from the Honorary Director: Arthur Percival MBE MA DLitt FSA FAHI
arthur @ fleur.eclipse.co.uk

PRESS NOTICE - for immediate release

DISCORDANT COMICALS:
THE CHRISTMAS HOODENERS OF EAST KENT, TRADITION AND REVIVAL

By GEORGE FRAMPTON

FAVERSHAM PAPERS No 99 now published

In 1909, Canterbury solicitor Percy Maylam published his book The Hooden Horse, detailing the old Christmas custom from East Kent. This rare book is now said to have cost over £500 when it last appeared on Ebay! George Frampton has updated this meisterwerk in Discordant Comicals which is now published by The Faversham Society as No. 99 in its Faversham Papers series.

The hooden horse is a wooden effigy which over a hundred years ago was taken round by costumed farmworkers in East Kent to the big houses in their neighbourhood at Christmas time in an effort to secure money. Many children who witnessed the event all remembered the clacking of its jaws made by its hobnail teeth, if nothing else. Elsewhere, people recalled the singing of country songs or carols by the rest of the team. Today, many teams who have revived this custom prefer to perform a short playlet, usually featuring someone trying successfully or unsuccessfully to mount a rather unruly horse.

George, who lives in Marden near Maidstone, has already contributed feature articles to Bygone Kent and Folk in Kent, and is recognised as an authority on the county’s traditional music. A seasoned musician himself, he is best known in Faversham as concertina player with the Fabulous Fezheads, who at the annual Hop Festival never fail to appeal to the crowds with their unusual and entertaining Morris dancing. Elsewhere, he is well-known for his work on East Anglian Plough Monday custom resulting from his membership of Kent’s Seven Champions molly dancers. He is also a founder-member of the Thomas Clark Quire, who perform the church music from the days before organs provided accompaniment.

“In this book”, he says, “my aim has been to produce an authoritative and comprehensive account of an East Kent custom which used to generate a lot of fun. I have put it in its historical context, surveyed it through the centuries, and compared it with analogous civic practices in Tudor England. I have scoured old press reports and other documentary evidence to portray how the hoodeners parodied their employers and sponsors in their efforts to solicit money.”
“I’ve also been able to track down, and reproduce, rare old photographs and other illustrations. I’ve included words and melody lines for some of the hoodeners’ songs, not to mention brief biographies of some of the leading participants. Everything is fully annotated, so that sources can be checked, and there is a comprehensive index.”

As well as looking at the Tradition up to and around the First World War, the book brings up to date the numerous revivals that have taken place at odd times in the 1950s and continuously since 1966 in St. Nicholas at Wade, Whitstable, Deal and other places. The book is fully indexed with a gazetteer in the style of key Folklore Society publications, with notes on the songs used, and the performers taking part up until 1925.

The new book is now available exclusively from the Faversham Society at its Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre HQ at 10-13 Preston Street, Faversham, Kent ME13 8NS for £6.95 (£8.95 by post to UK destinations).

* Almost all the studies in the Faversham Papers series, from No 1 (1964) remain in print and are on sale at the Fleur de Lis. For a list readers who are online can visit http://www.faversham.org/pages/directory_item.aspx?i_PageID=11895

Faversham Papers No 99: Discordant Comicals: The Christmas Hoodeners of East Kent, Tradition and Revival, by George Frampton
ISBN 0 900214 51 2 ISSN 0014-892X
iv + 148 + x pages, A4 format, illustrated, paperboard bound

Further information:
George Frampton
Arthur Percival (Honorary Editor) arthur @ fleur.eclipse.co.uk