Penkhull Wassail 2025

“Here we come a-wassailing, among the leaves so green,


Here we come a-wandering, so fair to be seen,


Love and joy come to you, and to your wassail too,


May God bless you and send you a Happy New Year,


May God bless you and send you a Happy New Year”

January 2025 – We’re barely into the New Year, and with the Christmas decorations only packed away less than a fortnight ago, if you stick to the twelfth night rule, but for some, the time has come to cast their thoughts towards late August and September - and for a little eccentricity. For now, it is the time to go wassailing, and I ask you, is there a finer, more English way to start a New Year than to celebrate and encourage the waking of the apple trees from their gentle slumber and to wish for the spirits that live within them to bring forth a good harvest in those lazy, hazy summer months ahead ?

Wassailing is one of those wonderful English traditions that dates back hundreds of years to Anglo Saxon times, as that’s where the word ‘wassail’ originates, to a time when cider makers, then predominantly in what we now call the Home Counties, needed to ensure that they would have a good harvest. For this to happen they would need to appease the good spirits that dwelt within the orchards by offering bread and a healthy brew made from last year’s cider harvest - but they would also need to keep the bad spirits at bay and the best way of doing that would be to scare them away by creating a cacophony of noise by singing and dancing throughout the night, and for that to happen, cider, ale and any mulled wine left over from Christmastime would be blended together into a concoction, embellished with a healthy sprinkling of spices and served from a wassail bowl or goblet to encourage said scaremongering and, in turn, an element of frivolity and merriment in the process.

Tradition dictates that wassailing be done on twelfth night, but there are two of them. The 6th of January is the modern version, courtesy of the Gregorian calendar that we use today, but the wassailing celebration predates that by more than a thousand years, so many celebrate it on the original twelfth night or ‘Old Twelvey Night’, which means the 17th of the month.

History suggests that there were also two types of Wassailing, the first involved a group of revellers travelling from house to house, singing songs and bringing good luck and merriment to all those who gifted them money or food as a reward, for which they in turn were rewarded with a drink from the wassail bowl or goblet mentioned earlier. In time, this gradually evolved into what we now know as carol singing – who knew !

The other version, and the more common one, which is the one still celebrated to this day, involved farm workers and villagers from the surrounding areas visiting all the local orchards, where the owner, more often the Lord of the Manor, would greet them and offer a toast of ‘waes hael’ (be well or good health), to which the response would be ‘drink hael’ (drink well) and from there, the celebrations would begin, firstly by hanging toast, which had been soaked in the aromatic wassail beverage, on to the branches of the trees, as a way of tempting the spirits that lived within to awaken from their hibernation. In days gone by, this would be done by a Wassail King and Queen, but today the job is often done by children, who are lifted up into the boughs of the trees to hang their slice of toast as high as they can reach. From there, the revellers would sing and dance to the aforementioned cacophony of noise on to the next orchard, for the same to happen all over again.

In Staffordshire, this tradition has been kept alive for many years now by Domesday Morris, a ‘Border Morris side’ based in the village of Penkhull and on the 18th of January at the sound of five bells in the evening, the assembled Morris men and women, together with a very healthy gathering of locals duly made their way through the streets of the village, with torches held high.

Starting at the village hall, they made their way down Garden Street to Newcastle Lane, past Farm View and on to Meliden Way through to Jeremy Close. A band of minstrels, together with the wonderful Penkhull Brass and the Clay Chorus choir were all on good form performing many a merry tune as everyone continued their way down Trent Valley Road, on to Brisley Hill and the Bloody Ploughman Tree before heading back up Trent Valley Road to the Village Hall.

Once everyone was back safely, and the odd ‘comfort break dealt with, everyone made their way to the green at St. Thomas’ Church in the very heart of the village for a selection of wassail readings, music, song and the obligatory Morris dance or two for their delectation. In years gone by, this all took place in someone’s garden half way round the procession, in which there was a huge tree to hang the toast on. Today, Bruce, the Squire of the Domesday Morris, brings out a somewhat half-hearted affair in a bucket as its replacement, but it does the job all the same and complaints there were none. It was the same tree from last year by all accounts and here’s hoping that one day it’s permanently planted in a place where it can grow mightily and serve the Penkhull Wassail for generations to come. After some words of wisdom were spoken, it was blessed with ale, before the children were let loose to hang copious amounts of toast on its slender branches.

As a final act of tree blessing, Bruce led everyone in a wassail chorus before the Morris Dancers made their way around the various hostelries in the village, starting at the Marquis of Granby, then on to The Beehive, The Terrace and a final flourish at The Greyhound before heading back to the Village Hall where soup and bread was served to warm everyone up, such is the inclement weather on a cold night in January.

The last event of a most enjoyable evening was the ceilidh, again held in the Village Hall with The Shropshire Heroes and Baz Parkes performing, all with the intention of raising money for St Thomas’s including a raffle where someone won their own blessed fruit tree!

It’s a really enjoyable evening to behold and something to put in your diary for next year when the  Penkhull Wassail will more than likely return on the 10th, 17th or 24th of January at a rough guess, but you’re best to keep a beady eye on their Facebook page and Bruce will reveal all closer to the time.

You can find out more about the delightful Domesday Morris band of merry men and women, and even try your hand at dancing if you so wish, by clicking here…

You can find more images from the Penkhull Wassail in 2025 by clicking here…

Wassail ! ! !