Saturday 17th January, Wassail at Dunham Massey

Wassailing is a bit of an old English tradition dating back to pagan times. In times gone by it was very common in apple-growing areas of England - particularly Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and so on. In fact if you produced cider it's highly likely that you would have been very familiar with the ritual of Wassailing. The general idea is to ensure a good crop of apples (and therefore a decent lot of cider) by scaring off any evil spirits by firing shotguns close to the tree. I don't know about evil spirits but if someone fired a shotgun that close it would scare the living daylights out of me.

The trees are encouraged to grow by hanging slices of toast in the branches. There's nowt like a nice bit of toast and marmalade, all washed down with a nice cuppa. Or cider in this case.

Rick, Les, Richard and meself were delighted to be asked to perform at a Wassail at The Dunham Massey Apple Company's orchards, not very far from Timperley. We dragged the Morris side down as well, they weren't doing anything special and we thought it would do them good to get out once in a while.

Photos courtesy of Rob Phillips, YouTube clip by Bob Sweet.