The Maypole at Pagan Hill

On my way back home from my visit to John and Liz this morning, I drove down Whiteshill. At the bottom there is a small road junction marked both by a tiny grass triangle in the middle of the junction and the maypole which sits in the middle of what was originally the village green. I was surprised to see the flag flying today as I don't remember noticing one there before, but I may just be unobservant.

Pagan Hill Maypole has been sited there for more than two centuries, off and on. The current one is fibreglass and more than 60 feet high which replaced the last larch tree in the 1980s, and the even taller 120 foot tree which preceded that until the 1920s.

I've seen a typed note from 1953 telling the history as far as it was known. Apparently 'after an accident when one was being erected the Squire of the Manor banned the maypole, but the villagers took the matter into their own hands. One night they stole a tree from Pen Woods and erected it on the green, for which they were imprisoned, but a pole has been there ever since. Paul Hawkins Fisher in his 'Recollections of Stroud', a celebrated local history written in the 1870s, mentions this. He tells how the villagers elected a ayor each year, and how he was taken to the village pond in a chair where he soaked everyone near him with water. This happened on each Whit Monday when there was  general merrymaking. Every house was thrown open to visitors and much cider was consumed.'

The Second World War brought about the revival of the Mayor's show and the Village Fair, when a committee was set up to raise money for the Welcome Home Fund. They thought up the idea of holding an election for the Mayor and for this became an annual event attracting people from all over the county of Gloucestershire.

'There can be no comparison between old time events and those of the present times (early 1950s). Stalls are erected in the village street, there is a carnival with the Mayor, Mayoress, Aldermen, Town Crier etc heading the carnival procession, open-air dancing, skittles and refreshments such as hot dogs and baked potatoes. The Mayor at the last Fair in 1950 was put on trial to prove he was worthy to hold Office before he was inaugurated again, done with much ceremony and toasting'. 

I find it interesting that there is no mention of dancing around the Maypole, or anything suggesting its ancient connections to pagan celebration. Very strange considering the village is called Pagan Hill!