you will still have light. ‘de Selby’

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it and immediately uploaded it to my Faecebook, well why not? Wifi connection had been paid for on entry MY WORD! GASTROREVUE (£5.00 for a good 15 minutes) so I may as well use it! Addenda: The service was nicely surly and the table had to be Last issue’s Bullshit Bingo item bought in many a with Toby and Tarquin cleared (the enormous plates took up most of it) and response from all over the country. It seems that the I ordered a reasonable warm pint of the local ale (Ind aforelisted sayings have many cousins used up and No. 3 The Lie-Inn Bar And Kitchen down the land in Marketing Meetings, in County Coope Double Diamond) which was served à-la-table Council ‘Cabinets’ and often by aspiring Apprentices Muttrins-Under-Breth, Eastfolk by the Sommelier from original new-old-stock 1972 applying for a shot on that nice Mr Alan Sugarbeet’s bottles, well worth the premium price - the sweet show on the telly. nose of the ale took me back to my fighting days on Yarmouth docks. So far contributed are the following: The Suite (not sweet, you understand) followed, Leverage (meaning forcing) ingeniously served on heated Pammetts which, we Legacy (something Mr Blair longed for) were told, used to be the floor-surface of the 15th Eco-System (system) Century kitchen. They were deemed too dangerous to In the loop (count me in) use for anything other than this new re-purpose, but Circle back to me (please reply) the sheer historic nature of the food became apparent Unpack a discussion (to discuss) when I found that my partner’s crème caramel had Props (support) been toasted using the timber from the ‘Rood Screen’ Low hanging fruit (easy pickings) (whatever that is!) that separated the kitchen from us Heavy Lifting (the difficult stuff ) diners before the grand re-design of the pub. That is GUYS! (includes women) Learn these by heart, shave your head to hide your encroaching hair-loss, buy an pure vintage history on your custard, I say, wonderful expensive ill-fitting blue suit, wear brown shoes, leave attention to detail. the tie at home, use the above expressions and watch Because the proprietors knew we were coming to do the money monetize. this review the bill was suitably reduced, not so much Q: How do you comfort a grammar fanatic? to jeopardise impartiality, but I told them (after my The Lie Inn shown here in a sorry state last year before renovation A: They’re Their There 15th Double Diamond – it was THAT good) that a And remember: it’s impossible to explains puns to good review was bound to follow whatever the case. Scathing Trip Advisor reviews and notoriety caused kleptomaniacs, as they take things literally. That made the bill all the more reasonable, £175 per me to want to ‘check out’ this recently re-opened person INCLUDING the whine, but excluding hostelry. Locals will have known the building as ‘The service and the AIZ tax. Falcon’ (odd name!) pub, indeed the only pub left On leaving after such a hearty repast I asked just what CRASSIFIEDS in this tiny village after ‘The Beast Cheating” closed that tax was for, and the kindly Monsieur Patron and became a complex of affordably-priced luxury FOR SALE replied that any such hostel built to the east of the loft-style apartments. The approach was encouraging; TOP TRUMPS Card Game (Latest edition) complete set, A12 was duty-bound to add a 30% duty due to the unused but prone to cliché and over-simplistic solutions. Would tasteful shades of Farreau and Ballsupp grey paint prestige nature of the location. Fair enough! I said as accept donation to charity for removal from our house. Needs coated the walls outside, the old pub sign replaced my partner pulled up in his brand new gleaming white large red-neck pickup to carry off. BOX 397 by an all-lower-case Helvetica sign that is bound to Evoque (boasting that fine personalized number plate attract architects and web-designers alike. TRUMP-ETTE (In the key of D) Well used brass instrument I bought for his 40th birthday: The interior has been gutted at vast expense, there’s no suitable for marching bands and triumphant ceremonies. TW 4T well, his initials being TW one just has to! Clarion Calls and Calls To Arms easily played, this is a small- longer the need for a bar and the lounge is now filled What fun. fingered version with the common hairless bell-end BOX 753 with rustic wooden tables torn out of local scullerys with odd-matching chairs. The kitchen is in full view, whilst you sit waiting, and the food (nosh, as they call it) is served on genuine Suffolk roof pantiles (nice touch!) All of it is locally sauced from Hackney and Stoke Newington. My meal commenced with a beautiful cocktail the basis of which mixed the local stream water with fermented rosehips found in the nearby hedgerow (very green) and the starter was excellent: Porcelain Duck Con-feet with a white-wine whine sprinkling of Melamine Jus. It was fabulously undercooked, near raw, which really brought out the complex top- notes and so this just had to be followed by a robust Slow-Dragged Screaming Mutton Aghhast complete with Sinque-Matter Sauce, Distressed Potatoes, and Vegetable Compost: delicious! Soup of the moment? Well you had to ask because it seemed to change from moment-to-moment. My partner (on a diet – how boring!) settled for the 3-leaf salad, all three of which were artfully arranged on the plate, with a side order of chips that came in a small metal bucket! How they managed to fit all eight into this was a miracle to behold, so I took a snap of

