The Hooden Horse: A Kentish Christmas Custom
By Dr Geoff Doel, University of Canterbury Christ Church
Among distinctive regional Midwinter folk customs in Britain are several featuring animal disguises, particularly men dressed as horses. Most famous is the Welsh Mari Lwyd, featuring a skull, but in East Kent, we have the Hooden Horse, a man under sacking carrying a carved wooden horse’s head, who performs with attendants and, in the 19th century, used to tour from farm to farm over the Christmas period, particularly on Christmas Eve.
Canterbury solicitor and local historian Percy Maylam wrote the definitive book on the Hooden Horse in 1909, featuring an interesting account of Gavelkind. Only 303 copies were printed, and it is rare and valuable. Percy’s great-nephew Richard Maylam,
Mick Lynn and myself have edited a new edition with extra articles for the History Press. Percy meticulously researched documents and correspondence and witnessed the custom many times, first experiencing it as a young man in Thanet in the 1880s, which he vividly describes:
“Anyone who has spent a Christmas in a farm-house in Thanet – it has been my good fortune to spend five – will not forget Christmas Eve…The front door is flung open, and there they all are outside, the ‘Waggoner’ cracking his whip and leading the Horse … which assumes a most restive manner, champing his teeth, and rearing and plunging, and doing his best to unseat the ‘Rider’, who tries to mount him, while the ‘Waggoner’ shouts ‘whoa!’ and snatches at the bridle. ‘Mollie’ is there also! She is a lad dressed up in woman’s clothes and vigorously sweeps the ground behind the horse with a birch broom. There are generally two or three other performers besides, who play the concertina, tambourine or instruments of that kind.”
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Fig 1: St Nicholas at Wade Hoodeners, Sarre, 1905 (Maylam)
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Fig 2: St Nicholas Hoodeners, Canterbury 21 Dec 2019 (Geoff Doel)
Percy Maylam’s numerous accounts include a letter of 1891 recounting the custom some 45 years earlier from one who went the rounds with the Hooden Horse:
“It was always the custom on Christmas Eve with the male farm- servants in our parish of Hoath and neighbouring parishes of Herne and Chislet, to go round in the evening from house to house with the Hoodining Horse, which consisted of the imitation of a horse’s head made of wood, life-size, fixed on a stick about the length of a broom handle: the lower jaw… was made to open with hinges, a hole was made through the roof of the mouth, then another by the forehead coming out by the throat, through this was passed a cord attached to the lower jaw, which when pulled…caused it to open; on the lower jaw large headed hob-nails were driven in to form the teeth…As soon as the doors were open the ’horse’ would pull his string incessantly and the noise made can be better imagined than described…I have seen some of the wooden heads carved out quite hollow in the throat part, and two holes bored through the forehead to form the eyes. The lad who played the horse would hold a lighted candle in the hollow, and you can imagine how horrible it was to one who opened the door.”
Percy Maylam visited, arranged photographs of, and described survivals of the declining custom at St Nicholas at Wade, Walmer and Deal in the Edwardian period, the Deal party only had two members, but his intervention at St Nicholas brought back the recently discarded Mollie. A letter sent to me in the 1980s from Naomi Wiffen, brought up in Deal, shows the custom still lingering at Christmas shopping in the 1930s:
“I remember as a child being taken out on Christmas Eve to the High Street in Deal where the shops would be open very late, and it was the only time Deal children were allowed out in the evening, as parents were very strict. As we would be looking at the lighted shops, and listening to the people selling their wares, a horrible growl, and a long horse’s face would appear, resting on our
shoulder and when one looked round, there would be a long row of teeth snapping at us with its wooden jaws. It was frightening for a child. Usually, there would be a man leading the horse, with a rope, and another covered over with sacks or blankets as the horse.”
Percy Maylam provided the raw material for a revival. After a break of 40 years, St Nicholas at Wade Hoodeners began a lively rebirth in the 1960s with the addition of a village play, which is still going strong in the capable hands of Ben Jones, who helpfully provides an excellent website and archive.
Several new sites and revivals sprang up in Thanet and elsewhere; the Broadstairs Folk Festival adopted the Hooden Horse as its symbol, and morris sides such as The East Kent, Dead Horse and Hartley introduced hooden horses. My Tonbridge Hoodeners
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Fig 3: Canterbury Hoodeners New Inn (Geoff Doel 2016)
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Fig 4: The Tonbridge Mummers & Hoodeners with Richard Maylam & the Lord Lieutenant of Kent at the Kent County Show. 1999
Antrobus traditions. South East Arts sponsored a book on the custom by my wife Fran & myself, which inspired the creation of a chain of Hooden Horse pubs, talks on the custom and further revivals.
James Frost, a leading researcher and lecturer on performing Arts and organiser of the Canterbury Hoodeners, has masterminded an exciting new exhibition on Hoodening at Maidstone Museum from 8 February to 17 June 2023, featuring two horses stored in the Museum and many other fascinating artefacts, with talks, panel discussions and performances.
Percy’s book and the exhibition explore a possible link with the vibrant Summer hobby horse tradition. Are they all remnants of early horse cults, as Percy suggests, or independent traditions? 19th century accounts emphasise festive enjoyment, money and beer!
“We wish ye a merry Christmas And a happy New Year,
A pocketful of money and A cellarful of beer.”
(The Eythorne Hoodeners)
I’d be interested to hear of any further information on the custom from KAS members please (geoffdoel@btinternet.com).
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Fig 5: Hooden Horses from Wingham at Maidstone Museum (Photo Geoff Doel)
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Fig 6: Isobel & Hooden Horses at Maidstone Museum (Geoff Doel 1983)