Custom revived: Costermonger’s Harvest festival

If you want to experience the real London at its most unique and colourful then the costermongers harvest festival should be top of your list. The costermongers, better known as Pearly King and Queens or Pearlies for short are not only a unique British but unique London tradition.

Pearl of London

It is believed that the very first Pearly King was Henry Croft, who in the mid- to late 1870s covered his entire suit in mother-of-pearl buttons which is believed to have happened to draw attention to himself as he raised money for charities. However, he was not the first costermonger to adorn his clothing with mother of pearl as it is recorded that before this costermongers would sew a line of buttons along their pocket and down their trouser legs. It was probably that Croft extended this by covering his entire suit possibly being influenced by the costumes of current music call singers such as Hyram Travers, who indeed performed as the ‘Pearly King’ which the Era of the 20th January 1883 described as the ‘handsomest and most costly suit of clothes ever seen’.

The King and Queen tradition appears to have developed as a way to keep the different traders from arguing and to represent them to the authorities in a sort of parody perhaps of London’s more formal livery companies. Unlike the livery companies each borough had a family which was pearly royalty and like royalty it was sort of hereditary although the titles were given back if a holder say left the area.

Being fruit and veg traders, strictly speaking apples, celebrating the harvest is an important point in the Pearlies calendar. As John Walters, of the London Pearly Kings and Queens Society, states it was society’s way of saying thank you to the Londoners and tourists that support their work. The first costermongers harvest festival started in the 1887 at St Magdalene’s church in Bermondsey until 1938 when it was bombed and the tradition moved to St Martin’s in the field where it continues until today. An account in Andrew Lawson’s 1977 Discover unexpected London states:

“The Pearly Kings and Queens of London get together once a year for one big jovial jamboree. Each monarch brings offerings of fruit, flowers and vegetables to the Costermongers Harvest Festival in St Martin’s in the Fields…the Vicar….is hononary pearly for the day. He wears a stole with pearl buttons. Five generations of one family. the Marriotts are here, all in pearly costume. The different clans greet each otherlike brothers and sisters of one family. Chelsea and Stoke embrace. Lambeth and Whitechapel get together and chat. East meets West; all London is united in London’s own particular style of cockney fellowship.”

Or at least it as for at some point a schism developed with two Pearly Harvest festivals run by two Pearly organisations in two different churches. The Pearly King of Peckham George Major is responsible for this move to St Mary-Le-Bow, being literally underneath the sound of Bow bells one could claim this to be a true cockney shrine. George states in Original cockney museum website:

“Some self made Pearlies stopped “who are not born into the pearly tradition”, from entering St Martins in the fields Trafalgar Square, stopping him and his genuine pearlies “the pearlies kings and queen guild” from entering. On the guild’s next meeting George was asked to sort it out the cockney way, so George arranged to have a meeting with the so called pearlies and the vicar, a meeting was set with the new vicar by the end of the meeting the vicar and the so called pearlies said to George get your own church, “now never challenge a cockney for he or she will take you on and prove you wrong” so George approached St Mary-le-Bow and arranged a meeting with the vicar of St. Mary-le-Bow, George also knew that St Mary does not open on Sunday, at the first meeting George used a soft start, explaining what the pearlies did in the late 40s early 50s when they raised a lot of money to have the bells renewed after the second world war, on the second meeting he tried the medium touch, the third meeting he used his market style and said to the vicar “do you agree with me that god works seven days a week” of course I do he replied so do I George said, and i only want one sunday a year, at that the vicar said for your cockney cheek you can have it for one sunday of the year .”

Roll out the barrel

The first rival Harvest festival was thus in 1999 and has very quickly eclipsed the older harvest festival because of an established associate event which provides an even more entertaining event. Sitting in the shadow of the Lord Mayor of London’s guildhall, naturally the Mayor is guest of honour but so are nearly every other London Mayor in a wash of red clocks which mixes well with the black and white of the Pearlies. The custom described as a must see event for Londoners and visitors alike; it certainly a vibrant one.