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drifted back to “normal” teams, to be replaced by people attracted by our spectacle. It had an impact WITCH IS WHICH? on our style but for the better. After all, I believe that Those more or less observant of the various ritual dancers of old were common or garden folk and Folk East dance sides may have been terrified not members of the Royal Ballet Company! What you for just a moment by Northampton Hordes see now is about 20 years of devolution. The hats are invading the pitch bedecked in black and gold, wilder (we’ve lost the foliage), the rag waistcoats are carrying large sticks and wearing pheasantry now tattered (yes, there is a difference) and the team plumes in their battered top hats. These were has a positively aboriginal look...... Well - we like to none other than The Witchmen, pagan Morris think so! dancers of the great North Western frontier, We dance to a band of women musicians, and Jon the the borderlands of East Anglia, where the Iceni Drummer. Our band is regarded as hot, but don’t tell met the Mercian. Undaunted by their reign them this, or they’ll want paying. We rely on a good The Witchmen at Folk East 2015 (Photo by John Heald) of terror, they plan to return to these lands on percussion section led by a melodeon / concertina December 3rd, principally to perform on the and more venomous, so it was referred to as the night partnership, and a dance set of eight with marginal neutral ground of Geldeston, at the Locks Inn, of the long knives where everyone let rip. Things ability to know left from right and count to four. It on land neither Norfolk nor Suffolk, land-locked became very heavy It culminated in a meeting at my seems to work fine. During our years we’ve had many on the Waveney and free from local government house when several members proposed a new team to an extrovert join, from a giant trombonist who always controls. dance the Border Morris - a vague tradition from the got lost and legless, to an old git that drank rocket Here we hand Mike O’Feaun over to their chieftain, Welsh Border Counties. “Border - Don’t you mean fuel at teatime - half a tumbler of gin topped up with the unlikely named Terry (real name Lord Dix) to boring?”. I’d seen the border danced by Cotswold Vermouth plus an olive - three glasses per session. explain: teams - the word ‘fairies’ springs to mind. But I also We’ve been called the Motorhead of Morris, the The Witchmen began life in the early eighties, started saw possibilities; at least it meant severing my ties Business, awesome, sex on legs (that still makes me by a couple of blokes fed up with the state of the whilst remaining in the dance. chuckle - and ache), mad parrots and the Guinness local morris teams, their politicking, their attitudes We wanted more from a performance instead of Fairies. We seem to attract tags wherever we go. We and the general over abundance of village fetes that going through the motions each time. We wanted were called “ungodly!” in the local rag, by the Wisbech filled our dancing year. At this time women were something that sparked. And so the Witchmen were Jehovah’s, forty-eight hours before we’d arrived there - not encouraged to participate in the noble art of the born - dancing traditional border dances plus a few our reputation no doubt having winged its way to the Morris, in fact they were vigorously discouraged, even of my self-penned ones. Apart from Morris Ring Fens by carrier owl. These comments and others may from playing the music! This didn’t stop them at all teams that danced border as a party piece, to show appear on our next collectors’ edition tee shirt. Then and a good proportion of the male sides eventually that they could, there were only five border teams again, they may not. accepted them. The rest just huffed and puffed, and in existence and these were restricted to Shropshire It’s been a long haul. We’re still based at Isham Village. still do to this very day. and Worcestershire. So it seemed pretty unusual to Our people are no longer ‘local’, only three couples are There was the usual cross-section of Morris teams our locals when we finally let rip! We started with immediate to the area. Other members come from in our fair county of Northamptonshire: several eight dancers who were technically very good. Alas Kent (a couple of Maenads - a team we do lots with), Northwest sides - Rose and Castle (men), Polyalbion and alack, these bods lacked the soul that would be Suffolk, Nott’s, Camb’s and even Yorkshire, so local and Maids of the Mill (women), a men’s rapper side at necessary in the coming years. My thoughts were to get events are a no-no, apart from the Lilacs pub in Isham. Kettering and a few men’s Cotswold sides. Of these, back to a more basic form of dance; border was ideal We are still on the look out for like-minded people to apart from Northampton Morris and the gentlemen for a start but we needed something more exciting. It join us. We try to dance at six to eight festivals a year. of Brackley, there were no other teams worthy of a took constant research and continual adjustment until So far we’ve succeeded and we’re still going strong. mention. After some time spent with Northampton, we arrived at the Witchmen you see today. Our tents are now longer and higher to accommodate I rose to the dizzy heights of Squire/Foreman, where Notation was pretty sparse in the eighties. Historians bad backs and some of us have resorted to campers my arduous instructionals and teaching ability soon considered border to be a degenerate form of the and caravans. Our late-night sessions are not as late as made them the leading lights in the county, a status Cotswold Morris tradition and not the separate and some and gin has replaced whisky. I expect it will be they kept for several years. earlier form that we now know it to be. But I did all I slippers and Horlicks presently. Unfortunately team politics and savage disagreements could to amass any details relevant. The name we chose caused me to withdraw, somewhat, and take a back came upon us by chance really, a passage in a book on seat. A.G.M.s