The Pace-Egg Play in the Upper Calder Valley: Evidence Relating to a Folk Play Tradition, Illustrating its Features and Social Function from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. A Discussion of its Continuity

Description

M.A. research exercise examining the history and contemporary manifestations of the Pace Egg Play (a form of Mumming play), customarily performed each Easter in the towns and villages of the Calder Valley. The study presents a description of the Pace Egg Play and the area where it is performed, with oral, manuscript and printed testimony of the traditional play before the 1930s in Midgley, Blackshaw Head, Heptonstall, Luddenden, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge and Stainland, in conjunction with photographs, texts and fieldwork interview recordings. The study also assesses the development of the play and its social aspect since 1930, and offers individual histories of the play in Midgley, Mytholmroyd, Brighouse and Heptonstall, a Table of Locations of play versions, descriptions of performances of the play in 1975, supplemented by the collector's photographs, sound recordings and manuscript field notes. The study discusses ideas arising from this material, including that of the institutionalisation of an item of folklore as being one aspect of the item's own history. The development of the play's form and function is also analysed. Play texts for Midgley, Brighouse, Heptonstall and Stainland are presented in an appendix, including also the tune transcription of the closing song sung as part of the Midgley performance. Appendix B lists all the photographs (1975, 1913, 1930s onwards) of the play in Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge, Halifax, Brighouse and Luddenden. A number of photographs reproduced from local newspapers and magazines are also included.

Metadata

Identifier vztxss6f
IRN 409983
Class Mark LAVC/SRP/1/087
Level File
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/vztxss6f
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Postgraduate Theses and Dissertations
Creator(s) Swan, Nigel T
Date 1975
Size and Medium 138 unbound typed leaves; 34 colour, 50 b/w photographs. 3 volumes. 2 files.

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