[0:00] There were signs as I drove
into Abbots Bromley
[0:02] saying there might be delays
on the roads thanks to “Horn Dance Day”.
[0:06] There was still mist on the ground
as the sun rose
[0:09] and I parked up in rural Staffordshire.
[0:11] More than a dozen videos into this series,
it does feel a little odd
[0:14] that I haven’t yet talked about
any Weird English Traditions.
[0:18] So, those signs felt like a good omen.
[0:21] (background chatter)
[0:26] It’s busy in the village already.
It’s only 7:30 in the morning.
[0:30] And my instructions are:
[0:32] go to the church and look for the people
in the costumes.
[0:37] There were already lots of people there.
[0:39] I didn’t have any special access here:
this was a public event,
[0:41] with lots of people inside
and outside the church,
[0:44] and there were two types
of people in there:
[0:46] folks from the village
and the surrounding area
[0:48] who clearly all knew each other,
[0:51] and a lot of…
[0:53] Tourists is the wrong word.
[0:55] There were definitely tourists,
and I’ll talk about them later.
[0:57] But mostly, the outsiders were people
like me with cameras,
[1:00] here to broadcast, not to save memories
for themselves.
[1:04] The man with the jingling bells is Terry,
the jester, we’ll talk to him later.
[1:08] In the meantime, the folks in costume
are taking the antlers off the wall.
[1:12] Look, there’s a lot that I’m gonna need
to explain later.
[1:15] If I talk about it all now,
[1:16] we’ll be in the church for most of
this video and it’ll be really dull.
[1:19] But in nearly every shot here,
you’ll see someone with a camera,
[1:22] maybe a small GoPro,
[1:24] maybe a 360 camera
on a very long stick...
[1:26] longer than mine, but never mind.
[1:28] Or maybe it’ll be some odd hybrid camera
[1:30] which appeared to take
physical film plates
[1:32] while also having a modern flash attached?
[1:34] I wish I’d asked him about that.
[1:36] Or it’ll be a full professional camera,
[1:37] either someone from the local newspaper
or an agency stringer
[1:40] who’s come along to get some footage
that they might be able to sell.
[1:43] And all of us with cameras are...
awkwardly jostling for position,
[1:48] not wanting to interfere with proceedings
[1:50] but also not wanting
anyone else’s camera in our shot.
[1:53] With the antlers down,
everyone in costume ready,
[1:55] and all the photographers off at the side,
[1:57] the vicar welcomed everyone
and led a short prayer.
[2:00] Bless all who visit this parish today.
[2:03] Give them joy in their hearts
and surround them with your loving care.
[2:08] And bring them safely
to their journey’s end.
[2:11] Amen. 
 (audience mutters “amen”)
[2:13] For anyone who’s used to more vocal
religious worship, don’t worry,
[2:16] the gentle mutter of “amen”
at the end there was normal,
[2:20] actually it was positively enthusiastic
by most Church of England standards.
[2:24] Anyway, up went the antlers,
and also the hobby-horse,
[2:26] and everyone headed outside.
[2:28] Everybody ready?
’Cos we’ve got to stop the traffic.
[2:31] -Are we ready? 
 -Yep.
[2:32] And we were off.
[2:34] (accordions playing ‘A Hundred Pipers’,
triangle chiming)
[2:39] The oldest village tradition
in England sets out
[2:42] and immediately a taxi decides to turn
around and go the other way
[2:46] because the high street’s
gonna be blocked for a while.
[2:48] The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance
has three phases:
[2:51] first, walking down the street in a line.
[2:54] -Morning Jill, you all right? 
 -Morning Jill!
[2:56] You all right? Morning, you all right? 
 (music continues)
[2:58] And as this happens, the locals
take pictures from their doors,
[3:01] or follow along.
[3:02] Whoa!
[3:03] Second: stepping back and forth,
back and forth,
[3:06] in what seemed like a very simple routine
[3:08] but which, I would find out later,
was much more difficult than it looked.
[3:12] And third: parading around in a circle
or a couple of small circles.
[3:16] (music continues)
[3:21] Eventually, they turned off the main road
and started a route through the village,
[3:25] because this is not a single
early morning dance.
[3:28] I don’t think I appreciated
quite what a physical challenge
[3:32] this actually is for them.
[3:34] Because, like, I’m running around
with a camera,
[3:35] as are so many other people around here.
[3:37] Oh, it’s okay, it’s been about 15 minutes.
[3:40] They’re going to be walking
with those all day.
[3:43] They’re going to be playing
accordion all day.
