Straw Bear

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Straw Bear

In Whittlesey, every January, the "Straw Bear" event takes place. It's an old and ancient festival that fell into decline over the years; the last "Straw Bear" being seen in 1909.

In 1980 it was revived by the Whittlesey Society, and every year since the Straw Bear, together with his keeper, plus a colourful procession of dancers, musicians and onlookers move around this usually quiet market town performing (and stopping for refreshments, of course) outside all of its public houses. As Whittlesey contains many such establishments, and the procession starts at one of them - the Ivy Leaf - before passing the Black Bull, onto the George Hotel on the Market Square, then past Childers to the Bricklayers Arms (and that's just in the morning), you know that the day is going to be a long and enjoyable one.

The afternoon sees continued dancing (and of course more merriment) at the Boat Inn, Hero of Aliwell, Letter B the New Crown, then back outside the George Hotel for the closing ceremony.

Custom has it that the ceremony takes place on the Tuesday following Plough Monday (the 1st Monday after Twelfth Night) although the Straw Bear itself only appears on the Saturday. It's a short existence, because the next day, on Sunday, the "Bear Burning" ceremony takes place, ensuring that a new bear can be created for the following year from the new harvest.

From a small re-start in 1980 this well organised and unique festival has grown from 1 "Bear" and 30 dancers to 1 "Bear" and some 300 dancers and musicians attending from all parts of the UK.

Straw Bear has made friends with a German Straw Bear from Walldürn near Frankfurt, a town that celebrates its own Straw Bear Festival on the Monday before Shrove Tuesday.

The Straw Bear Man

We don't know for sure how the original Straw bear was put together, but reports suggest that great lengths of tightly twisted straw bands were prepared and wound up the arms, legs and body of the man or boy who was unfortunate enough to have been chosen. Two sticks fastened to his shoulders met a point over his head and the straw wound round upon them to form a cone above the "Bear's" head. The face was quite covered and he could hardly see. A tail was provided and a strong chain fastened around the armpits. He was made to dance in front of houses and, in return, gifts of money or of beer and food were expected. It seems that he was considered important. Straw was carefully selected from the best available each year, the harvesters saying, "That'll do for the Bear".

Times though have moved on and The Bear is constructed in a more practical way now. The straw is fixed to a suitable garment, the head supported on a metal frame on the shoulders. This arrangement allows the costume to be removable, which is essential as the length of the processional route and the time taken necessitates two persons 'driving the bear'. The person donning the costume is adding something like 5 stone to his own weight.

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