Boozers in Hartley Wintney can rest easy after the orchard’s cider apples were blessed.
On Friday, January 7, the Hook Eagle Morris Men carried out the centuries-old tradition of Waissailing in the village.
More than 100 people turned out for the torch-lit procession from the Wagon And Horses pub on the High Street to Hartley Wintney Community Orchard on Hunts Common.
During the quarter-of-a-mile march the Morris Men, dressed in traditional Border Morris garb of blacked out faces, rag jackets, and feathered hats, sang traditional Wassailing songs.
At the two-hectare orchard, Steve Hayes, the Squire of Hook Eagle Morris Men, blessed the site.
The blessing involved putting a piece of toast onto an apple tree and sprinkling the tree roots with cider.
Then the whole procession shouted and chanted to scare away any evil spirits.
The Bagman – or secretary of the group, John Ellis, said: “It was a good evening and the turn out was really pleasing given the wet weather.
“The people of Hartley Wintney are always up for strange and bizarre events – they do like their community events.”
Wassailing is believed to be an ancient Anglo-Saxon pagan ritual. How far the tradition dates back is unknown but it was widely practiced in the Middle Ages.
In the cider producing counties in the southwest England the purpose of a wassail was to ensure a good cider harvest by banishing evil spirits.
In Hartley Wintney the wassail has been an annual fixture on the village calendar since 2001. Last year’s event was cancelled due to snow.
Mr Ellis, said: “We are as Morris Men in the business of keeping English traditions alive so we have to look outside of Morris dancing to get people in communities to come together.
“We are trying to do our bit in a funny sort of way to keep the old traditions going.”
The Hartley Wintney Community Orchard was opened in 2000 as part of the Millennium project and contains more than 100 fruit trees.
The orchard was renamed to Vaughan Millennium Orchard in memory former parish council clerk Patrick Vaughan in 2009.