I arrived just before the formal start giving me time to soak in the array of marvellous mother of pearly in Pearly Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses and had to listen in on that great British staple the Punch and Judy; long overdue a blog post perhaps. This was only the tip of an iceberg of the wave of Londonism mixed with Olde Englandism. First off we had the surveying of the troops by the Pearlies a sort of tongue in cheek nod to the royal of the less flamboyant monarchs who also live in London. This was followed by the bizarre site of all the Mayors doing a maypole dance joined with the pearlies. Just at that moment you might be thinking -where are the Morris dancers and true enough not to disappoint in they come – perhaps slightly incongruously but of course they are a staple elsewhere. After enthralling the crowd, many overseas visitors who did not fully understand what these Morris were and I indeed after explaining it was not sure I’d made it sound like it made sense, they danced off. Then, the Pearlies roused the London crowd by a traditional cockney sing song – My Old Man, Maybe its because I’m a Londoner and Roll out the Barrel – many sung along and a few real Londoners appeared to have tears welling in their eyes. The sing song went down well and it make we wonder why there was not a traditional cockney sing a long like the Yorkshire carols. What with the Lord Mayor, Maypole dancing,  a toastmaster, the Pearlies, some Chelsea Pensioners, Punch and Judy and Morris I did wonder whether you could get more of a pageant of Britishness if it tried only lacking a parade of bowler hatted businessmen and punks in black cabs to fulfil the brief of London cliches!

Soon as we were all uplifted, carts some being drawn by colourfully attired St Bernard dogs and some rather incongruously people dressed in Bavarian dress and Pearlies began to assemble and so did the photographers. This is nothing new, to be frank, it is hard to find a London custom which is not descended upon by photographers and I’d be hypocritical to comment otherwise, but it is interesting that Brian Shuel in his 1985 Guide to Traditional customs of Britain. Like the veritable piped piper, this colourful procession drew more and more onlookers as it snaked its way to Bow where another photograph opportunity arose as they assembled outside. Inside the church was suitably dressed and once the assembled entered with standing room only the church was filled with song.
The Pearlies are something unique to London so much they need UN cultural protection I would say; and the costermongers harvest festival is a must see event to see the amazing spectacle of their costumes whichever version you attend.

Custom contrived: The Kinder Beer Barrel Challenge

On a bright sunny day you could be hard pressed to find a more uplifting location for a custom then on the slopes of Kinder especially for a custom which takes the word lifting quite literally – lifting a barrel up the hill.

Roll out the barrels

Like all good contrived custom, the Beer barrel challenge has the feel of an older traditional custom. The organisers website records:

“The Great Kinder Beer Barrel Challenge has its roots in a bet that occurred in 1998. The original challenge was laid down one bleak January night when local Edale shepherd Geoff Townsend complained to the landlord at the Old Nags Head Inn that they had run out of his favourite beer. Geoff jokingly offered to fetch a barrel of the brew from the Snake Pass Inn, only three miles away as the crow flies, but with 900ft of ascent and descent in between. The landlord agreed that if Geoff succeeded, he could have the barrel (and, more importantly, its contents). So the thirsty shepherd gathered twelve locals to help carry the barrel on a borrowed Mountain Rescue stretcher. He won the bet, shared the beer with his team, and raised £1200 for Edale School in the process.

Following Geoff Townsend’s triumphant effort in, an inventive local Clive Wetherall suggested they do it all again a year later, but invite other teams to compete. Thus the Great Kinder Beer Barrel Challenge was born.”

