Wiggenhall St Germans and Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen Schools 2008
St Germans and Magdalen Primary Schools participated in the Lottery Funded Project “Of Giants, Wisewomen, Ploughboys and Kings” in 2006. We are revisiting the two schools for the Spring Term in 2008 to continue working with the current Year 5&6 children. Our work will contribute to an Artsmark Award in the schools.
The children will learn molly dancing, local stories (each school has chosen a story to dramatise) and contribute to original research into the local history and characters from their villages using data from the War Memorials in each village and school log books. The project will culminate in a joint performance involving the two schools and The Ouse Washes Molly Dancers in which the molly dances, dramas and research carried out will be presented to parents and the local community.
Molly Dancing
The children are learning their local form of dance, Molly Dancing, which was originally carried out by fenland farm-workers. The farm-workers begged for money instead of returning to work as ploughboys on a day called Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Night.
Both schools have learnt two traditional molly dances (Birds a Building and Cross Hand Polka), a local broom dance and a molly dance written by Gordon Phillips called The Mississippi Mud Dance. In addition, Magdalen shall learn a further traditional dance, College Hornpipe, and St Germans a dance written by Gordon Phillips, called Mucky Porter. Please see our Dance Notation Page for further details.
Drama
St Germans has chosen the story Mucky Porter for their drama. This true story recounts how King Charles I was helped across the dangerous Fens by a pub landlord from Southery who was later rewarded through being given the area of land now known as The Methwold Severalls. See our Mucky Porter Page for more details of the story.
Magdalen have chosen the story Cape of Rushes to dramatise. This is the local version of Cinderella, without the ugly sisters! The children will perform a local country dance, The Norfolk Long Dance, as part of the play.
Local History
In addition to local stories and discussion about what life would have been like living in the rural fenland before it was drained, the children, teachers and Our World Festivals have been finding out about local villagers that lived in St Germans and Magdalen around one hundred years ago. We have been investigating the names on the War Memorials and life in the village schools through the school log books which date back to the mid 1800’s.
War Memorials
St Germans
We have conducted original research by indexing the names on the St Germans War Memorial from scratch. Please follow the link to find out more. See our World War I pages for details of where many of the soldiers died.
Magdalen
We have been investigating the names on the Magdalen War memorial. Please follow the link to find out more. See our World War I pages for details of where many of the soldiers died.
Log Books
We are currently tracing names and events in the log books at both St Germans and Magdalen Primary Schools. See transcriptions of the St Germans and Magdalen log books.
Family & Community History
The children have also shared their personal family histories with each other. See our page illustrating the history of St Germans toll bridge.
Arthur Randell grew up in Magdalen in the early 1900’s. We are using his memoirs to find out about the history of the village.
Our World Festivals English Traditions Workshops