[3:45] Like, they’re not finished
until 5pm, 6pm, something like that.
[3:50] Also, there’s quite a few car drivers
somewhat confused.
[3:54] Like most English towns and villages,
[3:56] you can track the architecture
getting more and more modern
[3:59] as you head away from the centre.
[4:00] Also, let me explain that triangle
that’s very loud in all of the footage.
[4:04] The Horn Dance has a cast of characters.
[4:06] Along with the dancers and the musicians,
[4:08] there’s the jester, Terry,
who’s in charge.
[4:10] There’s the hobby-horse.
[4:11] There’s the kid with the bow and arrow,
[4:13] which she’s usually blank-firing
in rhythm as percussion,
[4:15] it’s just very quiet compared
to everything else.
[4:17] There’s Maid Marian,
that’s the man in blue and yellow.
[4:20] And there’s the kid with the triangle.
[4:21] Because that’s a very young kid,
[4:23] I think they got swapped out
at various points,
[4:25] because the level of triangle skill
[4:28] seemed to change quite a lot
as we went along,
[4:30] both in timing and enthusiasm.
[4:33] After 45 minutes or so
of parading around the parish,
[4:37] they made it to their first pit stop.
[4:39] (applause)
[4:43] There were bacon rolls and drinks,
[4:45] and even occasional tots of what I think
was brandy or whisky
[4:48] being given to the folks in costume.
[4:49] There were still a few folks
with cameras watching on,
[4:51] although a lot of the press photographers
had got their shots and moved on,
[4:54] and some of the villagers
had gone to get ready for work
[4:56] or to take their kids to school.
[4:58] And everyone moved out of the way
for the bin lorry.
[5:01] While they were stopped,
I had a chat with Terry, the jester.
[5:04] How long have you been doing this?
[5:06] This will be my 46th year.
[5:08] 46th year, so did you start out
as the kid on the triangle?
[5:12] Or has it been...
 -No, I started out by going to a fête
[5:18] where the dancers were
and the jester didn’t turn up.
[5:22] -Right!
 -Luckily, they’d got the clothes...
[5:25] -Yep.
 -...so, I ended up doing the jester
[5:28] and I’ve done it ever since.
[5:30] And the history of this
is a mystery, apparently.
[5:33] (laughter)
[5:34] Yeah, it’s a mystery.
[5:35] Nobody really knows what it’s all about.
[5:37] I mean, there’s one story that says
it’s a celebrational dance,
[5:41] ’cos it’s just after the harvest
was got in from the farmers.
[5:44] And then other people say
it’s a fertility dance.
[5:48] Right.
[5:49] Like when you see the horns
going backwards and forwards,
[5:52] it represents two male stags
when they’re fighting...
[5:55] -Right.
 -...at rutting time.
[5:58] And then the circles as we do.
[6:01] But that’s all a guess, presumably?
[6:03] There’s no written, definite thing.
[6:07] All we’re interested in,
we’ll make sure it keeps going, like.
[6:10] The dance used to be on Christmas
many, many years ago,
[6:13] and at some point it switched
to Wakes Monday,
[6:16] which is a holiday date that seems
to change by English region
[6:18] and it would be far too much of a tangent
to explore that right now.
[6:21] And all the history of that has been lost.
[6:25] That’s the mystery of the dance.
That’s why we think we’re so popular.
[6:29] As you can see this morning, I mean…
[6:31] Yeah! I mean, there’s been a steady
attrition of the press photographers,
[6:34] who presumably like me,
turn up for the start and then decide…
[6:38] because you’re finishing
at what, eight tonight?
[6:39] -Yeah. 
-So how far are you gonna be walking?
[6:41] I mean, you’re talking about
12, 13 miles of like…
[6:45] They finish...that’s the dancers, not me. 
-Yeah. (laughs)
[6:50] Oh, yeah, because they’re going
to go round and round, aren’t they?
[6:52] I’m too old for that! (laughs)
[6:54] So, they’re all walking a half marathon
with heavy antlers on.
[6:57] Why are they doing it?
[6:59] Because that’s what happens every year.
[7:01] The first written record that includes
the antlers is from the 17th century,
[7:04] in The Natural History of Staffordshire.
[7:07] I don’t have a physical copy of the book,
[7:08] even modern reprints
cost hundreds of pounds.
[7:11] But in there, it says
that the village has,
[7:13] “a sort of sport called
the Hobby-Horse Dance,”
[7:17] which included the dancer on the horse,
along with
[7:19] “six others, carrying on their shoulders
as many reindeers’ heads”.
