2015 Lincoln Jag Day
Start at West Common Crescent, Scunthorpe (except Geoff Miller who went straight to Lincoln)
11.00 Meet at the Lincolnshire Life Museum
12.00 The Strugglers Inn, Westgate
12.40 Castle Square
1.20 The Victoria, Union Road
2.00 Museum of Lincolnshire Life
Characters
Rag Fool Steve Hindley S
Recruiting Sergeant Geoff Convery S
The Lady Gordon Griffin
The Horse Colin Spence
Joe Straw Chris Marshall
Flash Hatman/ Green Man Dick Skinner Musician
Beelzebub Dave Barlow S
Dame Jane Gordon Griffin S
The Doctor Geoff Miller S
Besom Betty Gordon Griffin
This day of Plough Jags was arranged by Grimsby Morris and the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. Grimsby Morris had set up an exhibition of photographs and information concerning Plough Jags in Lincolnshire within the Museum and they invited Coleby Plough Jag and Branston Plough Jag to take part in performances in Lincoln. Grimsby Morris perform Plough Plays from different Lincolnshire villages each year and for this day they performed the play from ???????.
Each team performed at each of four venues all doing their final show at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. It was an interesting mix of performances and interpretation as each of the three teams has a different background. Branston Plough Jag are an amateur dramatic team, Grimsby Morris are, as the name suggests, a Morris Dance team, and Coleby Plough Jag originates from Scunthorpe Folk Song Club.
For various reasons, mainly those of health, Coleby Plough Jag had to do some last minute rearranging of cast members and even then we were short of a full team. Fortunately we were still able to put on a full performance thanks to Gordon playing the part of each of the ‘females’ The Lady, Dame Jane and Besom Betty. (this is not the first time that he has done so ). Chris Marshall, who is usually the videographer, stepped in as Joe Straw, Steve Hindley took on the role of The Fool, and Dick Skinner became the first ever Green Flash Hatman. The sword dance was reduced to five instead of six making the nut a bit small but we have done it with four ( see York 18.6.1994 Freemasons event, when the Jag was performed by seven persons. I think Gordon did three parts on that day too.)
The day was fine and cold and there was some resistance to performing outside at the Strugglers and the Victoria but inside was tighter than the Eight Jolly Brewers at Gainsborough in both pubs. The small size of the audiences at both pubs was offset by the availability of good beers and the large audiences in the Castle Square and at the Museum.
Lots of good photos thanks to Allison Gennery.
Sadly, in between this performance and the one in January we lost Geoff Turner to a brain tumour. Martin Campbell gave a fine eulogy at Geoff’s funeral which included much on Geoff’s involvement in the folk singing world and the Coleby Plough Jag. We already miss him very much.
Geoff Turner’s funeral was held on Friday, 30th January 2015 at Grimsby Crematorium
