| Where: | St Nichlolas at Wade at the Village Hall and often Sarre, Kent at the Crown Inn(see schedule on website link for full details) |
| When: | Late December |
| Time: | Evenings from 5pm |
Hoodening is a midwinter custom in Kent involving a hooden horse, a hobby-horse type head on a pole with the operator covered by a sheet. In the past Hoodeners used to visit houses and perform plays in return for largesse; nowadays you’re more likely to find them touring pubs and fund-raising for charity. Several revivals have taken place in modern times after the custom almost died out ; one of the best established is based at St Nicholas at Wade, where they perform a topical humourous play involving the traditional mumming themes of death and resurrection in the run-up to Christmas. Expect Dobbin the Horse with his Waggoner and a supporting cast with musicians. Carol singing follows with audience participation!
Helpful Hints
In 2024 they should perform on dates from 18th to 23rd December at various times and locations including the Village Hall at St Nicholas at Wade, the Gate Inn at Marshside and the Crown at Sarre- check the links below for complete up-to-date venues and timings, and any last-minute changes.
The Cherry Brandy from the Crown at Sarre is highly recommended!! The performance there takes place in the dining area.
Click here for the event website with full schedule: http://www.hoodening.org.uk/index.html
and here for the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hoodeners/
I apologise if you have been contacted already regarding the Ramsgate Arts Summer Squall, but, just in case you haven’t, we’d like to know if the St Nicholas at Wade Hoodeners would like to participate in The Summer Squall Parade on Bank Holiday Monday (26th August). Ramsgate Arts has organised a raft of arts related events during the bank holiday weekend (see ramsgatearts.org). The climax of the festival is a parade on the Monday evening at 7.30pm down to Ramsgate Main Sands, where a 24′ boat will be burnt to the sound of sea shanty singing!
If you would like to take part, we would love to hear from you!
Regards,
Anette Mutton
Hi Anette,
Thanks for your email!The Calendarcustoms website doesn’t have any connection with the organisation of the individual featured events, but if you click the link to http://www.hoodening.org.uk/hoodening-schedule.html you’ll see a contact phone number for the Hoodeners near the top of the page. Sounds like a good night out – hope all goes well!
Best wishes,
Averil