Plough Monday : 

Molly Dancing for Anyone and Everyone

Watch or join in (see below) this traditional reminder of the labour that goes into growing food and the respect for those that work on the land.

This regional tradition is still strong in Maldon. A plough is paraded through the town accompanied by Molly dancers with black faces and hobble-de-hoy peasant costumes. Although the precise nature of the tradition is lost in the mists of time, there is a record in 1522 of the Plough being housed at Heybridge church. Then it was a reminder that if the agricultural workers starved in the lean winter months there would be nothing to eat in the summer. Today the same message applies: Food doesn't grow in supermarkets and still needs long hours of lonely work in the fields. Today the plough is blessed (for the sum of 1s and 3d) as it would have been in 1522 and earlier. 

On the night

The progression starts at 7:00pm on the quay. It then proceeds via Warwick Arms and up the High Street to finish at about 9pm at the Blue Boar.  

Praise to the Ploughboy

 

The ploughboy plods behind his horse
 To keep the ploughshare in its course
 Sun and rain draw up the grain
What is buried will rise again
 To line the land with furrows straight
The plough team works from dawn till late
Figures crawling 'cross wide fields
Make the bed for summer's yields
The steady pressure of man's hand
Leaves his sign upon the land
In time the fields grow what we need
For bread and ale on which we feed
2000 seasons go to show
We still need fields for food to grow
So praise the lonely tractor boy
Who's iron plough we all employ


 Written specially for Plough Monday in Maldon ©

2012 Dates and Locations

Molly dancing Practice

The only time this style of dancing is performed is Plough Monday. It is very simple 'barn dancing' which takes about 45 minutes to learn. 

There is a practice session at the  URC Hall, Market Hill, Maldon, prior to the day so that anyone who wants to can join in.

 

Sun   8th  Jan  2012: 

Practise    URC Hall 4pm - 6pm 

followed by the formal  Blessing of the Plough at St Mary's Church 7:00 pm


Plough Monday

Mon 9th Jan 2012:  The procession meets at 7:00pm at the Little Ships Club on the quay; the procession will start at 7:30 pm.

plough