The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is a folk dance which takes place each September in the village of Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire, England. It is performed by ten dancers, accompanied by a musician playing an accordion and a youth with a triangle. Six of the dancers carry reindeer horns; the remaining four are a hobby horse, Maid Marian, a fool, and a youth with a bow and arrow. On Wakes Monday, beginning early in the morning at the parish church where the horns are stored, the performers dance around the parish all day.

The origin of the dance is unknown. The earliest written record of a hobby horse performance at Abbots Bromley dates to 1532 and the first mention of the reindeer horns is from 1686. Radiocarbon dating has shown that at least one of the horns dates to the eleventh century, though it is unknown how or when they came to Staffordshire or became associated with the dance. Many explanations of the meaning of the dance have been proposed, and it is commonly interpreted as a pagan ritual, but there is no evidence for any of them.

History

The earliest written mention of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is in Robert Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, published in 1686.^[1] According to an annotation by Sir Simon Degge in his copy of Plot's book, he had seen the dance being performed before the English Civil War.^[1] An earlier mention of the hobby horse at Abbots Bromley from 1532 describes it as an ancient custom, but does not mention the horns.^[2] In 1976, Radiocarbon dating of one of the reindeer horns dated them to 1065 ± 80 years, though it is unknown when they were brought to Abbots Bromley and when they began to be used in the dance.^[3] Though many sources claim that the dance was first performed at the St Bartholomew's Day fair in 1226 there is no evidence for this supposition.^[4]

Many explanations for the origin of the dance have been proposed, though there is no concrete evidence for any of them.^[5] It has often been interpreted as the remnant of a pagan ritual.^[6][7] Violet Alford believed that the dance was originally a winter solstice fertility rite.^[8] Alternatively it has been suggested that it originally was connected to hunting, either as a ritual to encourage or celebrate a successful hunt, or to celebrate the villagers' hunting rights.^[9] Parallels have been drawn to the pre-historic deer skull headdresses from Star Carr in Yorkshire, or the "Sorcerer" cave-painting from Trois-Frères in southern France, as well as references in William Shakespeare's As You Like It to a deer-hunter being awarded the deer's "leather skin and horns to wear", and in Anthony Munday's The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon to Friar Tuck "carrying a stag's head dauncing".^[7]

In the early modern period, the dance was performed in the Christmas period^[10] – according to Robert Plot, "on New Year, and Twelfth-day"^[1] – but it now takes place on the Monday following the first Sunday after September 4th.^[11] Plot reports that the dancers collected money for church repairs and to support the parish poor.^[5] In the Tudor period, the use of hobby-horses to raise money for the parish at Christmastime seems to have been widespread in the north Midlands. Along with Abbots Bromley, it is attested at Stafford and at Culworth in Northamptonshire; a hobby horse performance at Holme Pierrepoint in Nottinghamshire also probably took place in the winter.^[6]

The horn dance apparently stopped being performed around the time of the English Civil War, before being re-established in the eighteenth century; this is probably when the date of the dance changed from Christmas to September time.^[10] According to local tradition, the dance has been led by the Fowell family since the eighteenth century.^[12]

Event

Schedule

The Horn Dance takes place on Wakes Monday, the day following the first Sunday after 4 September.^[11] It previously took place at the beginning of January, on New Year and Twelfth Night.^[1]

The dance starts at 8 a.m. at St Nicholas's Church in Abbots Bromley and travels around the parish before returning to the village at the end of the day.^[13] The first dance is outside the vicarage; the dancers subsequently perform in the marketplace and various houses and farms around the parish. About midday they dance at Blithfield Hall and have lunch there.^[14] Afterwards, the dancers return to the village, with the final dance around 8 p.m.^[15]

Dancers

Twelve people perform in the dance: six dancers carrying reindeer horns, a fool, Maid Marian (played by a man wearing women's clothes), a hobby horse, a child with a bow-and-arrow, a musician,^[a] and a child with a triangle.^[11] Of these, the two musicians do not dance; their role is only to accompany the dancers.^[17] The jaw of the hobby horse, and the bow and arrow, are used as percussion instruments to keep time with the music.^[17][18] The Maid Marian carries a ladle used to collect money; the fool has a bladder on a stick.^[18]

Costume

Until the 1880s, dancers wore their ordinary clothes decorated with ribbons.^[19] At this time, the vicar's wife designed costumes for the dancers in a mock-medieval style, perhaps inspired by the sixteenth-century painted Betley window; these costumes were replaced in 1904 and again in 1951.^[15] The original costumes consisted of green tunics and blue trousers with brown spots; since 1904 the dancers have worn either green or red jackets, with green breeches with an oak leaf pattern.^[17]

Antlers

The antlers used in the dance are from reindeer,^[20] and date to the 11th century.^[21] As there were no reindeer in Britain at this point, they must have been imported, most likely from Scandinavia.^[21] The largest measures 101 cm (40 in) across and weighs 25.5 lb (11.6 kg); the smallest measures 77 cm (30 in) across and the lightest weighs 16.25 lb (7.37 kg).^[22] Three of the sets of antlers are painted white and three are painted brown; historically the brown antlers have instead been painted blue and red at different times.^[23] The antlers are set into painted wooden heads, thought to date from the sixteenth century, and these heads are mounted on wooden poles.^[22]

According to an eighteenth century report by Richard Wilkes, the antlers were stored in Abbots Bromley's town hall. In 1820 Thomas Harwood was the first to report that they were stored in the church, first in the church tower and subsequently in the Hurst Chapel.^[24]

A different set of horns, acquired in the 1950s, is used for performances outside Abbots Bromley.^[23]

Dance

In 1911, Cecil Sharp described the dance as being made up of two main figures. In the first, the dancers process around in a circle before turning and circling back. In the second, the dancers face off in two rows, dancing together and apart before crossing over, turning around, and repeating the process to return to their original place.^[25]

There is no specific tune associated with the dance.^[26] In 1898, the vicar of Abbots Bromley recalled that there had previously been a special tune for the dance but that it had been lost.^[27] In 1912, Sharp published a tune sent to him by a J. Buckley which Buckley said he had collected in the 1850s from a fiddler from Abbots Bromley.^[28] According to Andrew Bullen, "this is the tune most often associated with the horn dance and it is probably the oldest";^[26] however, there is some dispute as to whether the tune did in fact accompany the dance.^[26] Other tunes associated with the dance have been collected from William Adey, a dancer who in 1924 recalled a tune which he remembered being used in the 1870s and 1880s, and Edie Sammons, whose brother played for the dance.^[16] When Sharp collected the dance, "any country-dance air" was used;^[18] more recently modern tunes are also played.^[26]

In culture

Since 1947, a version of the Abbots Bromley horn dance has been performed by Thaxted Morris Men at the Thaxted meetings of the Morris Ring. In 1951 they also performed the dance to celebrate the Festival of Britain.^[29] Ivon Hitchens' Mural, in the Kennedy Hall of Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, depicts English folk-dances and traditions. The horn dancers shown on the right of the mural are probably based on those at Abbots Bromley.^[30] A series of pencil drawings by Dave Pearson, In the Seven Woods, also depict the Abbots Bromley dance.^[31]

In 2019, Royal Mail issued a set of stamps depicting unusual British customs and festivals which included the Abbots Bromley horn dance.^[32] The dance was one of three traditional dances which inspired Hanna Tuulikki's "Deer Dancer".^[33] In 2023 the Abbots Bromley dance was featured in the exhibition Making Michief: Folk Costume in Britain at Compton Verney.^[34]