May day in Ickwell

In the picturesque village of Ickwell in North Bedfordshire, stands a very tall red and white pole - striped like that outside a barber shop - with a small crown right at the top. For 364 days of the year it waits, and then on 1 may, it is decorated with branches and ribbons and the May pole comes to life. Today was my first visit to the May day festival of Ickwell - I had quite enough of the Rose Queen as a child - dancing with ribbons around a pole at the church summer fete.

Despite the rain and the wind, village folk came out in their hundeds to watch the dancing, cheer on the Morris men, eat candyfloss and ice cream and wear flowers in their hair. Quaint traditions that have their roots in Pagan times and mark a celebration of spring.

Ickwell has its own tradtion - the old scholars of the village take the last dance around the Maypole in what was announced as the Veterans dance.

I'm afraid I couldn't see what I had taken, as disaster has fallen upon my camera. When I got it out this morning, the screen display had stopped working - showing just a feint and distorted picture. I feel like I have lost a limb, and am at a loss to know what to do. I had been looking forward to some good opportunities to catch the action, but sulked for most of the day, (it was cold - and wet - and I wasn't selling that many cards either!). When I got my camera out at the end of the day, my photographic efforts were, a bit half hearted to say the least.
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[Margo]

Great fun shot

[judith deacon]

Sorry about your camera but you caught a great image here, so nice to see that the old traditions are kept up

[Taffy]

Sheer joy -- a fun image!

[Babs]

What a fun shot. Sorry to hear about your camera. Hope it can be fixed. If not you may need to feel a birthday coming on. I have lots of birthdays, ha ha. I must have had about 8 already this year.

[Lockarec]

I love the atmosphere you have captured in this image. It sounds as though Ickwell has May Day traditions well in hand.

I am so sorry about your camera. I hope it is soon and easily sorted so that you can feel whole again. :)

[Ann Williams]

You've really captured the essence and joy of the celebration and good to see traditions like this continuing. Hope your camera is fixed soon - it must be very frustrating.

[KWind]

Looks like fun!

[Ivan]

Great fun! :) And I was happy with the AV I made recently, thank you - longest ever! Spent many hours over a hot PC! :)

[Wim Enserink]

Interesting picture, especially if it's an old tradition to celebrate May 1st this way.

[~*~ Jo ~*~]

Lovely scene - remember the maypole from when I was young (1st of May being my birthday always made it a special day) Lovely capture.

Sorry about your camera - hope it is fixable.

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Sorry to hear about your camera- hopefully you will be able to get that fixed. In the meantime- you still seemed to capture the fun of the Maypole dance in spite of the viewing issues. Great shot!