© Richardyt / The Paganhill Maypole Society

The Paganhill Maypole

Welcome To The Web Site of The Paganhill Maypole, Gloucestershire, England.

The Paganhill Maypole is maintained wholly from donations from local people and the fund raising activities of the committee of the Paganhill Maypole Society

Introduction


For many years it was set up on the village green which now forms the grounds of Upfield House before being erected on what was once a small grassed triangle at the junction of the Stroud, Whiteshill and Ruscombe roads. In the 1990’s it temporarily stood in the car park of the Old Crown Inn but has since been restored to the more appropriate road junction site.


There is little information about the pole much before the nineteenth century, with subsequent material coming from the minutes book of the Paganhill Maypole Society, press reports contained within the pages of the Stroud News and Stroud Journal, published notes such as Paul Hawkins Fisher’s ‘Notes and Recollections of Stroud’ published in 1871 and recent memories of local residents. Sometimes information is, surprisingly, non-existent with the only records available being those contained within contemporary images produced by local postcard publishers, newspapers and personal cameras.

Much of this material is now held in the archives of the maypole society who will always be pleased to add to the collection.


The number of surviving maypoles in Britain generally continues to diminish. Suitable timber is increasingly hard to find and does not seem have lasting properties required of a pole. The cost and difficulties of haulage on modern roads and the price of cranes needed to raise a pole safely are expensive and are usually in excess of the purchase price of the pole. Updated considerations of health and safety and duty of care, while necessary, can be off putting. It is also difficult to find younger people willing to commit their time and energy needed to continue the work required of existing preservation committees.


The Paganhill maypole must be unique in that finance for the pole comes wholly from donations from local people and the fund raising activities of the committee.


Paganhill Maypole Society


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Introduction


The pagan symbolism and folklore of such maypoles has all but faded into history. They have now been largely accepted into British rural culture, tradition and way of life. It is reputed that the Paganhill pole had its origin back in Charles II’s time some 400 years ago, when many such poles were put up across Britain. Few have survived the test of time but this particular pole has long endeared itself to the local population and this old friend is quickly missed by such folk when not around.