Ramsey Straw Bear Procession, plough blessing and massed molly dancing
From: 1pm until 2pm
At: Ramsey Junior School, Great Whyte and Abbey Green, Ramsey
Address: Starting at Ramsey Junior School, Station Rd, Ramsey, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE26 1JA
How Plough Monday was revived in Ramsey
Organiser: Gordon Phillips / 07878 000 175
"Hole in your stocking, hole in your shoe,
Please will you give me a penny or two?
If you ent got a penny a ha'penny will do,
If you ent got a ha'penny, then God Bless You!"
The Ramsey Straw Bear, accompanied by Ouse Washes Molly dancers and a horde of children from local schools, will parade from the Junior School in Station Road, via Whytefield Road, Great Whyte and Little Whyte, to Abbey Green, Hollow Lane, for a massed display of Molly Dancing following the blessing of the plough.
Gordon Phillips, founder of Ouse Washes Molly Dancers says;
"We resurrected Plough Monday events in the town in 2009, as a result of a number of stimuli. Nicky Stockman and I were working in a project called Cambridgeshire Roots and during that we found out the the Ramsey area had one of the oldest Plough Monday traditions, probably older than many other places and it also had a tradition that certainly went on longer than anywhere else. As part of the project we met several people who went out on the day in their youth in the 1950s/60s, two of whom came into Ramsey School and taught the children the Ramsey song, that has been sung in the town for at least 150 years."