| Where: | Curry Rivel, Somerset , around the village and formerly at the King William IV on the High Street |
| When: | 6 pm onwards around the village (formerly at pub, then back at pub 10 pm or so). |
| Time: | 5th January |
The Ashen Faggot is a West Country Christmas custom – it’s a large log with withies bound around it to make a bundle which is burned indoors in the hearth. Drinks are consumed as each withy breaks in the flames, which sounds like as good an excuse as any! The practice still survives in country pubs notably the Lutrell Arms in Dunster, Somerset and the Harbour Inn at Axmouth in Devon and in both these cases, the burning takes place on Christmas Eve -in some other locations it takes place on January 5th or 17th which are Old Christmas Eve and Old Twelfth Night respectively, if you adhere to the pre-Gregorian calendar. Wassailing is a traditional luck-bringing custom associated with apple orchards dating back at least a few hundred years; the word has its origins in the Old English toast “waes hael” meaning Good Health. Revivals are particularly common in cider producing areas such as the West Country and Herefordshire and are usually in mid-January but can take place as early as Christmas. Expect singing, morris dancing, cider offerings to the trees (and in some cases pieces of toast), beating the branches and lots of noise including firing shotguns into the trees to wake them up. At Curry Rivel they burn their faggot every 5th January and it’s combined with the local Wassail custom – until the closure of the King William pub it was a long-standing unbroken tradition. The wassailing party used to meet and end their tour of the village at the pub, and had done so for a great many years – the period between was essentially a villagers’ event but you might be squeezed in if space was available and the parts at the pub were a public event open to all.
Helpful Hints
I researched this for 2020 as the King William has now permanently closed – trying to find out if another public venue will take over with the Faggot or not. I was able to find out absolutely nothing! If you know anything please drop me a line!
As far as I know the local wassail around the houses continues -the wassail part is tricky to get details for as it’s very much a locals visiting locals event. I thought that the pub part would be possible to find out about if it’s been moved elsewhere but I’m unable to confirm this. If you’re thinking of visiting a wassail there are lots around the country which you can easily find details for – there are a few others on this site or just try searching online with a location (there are too many to keep track of on this site!). And there are a few Ashen Faggots, notably at Dunster and Laymore (see separate articles).
Click here for the village Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CurryRivel/
and here for the Wassailing Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Curry-Rivel-Wassailing-1827720804001175/
I found the archive photo on the internet but don’t know who owns the copyright- please let me know if it’s you!
View this location on the map.
I love “firing shotguns into the trees to wake them up.” I wonder, with climate change causing many species of trees to be highly stressed (Douglas Firs here in the Pacific Northwest, Baobabs dying in Madagascar) if we might not try to awaken the trees to their plight and join with them in some good prevention work. That’s my mission right now, to send energy to the trees and try to get them to radically change their natural tendency to “take what comes” in favor of just a wee tilt in the direction of activism!
I love the idea of this site, and would like to comment sometimes, but am being blocked because I am not using WordPress. I have no idea what to do.
Hi Anita,
It’s ok your comments haven’t been blocked – all comments sent to calendarcustoms have to be approved before they appear on the site, and there is a short delay while that process takes place.You don’t need to do anything else!
Averil