I’ve been watching Suffolk and Norfolk: Country and Coast on the box. It’s a gentle pilgrimage through the timeless counties that make up ancient East Anglia. By episode five, we reached the picture-postcard Norfolk village of Great Hockham – AKA Hockham Magna – and its Hornfair. The annual bash dates back to 1272 when King Henry III granted the villagers permission to hold a fair and weekly market. These days it’s an excuse to get a bit silly with daft games like the Woodchop Challenge and the World Stick Balancing Championship. And then there’s molly dancing. Molly who? You may well ask.
Molly dancing is a form of English Morris dance which was traditionally done by out-of-work ploughboys during midwinter in the 19th century. It was a way to fill the fallow season between Christmas and spring ploughing. The farmhands would visit the more well-to-do parishioners and offer to dance for money – because a boy’s gotta eat. Those who refused might see their mixed borders turned over.
Molly was an old term for an ‘effeminate man’, and dancers always included at least one fella dressed in women’s clothes. Who knew 19th-century country life could be so fluid? I wonder what else the molly boys did for a few farthings when times were hard? Well, it’s better than slipping a ring on Daisy the cow.
Molly dancing has enjoyed a recent revival, and the Hockham troupe are called the Clobhoppers – clumsy bumkins – and here they are in action doing a rather aggressive stick dance. These molly men don’t muck about, even in a frock. And don’t be put off by their black faces. It’s not intended to be racist. The ploughboys of old painted their faces with soot so they wouldn’t be recognised as they ploughed up your prize pansies.
