Serving the Community of Gawthorpe
Welcome to Gawthorpe Maypole Official Site,
home of the Gawthorpe Maypole Procession and World Coal Carrying Championships.
Featured in Country Life
“6 of the best May Day festivals…”
“Every first Saturday in May, the Yorkshire village of Gawthorpe—home to the earliest recorded permanent maypole (1850), not to mention the annual World Coal Carrying Championships—is taken over by a joyous pageant, one of the most well-established of its kind. Colourfully decorated floats, a May Queen and attendants, maidens in white, marching bands and the generally fancily-dressed public (some on horseback) parade for about 4½ miles and congregate on Maypole Green, where elaborate dances, which are said to include the most comprehensive plaiting sequences in the country and take six months to learn, are performed around the maypole by local schoolchildren. There’s also a funfair and coronation of the May Queen.”
Quote taken from http://www.countrylife.co.uk
