Historic sports: Bull-baiting was a popular fair sport

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Today, wakes are annual fun events, often in aid of charity. But that was not always the case, as Carol Malkin discovered.

Tidza Guisers, a group of performers based on the traditional Guisering, who perform at Tideswell festivals

The bull ring at Eyam. The ring was used during bull-baiting at annual wakes week festivals

The bull ring and cross at Foolow, near Bakewell. the ring was used for bull-baiting during the village wakes

The sheep roast at Eyam. The village still has an annual sheep roast which were traditional held during wakes week

The old bull ring at Snitterton which was used for bull-baiting at wakes before it was outlawed in the early 19th century

MANY Derbyshire villagers still refer to their annual summer fete as the “wakes”, an organised week of events, competitions and sports that usually culminate in a carnival.

The original wake or “watch” was a night of solemn prayer. It was held on the anniversary of the death of the saint to which the parish church was dedicated or, failing that, the Sunday immediately afterwards.

The next day families would get together, have a feast and play games.

Later, villages decided to hold fairs at wakes and many applied for both weekly markets and a two or three-day fair on their saint’s feast day.

One of Derbyshire’s earliest granted market charters was for Hartington in 1203, which allowed villagers to have a regular Wednesday market and a three-day fair at the Feast of St Giles.

The week previous to wakes was a time for preparation. It involved cleaning the house right through, sometimes even giving it a whitewash.

Then, the entire family would be treated to new outfits. For children the moment of excitement was when the fair arrived. They couldn’t wait to spend their money on the coconut shies and hoop-la. In Hathersage they had Fair Day Friday with stalls that sold gingerbread, nuts, brandy snaps and a flat brown and cream humbug-type sweet called “Marry Me Quick”.

The fair at Staveley Feast used to be held on the recreation ground. In those days people paid to see freak shows featuring bearded ladies and two-headed calves. There was also a boxing booth where the local men could pitch themselves against the fairground lads to try to win £5.

Staveley’s modern day feast celebrations include re-enactments, charity fun runs, demonstrations by Whirling Dervishes and the funfair now held in the town centre.

Another fair within living memory belonged to Tim Ray. Every summer he’d travel around Derbyshire and set up at any village which was holding its wakes or well-dressings.

One of his regular stops would be opposite the Miner’s Standard at Winster. Children would squander their pocket money to try to win a penny whistle or a peashooter.

But Tim Ray’s fair was best known for a ride called the High Park Swingboats.

One of the biggest fairs in the county is the llkeston Charter Fair. When it was first granted by Henry III in 1252, it was held in August at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was moved to October in 1888 to amalgamate the wakes, statute (employee hiring) fair and end of harvest celebrations.

Entertainments and sideshows during the 19th century included illusion booths, theatres, waxworks, freak shows and a travelling zoo or “beast show” with snake-charmers and dancing bears.

By the 1890s there was also a set of steam-powered gallopers.

As well as the drinking, feasting and general revelry, villagers at wakes also held their own games and amusements. Gurning through a horse’s collar, tug-of-war, eating scalding hot puddings and racing naked through the streets, albeit daft, were harmless fun.

However, other events, although referred to as sports, were bloodthirsty and barbaric. For example, an early event was to hoist up a live goose on a piece of rope so that riders could gallop underneath it and try to pull its head off.

Baiting animals had been popular since medieval times and bull-baiting was the most common. The bull would usually be fired up by having pepper blown up his nose. Then he was tied up to a bull ring and set upon by dogs.

Folk would bet on which dog would succeed in pinning the bull down by its nose. In 1820 at Bradwell wakes, a man called Frank Bagshaw tied himself to the bull’s tail to hold it still. When the bull saw the dogs being brought out it took off dragging Bagshaw through the village brook.

Bull-baiting was banned in 1835, although Bonsall had put a stop to theirs by 1811. But, in 1834, the rector at Bonsall, the Rev Robert Greville, caught a group of 40 men and dogs with a bull during the wakes week.

The vicar protested against their brutal amusements and managed to save the bull by purchasing it from them for one guinea.

A bull ring is still kept in Bonsall church but opinions differ as to whether it is from that particular incident. Three other bull rings can be found around Derbyshire.

At Foolow, near Eyam, there is one on the village green just in front of the ancient cross. There’s another in Eyam just outside the Peak Pantry café in the market square. It used to be buried underneath the square itself until the Rev Francis Shaw had it uncovered in 1911.

People still had to crouch down to get a look at it then as, although visible, it was covered by an iron grille. It wasn’t until 1986 when the square was altered that the bull ring was raised and put in a more convenient place.

Finally, there is still a bull ring at Snitterton, near Matlock, and, since 1906, it has been preserved by the Derbyshire Archaeological Society.

Bull-baiting wasn’t only used as sport; people believed that it tenderised the tough meat of the bull and at one time a bye-law stated that every butcher in Chesterfield should have all bulls baited before being slaughtered.

If not, they could risk paying a 3s 4d fine.

Bulls weren’t the only animals to suffer. Bears were also subjected to being brutalised by dogs. In John Farey’s Customs Observed In 1817, it was noted that, in June 1810, a young bear in Buxton was being tortured by dogs on a daily basis.

Later that same year, a man called John Smith was tried at Chesterfield and sent to prison for being a “vagabond bearward”. He’d been travelling around, putting on bear-baiting shows and collecting money from spectators.

Thankfully bear-baiting was abolished at the same time as bull-baiting.

Cock fighting wasn’t banned until 14 years later. Birds that regularly won were worth a lot of money but any that refused to fight back would be killed on the spot. Some great matches were so memorable that people wrote songs about them.

One originally written in 1715 was called The Hathersage Cocking but over time has lost its original local theme.

By Victorian times, as seaside holidays and commercialised sport became fashionable, wakes were no longer the high point of the year.

Village populations were starting to decline which made events harder to support. The First and Second World Wars also put the dampers on wakes as people felt selfish having a good time while others were laying down their lives for their country.

However, more recent years have seen villages making an effort to keep their wakes celebrations with parades, stalls, charity events, scarecrow competitions and rural demonstrations.

Some use the wakes to keep their local traditions alive.

Morris dancing has been used as an entertainment at wakes since it became established in England in the 17th century and it was first recorded in Derbyshire at Tideswell in 1797.

By 1863, the Winster Morris Dancers were entertaining crowds with their unique dances exclusive to the village.

Another ancient custom is guisering where people dressed up, blackened their faces and went round the village asking for food and money. This was historically done during festive times but Tideswell now has a group of Tidza Guisers who perform for the crowds at wakes.

They include a traditional mummers’ play called Tidza Saw Y’eds which tells of a farmer whose cow gets its head stuck in a gate. He tries to solve the problem by sawing off the cow’s head but then a doctor comes along, sews the cow’s head back on and she miraculously comes back to life.

The play itself isn’t practised much, the emphasis being on the elaborate costumes. But it is performed about three times during the week and also at Litton on the Tuesday as both villages share the same wakes week, around John The Baptist’s day.

All the money collected during the plays goes towards Tideswell Wakes.

Eyam’s sheep roasts have been traditional for many years and the current revolving roasting jack, was erected to mark the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Every carnival day, it roasts lamb from around 10.30am. When not in use, it stands displaying the date when the next sheep roast will be held and inviting all visitors to “come and see an old Eyam custom”.

In 1536, an Act of Convocation tried to move all wakes celebrations to All Saints’ Day to reduce the amount of holidays people were taking.

But people refused to stop celebrating on their own saint’s day. Nowadays, villages still stick to the same week every year and, in the case of Derbyshire, often tie their wakes in with the local well-dressings.

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