Well it's been a long while since I posted on this blog, perhaps though I will try to do more this year in 2023. I've been prompted to write this post because there are so few images of the Molly Men on the web as it's such a local thing, so for posterity sake I thought I would do this and share my photos.
First of all, forgive any errors as I am not authority on this subject, but as it happens on my doorstep in Rumburgh (near Halesworth Suffolk) and because so many people were curious about this old English tradition, I am documenting this years event by the Old Glory group.
My information has come from the internet so I have no way to fact check at the moment. I am mainly copying the information from this site https://old-glory.org.uk where you can see the other events that Old Glory perform at. They are my local group who are in these photos.
Many people asked if they were Morris Dancers and I would say they are distinctively different, in style and dance, a much stronger more workman vibe which relates to the ploughing and harvesting of this farming community.
The following is from the Old Glory website; Old Glory was formed in 1994 to recreate the tradition of Molly dancing in East Suffolk, as we imagine it might have been in Edwardian times. Molly dancing traditionally only appeared during the depths of winter as a means of earning some money when the land was frozen or waterlogged and could not be worked. It is sometimes regarded as the East Anglian form of Morris. Traditional molly dance teams always included at least one man dressed in women’s clothing as a form of disguise; sometimes the whole team did so. In times of civil unrest, it was thought that a man so dressed would escape arrest, since it was considered that women could not be held responsible for their actions. The term 'molly' is an old word that refers to a man dressed in women’s clothing. In eighteenth century England, there were 'molly houses' which were meeting places for men of a certain inclination, some of whom would wear female attire. Old Glory's molly appears as the 'Lady' and is accompanied by an appropriately dressed 'Lord'. These two characters, parodying the local gentry, lead the dances. There are other characters in Old Glory, such as the “umbrella-man”, who acts as announcer, a “box-man” carrying a collecting box, the “broom-man”, who clears the way for the dancers, and the “whiffler”, whose job it is to marshal the dancers.
Molly dancing is also characterized by facial disguise; the dancers of old could not afford to be recognised since some of those people from whom they had demanded money with menaces may have been their employers. In the 19th and early 20th centuries this was often achieved by blackening their faces with soot. Molly dancers in the present day use face paint, available in other colours apart from black. For the first 27 years of Old Glory’s existence, we painted our faces black, to represent the soot used by some of our predecessors. Although, in our experience, people generally understand this, we are aware that there are some who associate the use of black face paint with the minstrel shows of the 20th century, in which musicians and singers blackened their faces and appeared as caricatures of 19th century black American minstrels, and are offended by its use, regardless of the context or historical basis. In order to protect the dancers and musicians of Old Glory from any unjust and baseless accusations of racism we have decided to make a slight change to our facial disguise. From the 2021-2022 dance season onwards, our faces have appeared not black but grey, in imitation of the use of ashes rather than soot.
Molly dancing is, by nature, robust and, some would say, aggressive. These qualities are emphasised by the sound of the hobnailed boots worn by the dancers, which were the normal form of footwear for farm workers in the East of England right up until the second half of the twentieth century.
There is very little known about the dances that Molly dancers of the early part of the twentieth century would have performed, other than that they resembled country dances, but danced using a slow, heavy step, and with much swinging about in pairs. We have constructed our own dances, based on such information as we have, and we have developed our own distinctive style. The Molly dancers of Old Glory are all men, whilst the musicians are all women. The musicians play a variety of instruments, which may include at least one four-stop melodeon in the "Suffolk key" of C, recorders, drums, trombone and “tea-chest” bass.
Plough Monday (the first Monday after twelfth night or Epiphany) is historically the day which marked the end of the Christmas period for the agricultural communities in the eastern counties of England. It was an occasion for plough gangs, who would be disguised, usually by blacking their faces, to procure money or largesse by dragging a decorated plough around the larger houses in the parish, with the cry of "Penny for the ploughboys!". It was said that if you did not contribute even one penny, you would find a furrow ploughed across your lawn in the morning. There may also be gangs of Molly dancers, sometimes accompanying the plough gangs. Before the Reformation, the Church sanctioned the collection of money, some of which went toward providing the plough-light, maintained by the ploughmen's guild in the parish church. This usually took the form of a candle or rush-light, placed before the altar, whose flame was never allowed to go out.
We all toasted the Plough to give us a good harvest this year, put pennies in the box and listened to songs about the plough boys. The musicians hidden at the back wore ivy head garlands and their playing was absolutely wonderful. If you visit this area please do try and see the troupe and support the pubs who host the events. Although the Molly Dances died out in the 1930's Im glad to see it alive and well and do hope that future generations will continue with it.