And so begun a custom and one that is taken very seriously albeit in a lot of fancy dress.
I turned up early as the contestants were getting ready and working out their strategies. Each team, which was made up of eight runners, had to decide upon how to carry the barrel which despite the name contained water not beer. So there were groups trying out ways to attach the barrel to the two parallel poles of the ladder emulating the mountain rescue stretcher – from hanging it from the ladder to sitting on top of it with varying mount of roping – then raising it to see how comfortable it was and whether as the rules insist that at least two people could be in contact with it at all times – a challenge when one considers the mass which was more than 120lbs and the distance travelled – the majority up hill. Although downhill even more challenging on these slopes. There were plenty of practice with teams practicing and making improvements.

Barrel of laughs

The teams had some imaginative names such as the barrel related The Dreggs or the Barrel of Laughs – not sure the name was necessarily shown in their faces though to the Edale & Glossop Mountain Rescue which one would for all of us would be rather good at climbing the peaks!
The message about the competition indicates the challenge of it:

“The route can be walked or ran. Fancy dress is encouraged. The only stipulation is that competitors wear appropriate footwear (trail shoes or walking boots only) and have some navigation experience. Marshals are placed along the route along with route markers. The route can be walked or ran. Fancy dress is encouraged. The only stipulation is that competitors wear appropriate footwear (trail shoes or walking boots only) and have some navigation experience.
The Barrel Race will start at 10:30 from Newfold Farm Campsite. The route follows 4 miles of trail up onto Kinder. It is a challenging route but it is FUN.”

Bottom of the barrel

Sadly, the original goal, the Snakes Pass Inn had closed since the custom had been established and unlike other pub based custom had not killed it off but in a way has made it in a way better especially for the spectator. One can now watch the teams descend to the peak and descend to the finishing line which could not be done in the original format.

Teams set off in intervals and standing at the slopes above one can watch them speed up and then slow down and realised the challenge of the first slope and the impact of doing it on a sunny day….many already looking rather in need of refreshment ironically not from the considerable volume of water they were carrying.

Many teams use music to motivate them which ranged from Taylor Swift to Heavy rock but sadly no cockney anthem – roll out the barrel. I was surprised at the speed in which they ascended the slope and soon disappeared and appeared to be dots reaching the summit. It did not take long to see the first teams descending and I quickly realised I would need to return to the village to see their triumphant entrance….and soon they did; the first being the Gladioli, all dressed in pink with fake gladioli on the centre of the barrel – I wasn’t sure why and did not ask!

I was amazed by the speed of the teams arriving, perhaps like some sort of motor, the downhill slopes gave them more momentum….a large crowd had assembled to watch and cheer on the teams as they crossed the line and then understandably collapsed on the ground just beside.
The Kinder beer challenge is a classic modern custom – pointless like many, colourful and certainly exciting.

Custom demised: St Cuthbert’s Day stag, Durham

An offering of a stag was at one time annually made on St. Cuthbert’s Day at the shrine of the saint in Durham in a custom which has considerable pagan undertones. The custom was established by the nearby Nevilles of Raby. Thistleton-Dwyer in his 1911 British Popular Customs Present and Past states that:

“On one occasion, however, Lord Neville claimed that himself, and as many as he might bring with him, should be feasted by the Prior upon the occasion. To this the Prior demurred, as a thing that had never been before claimed as of right, and as being a most expensive and onerous burden, for the trains of the great nobility of that day were numerous in the extreme. The result was that the Prior declined to accept the stag when laid before the shrine, by which they of the Nevilles were so grievously offended that from words they got to blows, and began to cuff the monks who were ministering at the altar.”

The author notes that:

“The latter, upon this occasion, were not contented to offer a mere passive resistance, for they made such good use of the large wax candles which they carried in belabouring their opponents as to compel them to retreat. The retainers of the Nevilles did not, however, condescend to take back again the stag which, as they deemed, had been so uncourteously refused. The stag was an oblation by the Nevilles of great antiquity, and appears to have been brought into the church, and presented with winding of horns.”

When the custom died out is unclear but its association with the September celebration of the saint suggests at the Reformation as the Anglican St Cuthbert’s Day is in March.