Straw Bears

In the Cambridgeshire villages of Ramsey and Whittlesey a Straw Bear was paraded through the village by the ploughwitches. We know that the local press reported that a straw bear danced through the streets of Ramsey as early as 1880 and that the press stopped reporting details of the custom in around 1933. We think that this custom died out in Ramsey in the early 1950’s. For more references about Plough Monday, Straw Bears and Molly Dancers in the Ramsey area click to visit our website, www.ourworldfestivals.com. A Straw Bear is still paraded through the streets as part of the Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival.

Plough Monday Nowadays

Plough Monday and associated traditions are still practised, largely in the East of England, although many have been moved to the nearest Saturday to Plough Monday. Please visit our Plough Monday Events page for further details.

The Reformation in 1538 forbad these plough lights and abolished the plough guilds and put strict fines in place against those gathering behind the plough.

The exploits of the farmworkers varied, largely depending upon the region of the country they hailed from. Generally, in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk the ploughboys performed a dance called molly dancing, in the North East they danced with swords and in the East Midlands they performed mummers plays. The penance for non-payment was to have the front doorstep pulled up with the plough. The itinerant plough boys, often known as Plough Jacks, Plough Bullocks or Plough Stots, depending on the locality of the custom, would blacken their faces as a disguise, a tradition still practiced today. In the Cambridgeshire Fens children would collect money, often before school, this was known as Ploughwitching. It is known that Plough Monday was recognised as early as the 1400s and at that time was often connected to raising parish funds through the church. Plough  guilds often maintained plough lights in the church and money was raised to keep the plough light burning.

With changing monarchs and political pressures the continuation of this custom, associated with the church, continued in a more patchy manner until the early/mid 1600s. After this time Plough Monday festivities became more disassociated from the church and became an opportunity for groups of farmworkers to collect money for their personal gain, often ending in a feast for themselves and their families.  For a historical review of the Origin of Plough Monday Traditions please see Peter Millington’s website.