occurred every year and became more old Northamptonshire, referred to a motley band of mummers or guisers who used to perform around the Cambridgeshire border in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The “Witchmen” seemed an ideal name, especially considering where we are now. Our top hats were decked with feathers and FLOWERS! They looked fine but I still look back at them with horror. I guess we were still learning. Black and amber rag waistcoats were chosen, amber socks, and then everything else was the blackest black. Black faces too to conceal our identities. Clothed in the Witches’ colours, we were an awesome sight to behold. We danced out for the first time in front of most of the local Northants sides, men’s and women’s by now, at a St. George’s Night do. Nervous? Not ‘arf! Our first dance was to the figures from the second dance. Confused? Yes so were we. But the night progressed and we settled down, then we began to realise just what we had unleashed upon our unsuspecting public. Needless to say, quite a few noses were put out of joint. After all, this wasn’t Morris, was it? The audience loved it, they were enthralled, especially the women. Was it our virile dancing, or was it the way we handled our sticks? Who knows, it just felt good. As we danced thru’ the years we gradually lost the Cotswold element and a lot of the original members

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in acoustic and classical guitar making. The program Abandoned Double Flute, but this may have just been consists of building guitars from both tropical in the resultant punishment. Though Demetri’s stand and non-tropical woods and assessing them for was empty much of the time (he takes his instrument performance and acceptance in a series of comparative seriously) we noticed how thorough his research was tests. This work is carried out by an international team as the Festival organisers positioned his stand right of 3 lutherie schools and 4 entrepreneurial luthiers, next to a suitable tree and local knife builder Ahren- working in co-operation with external experts (forest Paul Main held sharpening classes just next door. management experts, environmental organisations, universities, and other researchers). Together we aim to develop a knowledge centre surrounding the use of alternative non-tropical wood species in CRASSIFIEDS guitar making. If this research programme can demonstrate that WA N T E D locally grown sustainable non-tropical woods can be Sense And Sensibility (any edition) needed - all versions, any TOPICAL TROPICAL used as viable alternatives for the traditional tropical translations accepted, any condition, Urgently required to export to former colonies. Desperate need, BOX 399 woods used in guitar making, the effect could be more than just providing luthiers with a broader range FREE ADS WOOD of affordable tonewoods. Any move towards Terrier puppy - Free to a good home: a toddler still, ferocious sustainable local tonewoods could have important terrifying habits but easily tamed by beer and plane crashes. By V. Ola environmental benefits through reducing demand Known to run off as soon as his business is done, prone to for tropical rainforest woods, and by reducing simplistic tricks, loud offensive bark, fine guard dog or would suit pit fighting against any obsequious opponent, Not yet toilet Anyone who visited the recent Folk East Festival could transportation miles. trained and cannot handle cutlery - answers to the name of not but help spy the Instrumental gathering of tents, in More on this can be found by entering the marbled Nigel BOX 5443 which various musical instrument builders plied their halls of google, or going straight to leonardo-guitar- trade, with room to allow aspiring purchasers time to research.com field-test their particular steeds. Our eye was drawn to Luthier Adrian Lucas who teaches guitar-building at Newark and is also figurehead of the Leonardo Guitar GAY ABANDONMENT Research Project. Adrian explains: Many of the exotic Two stands further on we came across Demetri Port- tropical woods are now protected and their trade Au-kabinn the last remaining European Twinflaut restricted under the Convention of International builder whose life’s work centres around the re- Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). For the creation of an Abandoned Athenian Double-Flute luthier it means that these woods, which have been Once thought never to have existed, much research traditionally used in guitar making, are becoming rarer turned up the story that Apollo’s half-sister Athena, and ever more expensive. For those tropical woods still the goddess of wisdom, used her knowledge to available, care needs to be exercised to ensure that they develop the double-flute. While the instrument are from a legitimate source as, despite certification created beautiful music with little effort, Athena felt processes such as that of the Forest Stewardship she looked undignified when she played it. She gave Council (FSC), much of the available tropical wood it to the satyr Marsyas, who found the instrument is illegally harvested. captivating. Unfortunately, like Pan, Marsyas was Because of the decreasing availability and increasing foolish enough to challenge Apollo to a musical cost of tropical woods there is a need to find competition, not unlike the current local ‘battle of economically viable alternatives. Against this the bands’. Unlike Pan, Marsyas paid the price for background the LGR-Project started up a research his insolence. When Apollo won the contest, he tied program to study the possibilities of using species of Marsyas to a tree and skinned him alive. It is said that local non-tropical woods that are not normally used an unskilled player emits a terrifying scream from their

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