[7:23] It’s clearly an earlier version of this,
[7:26] with lots of things in common,
[7:27] but what stood out to me, and maybe
this is just a non-expert’s misreading,
[7:31] but it looks like a fundraising event.
[7:34] The record talks of a pot,
[7:37] held by the chiefs of the town,
with cakes and ale.
[7:39] And “all people who had any kindness
for the Institution of the Sport”
[7:43] would give a little bit of money
towards church repairs
[7:46] and the poor people of the town,
[7:47] which is still happening.
[7:49] I didn’t get any footage of it on the day
’cos I didn’t think it was important,
[7:52] but there was a collection going round
as they passed by each street,
[7:54] and I bought a t-shirt, because I felt
like I should support them a little.
[7:59] And there are plenty of places across
the UK that do something similar to this,
[8:03] whether it’s the local rotary club
[8:05] having Santa touring round
in a sleigh at Christmas
[8:07] or some other charity parade.
[8:09] To be clear, actual folklore scholars
do not know where or when this came from.
[8:14] Wild reindeer have been extinct
in Britain for centuries.
[8:17] The antlers have been carbon-dated
[8:19] to somewhere around
the 11th or 12th century,
[8:21] so, about a millennium old,
[8:23] but that doesn’t mean they’ve been
in the village that long.
[8:25] There’s a decent chance that they
were imported from Scandinavia,
[8:28] although why and how they ended up
in a Staffordshire village, no idea.
[8:32] This paper with the carbon dating
has thirty-seven citations
[8:35] and none of them have
any actual explanation.
[8:38] Its conclusion is basically,
“We don’t know”.
[8:40] I did find a photo dated 1899,
[8:43] and the metadata there says
that the Horn Dance
[8:45] “celebrates the granting of the Charter
of the Forest by King Henry III”.
[8:49] That’s a law that restored
some rights to commoners.
[8:51] But that idea seems to come from the notes
in a Victorian-era book of pictures
[8:55] by documentarian, Sir Benjamin Stone,
[8:57] and the language in there seems to imply
that the writer just…
[9:00] decided that?
[9:02] It says that the dance “clearly indicates
its original object”
[9:05] and that “clearly, therefore,
the primary intent
[9:08] “was to assert certain rights”
about hunting.
[9:10] That seems to have as much evidence
behind it
[9:12] as my idea about it being
a charity parade.
[9:15] We all interpret what we see
through our own lens.
[9:18] Anyway, they let some of the spectators
have a quick go,
[9:21] they continued along country roads,
picking up more and more people,
[9:24] performing in someone’s front garden.
[9:25] You can see there’s fewer cameras out now,
[9:27] it’s more locals and some enthusiastic
folklore tourists.
[9:30] The sun started to get higher in the sky
and it got warm as we kept walking.
[9:33] There was also a performance at a country
house for the local dignitaries
[9:36] where the riffraff like me
must stay outside the boundaries.
[9:40] (music continues)
[9:41] As we moved through quieter country lanes,
[9:43] the discipline of the dance wasn’t held
to quite such strict standards:
[9:47] often they were just out for a walk
while holding some horns,
[9:49] although cars were still getting stuck
behind the big crowd.
[9:53] -Oh, that car timed it wrong, didn’t he?
 -Yeah.
[9:55] The music occasionally got
a little less traditional, too.
[9:58] (‘Dam Busters March’
playing on accordions)
[10:08] (crowd applauding)
[10:10] Did I hear the Dam Busters
drop in there briefly?
[10:13] You’ll hear all sorts of things
depending on his mood.
[10:16] (laughter)
[10:17] Anything from Nelly the Elephant… 
(laughter)
[10:20] Yes, I slipped up there.
[10:21] I didn’t mean to play
that this early in the day!
[10:23] And then, at the next pit stop,
[10:25] they called for more spectators
to have a go,
[10:27] so I volunteered.
[10:29] That turned out to be
slightly painful,
[10:31] and I’ll explain the reason
for that in a moment.
[10:33] I’ve been on the road in Japan
for a couple of weeks,
[10:36] and all my mobile data has been going
through one of Saily’s eSIMs.
[10:40] I can report that it’s
worked really well.
[10:42] the data speeds are fast,
the network coverage is wide
[10:44] and I don’t have to pay the ridiculous
roaming charges from my regular provider.
[10:49] I’ve had no problems.
[10:50] So if you’re travelling soon, download Saily
now, while you’re watching this video.
[10:54] Then when you set off,
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[10:56] Buy a pass just before you
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[10:59] and your phone will work
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[11:02] you take it out of airplane mode,
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[11:05] And that way you don’t have to pay
[11:06] however much your home network
 wants from you for roaming.
