| Where: | Barwick in Elmet, Yorkshire on the Green |
| When: | Spring Bank Holiday Monday (end of May) every three years (not annually) |
| Time: | All day from 10 am |
The Maypole at Barwick in Elmet is one of the tallest poles in the country and is the focus of major celebrations triennially. The pole is taken down on Easter Monday for refurbishing and is re-erected on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday, freshly painted, gilded and decked with new garlands. Processions take place during the day with floats, morris dancers, maypole dancing and a Maypole Queen with the focus of the festivities being the raising of the Pole. Filling in the backfill around the base takes some time so be prepared for a long wait if you volunteer to hang on to one of the ropes used to keep the pole upright. Later in the day a brave man will attempt to climb the pole and spin the weathervane at the top!
Helpful Hints
The event happens every three years, not annually – the last one was in 2022 so the next is due on May 26th 2025. Look out for details on the excellent Facebook page.
Click here for the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/barwickmaypoletrust/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf
When does the maypole come down? I can’t find any information regarding that.
Usually it’s Easter Monday so they have time to spruce it up.
I meant after the dancing had commenced? Is it after the summer solstice or sooner? Sorry I wasn’t more clear in what I was looking for.
Sorry – I got the wrong end of the stick! The big maypole doesn’t come down – it stays in place all year round except for when it’s being refurbished before the Festival. The festival happens every 3 years and the pole is taken down on the Easter Monday in festival years so that it can be re-erected on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. The children don’t dance around the big Maypole – a child-size portable one is erected on the snowfield for them to perform their plaited ribbon dances and this is dismantled straight after the dancing (you can see the different poles if you check out the photos on the page, above the map). The big festival event featuring the Maypole (part from actually putting it back up which is a feat in itself!) is the pole climb where a brave soul shimmies up the pole to spine the weather vane on top.
Thank you for the information. I have been wanting to do this for some time, but wasn’t sure when the ribbons were traditionally taken down. No one on the sites I visited relayed that information. I have seen people leave the ribbons up for sometime, but was thinking of taking them down when the summer solstice arrived.
It seems like an appropriate time, for the longest day 🙂
Please can you tell me
What time to e maypole goes up on Thursday
Is it 10.00 thank you xx
Hi Brenda, yes the maypole carriers assemble at about 10 am ready to carry the pole to its position, then lower it into the hole- it takes a little time to do that, maybe until mourned 11 am, then the hole is backfilled which takes much longer. Hope you enjoy it- there’s plenty going on all day!
Averil