Maypole at Yarmouth School 1950s

For several years when I was at Yarmouth school in the 1950’s we had a Maypole dancing team that used to practise in the boys’ play ground during school time. There were many combinations of weaving in and out of each other round the Maypole which gave nice patterns to the ribbons. Whilst you were dancing you weren’t  really aware of the pattern forming above you as you were concentrating on the actual dancing in and out, around each other to avoid getting the ribbons tangled up or falling over each other…. all hazards of Maypole dancing! It was only when you stopped dancing that you could see the pattern that you had made. That was the easy bit.

We then had a short break of a few minutes to catch our breath then we had to dance round in the opposite direction to unwind the pattern and eventually end up as we had started, with no pattern and straight ribbons. I’m not entirely sure why we spent so many hours practising as the only public performance that I can recall was either up The Mount in the years when they held a summer garden fete, or over the bridge at a house called, I believe, ‘Cracknells’ when they took over the summer fete after the Mount. In both cases there were dignitaries present such as May O’ Connor who I think was the head of IWCC Education, and the IW Lord Lieutenant, so the dancing had to be spot on or else!

Peter Smith b 1946