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the world, or for whole regions,
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[11:21] You can download Saily right now
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[11:29] for an extra discount.
[11:30] With most of the crew
taking a break,
[11:32] I volunteered to be one of
the civilians having a go.
[11:35] So I handed my camera
to someone,
[11:37] and picked up some antlers.
[11:38] -One hand there.
 -Yeah.
[11:40] -And then, so this hand down. 
 -Use that hand and balance it up here.
[11:43] However’s comfier. 
-Yeah. Right.
[11:45] If…okay, yep. This…
[11:47] It’s heavier and both much less balanced
than I thought it was.
[11:51] This could be an 800+ year old set
of antlers here...
[11:55] Oh easily yeah.
[11:56] That I’m just holding
with one hand and my shoulders.
[11:57] Yeah, you’ll be fine.
[11:59] Thanks! (laughs) No pressure.
-No pressure.
[12:02] That’s…that’s stable. I’ve got that, okay.
[12:06] At least I hope I’ve got that.
[12:08] -Has anyone told you what to do yet?
 -No.
[12:10] -Okay, good.
 -No.
[12:12] -Good. Same here.
 -I’m very nervous...
[12:13] -Same!
 -...that something’s gonna break off.
[12:15] Oh, apparently you’re holding the one
they’ve carbon dated to the 12th century.
[12:18] Oh, my God. I think I’m holding
the littlest one.
[12:21] -Yes, that is the lightest one.
[12:23] -That’s why you’ve given it to me. 
 -This is unfortunately the heaviest one.
[12:25] -The delicate girly. 
-(laughter)
[12:27] -Alright.
 -Get between us.
[12:29] -And I’ll follow you.
 -Yep.
[12:30] What about when we’re doing
the back-and-forth thing? Do I just...?
[12:33] Ah, it’ll make sense as we go.
[12:34] (laughter)
[12:36] Okay!
 -You’ll work it out.
[12:37] Right!
[12:38] (music starts)
[12:52] There is one thing I’m worried about
as I’m showing this off to the world.
[12:56] There are plenty of British traditions
that have come close to ruin
[12:59] thanks to the internet.
[13:00] The annual cheese rolling at Cooper’s Hill
used to be a tiny local event like this,
[13:05] but back in 2010 a rush of publicity
meant it was cancelled
[13:08] due to overcrowding,
and it nearly died out.
[13:10] The Lewes Bonfire is now so overcrowded
that they urge the public not to attend,
[13:15] trains don’t stop at the local stations,
roads are closed.
[13:18] The Horn Dance is a little protected
against all that:
[13:21] there’s less fire and spectacle,
[13:23] and it’s a gentle, all-day event
held on a Monday.
[13:26] But you saw how many cameras there were,
mine included,
[13:28] all of us jostling to try and make it look
like there weren’t as many cameras there,
[13:32] because that’s less authentic.
[13:35] I do have a duty of care
to the places I visit.
[13:38] Anyway, here’s where I get hit
in the teeth.
[13:40] The real trick is how close
can you get together...
[13:42] It’s fine, we got it, we got it!
(laughter)
[13:45] -Without getting dizzy of course. 
-(laughter)
[13:47] Already dizzy, already dizzy.
[13:50] -Oof!
 -Careful.
[13:52] -Oh, my... 
-Well, that hit me in the teeth, so…
[13:55] My concerns, in order: first, do I still
have all my teeth? Yes.
[13:59] Second, are the horns okay?
[14:01] Yes, they’ve survived centuries,
and they’re horns.
[14:04] They’re literally made by deer
to get clashed together.
[14:07] Third, did I get that on camera?
[14:09] Yes, I did.
[14:11] Oof!
[14:11] But the dance must go on,
[14:13] even if holding the camera out made me
look like the worst of vloggers.
[14:19] Mornin’.
[14:20] And you’ll notice that when we cross over,
[14:22] the experts have learnt to duck
their antlers down to avoid
[14:26] having the exact sort of collision
that I had.
[14:29] (cheering applause)
[14:35] (music stops)
[14:38] -Yeah, thank you so, so much.
 -No problem, mate.
[14:40] -That is so kind of you.
 -I’ve got hold of it.
[14:43] Whoo! (laughter)
[14:45] -Survived, did it? 
-Well, I clashed antlers with someone...
[14:48] -I’m intrigued to see that, actually. 
-So am I.
[14:57] Next time, or right now
on Nebula:
[15:01] I help wind and fire
22 tonnes of mediaeval destruction.