A Flax Corn Dolly on Blockhouse Park 2022
In March 2022, in partnership with the Village Hub, we built giant a Corn Dolly made of flax straw. The week long flax corn dolly making event took place in Blockhouse Park and Stoke Community Centre.
In July, at Stoke Village Fun Day, the Flax Corn Dolly was carried up to a prepared plot on Blockhouse Park, accompanied by the Dartmoor Border Morris. A dolly was crumbled into the soil, releasing the spirit of nature before sowing the flax, the Dartmoor Border Morris performed The Cuckoo’s Nest Morris Dance. This was very late to be sowing, at this point we were a little bit out of sync with the seasons. The flax was harvested at the end of October. It was made possible by funding from Plymouth Octopus.
This was the first time we grew flax on Blockhouse, we have continued to do this, one way or another every year since. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it shines, sometimes we have funding and sometimes we don’t. The sunshine and the funding really help!
Blockhouse Folk and the Seed Guardian 2024
In 2024 The Blockhouse Flax and Giant Corn Dolly part of the brilliant Heritage Lottery funded project Blockhouse Folk 2024 curated by Rachel Dobbs for The Village Hub https://blockhousefolk.thevillagehub.org.uk/seasonal-celebrations/. The Giant Corn Dolly became the ‘Seed Guardian’, a beautiful song was written by Gin Farrow-Jones, see below, and we had corn dolly workshops, drawing on traditional pre-Christian folklore from across England and Northern Europe. All this led up to a grand event where the Plymouth Morris performed for the Seed Guardians inaugural appearance at the sowing of the Flax Circle.
THE BLOCKHOUSE FLAX SONG BY GIN FARROW JONES
DESCRIBING THE PROCESS – SOW TO SEW
TO THE TUNE OF ‘EARL-EYE IN THE MORNING’
Here we plough the flaxen field
flaxen field
flaxen field
Here we plough the flaxen field
Earl-eye in the morning
Sowing with no wind-e-oh
no wind-e-oh
no wind-e-oh
Sowing with no wind-e-oh
Earl-eye in the morning
Pulling up the root-e-ohs
root-e-ohs
root-e-ohs
Pulling up the root-e-ohs
Earl-eye in the morning
Stooking dries the beet-e-ohs
beet-e-ohs
beet-e-ohs
Stooking dries the beet-e-ohs
Earl-eye in the morning
Rippling next years seed-e-ohs
seed-e-ohs
seed-e-ohs
Rippling next years seed-e-ohs
Earl-eye in the morning
Retting is a stink-e-oh
a stink-e-oh
a stink-e-oh
Retting is a stink-e-oh
Earl-eye in the morning
Scutching for shedding shive-e-ohs
shive-e-ohs
shive-e-ohs
Scutching for shedding shive-e-ohs
Earl-eye in the morning
Hackling combs flaxen shine-e-oh
shine-e-oh
shine-e-oh
Hackling combs flaxen shine-e-oh
Earl-eye in the morning
Spin wheel in hand for thread-e-oh
thread-e-oh
thread-e-oh
Spin wheel in hand for thread-e-oh
Earl-eye in the morning
Hear the loom’s shuttle the weave-e-oh
weave-e-oh
weave-e-oh
Hear the loom’s shuttle the weave-e-oh
Earl-eye in the morning