© Richardyt / The Paganhill Maypole Society
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
History
Bushes and, later, trees drawn from the woods, sometimes fashioned into poles, would be set up in the receptive mother earth serving as a focal point for feasting, drinking and general merrymaking.
An important feature of these festivities were the ribbons that were attached to the pole and held by single boys dancing round one way and maiden girls the other thus symbolising the balance of male and female energy and duality of life. As the entwining ribbons became shorter the dance became a spiral expressing not only hoped for love but death and resurrection as did their ceremonial burning the following year.
With the occupation of Britain the Romans brought with them their worship of Flora, the goddess of flowers, during their Maytime. These rituals of the festival of Floralia later added to the existing May Day customs and probably gave rise to the election of a May Queen.
These pagan rites became partly absorbed by the Christian church in Medieval times and many English villages had their seasonal or permanent maypole and May Day revelries. In the seventeenth century the Puritan Long Parliament under Cromwell discouraged and eventually banned, by Act of Parliament, such merrymaking not because of paganism but because they were symbols of royalty and interfered with people’s attendance at church. But, in spite of heavy fines, the practice still continued on a more limited scale.
When King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 the Puritan cause quickly declined and many former maypoles were re-erected. It is very likely that the Paganhill maypole dates back to at least this period.
Up to this time decorations would have consisted of greenery, flowers and beribboned May garlands. It was now increasingly becoming the tradition to raise maypoles to celebrate coronations and royal anniversaries and it was therefore natural that poles should be painted in red, white and blue. These
colours are also said to be those of the Triple Goddess, white for the Maiden, red for the Mother and blue (sometimes black) for the Crone (old woman). Some poles, however, are simply painted in red and white or just white.
In subsequent years the number of maypoles has sadly declined, the permanently erected pole at Paganhilil being the only example remaining in Gloucestershire. Other fine poles can be seen at Welford on Avon and Dunchurch in Warwickshire.There are also a small number in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire.
The traditional timber poles are increasingly being replaced by more modern materials such as aluminium ship masts and fibre-glass flagpoles, which are mounted on a hinged plate for ease in lowering. All seem to be sited prominently at a road junction and are generally the responsibility of a sub-committee of the local district council both in regard to maintenance and insurance.
History of British Maypoles
The origin of the maypole may well date back to pagan times when the European Celts, on the 1st May, celebrated Beltane or the ‘day of fire’ (Bel was their god of the sun). This date, approximately half way through the year, marked the end of winter and, therefore, the return of the sun and fertility of the soil, beast and man, the plenteousness of the harvest and the success of the hunt.