Gone Medieval Goes Wassailing

Summary

Gone Medieval Podcast Summary: "Gone Medieval Goes Wassailing"

Release Date: January 17, 2025

Host: Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Jaenega

---

Introduction to Wassailing

In the episode titled "Gone Medieval Goes Wassailing," hosts Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Jaenega venture to Gray's Cider Farm in Halstow, Devon, to participate in the Halstow Wassail—a revival of the ancient tradition of wassailing. The hosts set the scene by describing the picturesque Devon countryside, emphasizing the deep connection between the community and its cider-making heritage.

Notable Quote:

"Wassailing is the tradition of singing to bless the trees for a good apple harvest."
— Dr. Eleanor Jaenega (04:39)

History and Evolution of Wassailing

Jim Causley, a key figure in the Halstow Wassail, provides an insightful overview of the tradition's origins and its transformation over time. He explains that wassailing, derived from the Anglo-Saxon phrase "vas hael" meaning "be of good health," historically involved both blessing the orchards and engaging in door-to-door singing to secure goodwill from local lords.

Notable Quote:

"So we're going to celebrate the ancient practice of wassailing. The revellers emerge from the shadows... a simple toast would evolve over centuries into a complex tradition that blended celebration, superstition and community spirit."
— Matt Lewis (09:45)

The Modern Halstow Wassail

The episode delves into the contemporary rendition of wassailing at Gray's Cider Farm, highlighting its establishment in 2020 by artist Simon Pope. This modern incarnation focuses on celebrating the unseen elements of cider making, such as molds, bacteria, and yeasts, thereby bridging medieval practices with modern scientific understanding.

Notable Quote:

"Simon Pope... wanted to celebrate the more unseen elements in traditional cider making, like the mould and bacteria and fungi and the yeasts that are in the air."
— Jim Causley (08:37)

The Cider Process

Theo Gray, representing the 13th generation of his family cider-making lineage at Gray's Cider Farm, discusses the meticulous traditional cider-making process. Emphasizing natural fermentation without artificial additives, Theo underscores the sustainability and authenticity of their craft.

Notable Quote:

"All of the yeast that we end up using is naturally occurring in our cider apples."
— Theo Gray (30:33)

Community Involvement and Significance

The podcast highlights the pivotal role of community in sustaining the wassailing tradition. Participants like Bill and David Ashby share their personal connections to wassailing, emphasizing its role in fostering community bonds and celebrating local heritage.

Notable Quote:

"It's a community gathering which is really important. They don't get enough of them."
— Bill (37:14)

Crafting the Wassail Bowl

Abigail North, a local ceramicist, discusses the creation of the communal wassail bowl used in the ceremony. Made from clay sourced directly from Gray's Farm, the bowl symbolizes the deep connection between the earth, the trees, and the community's cider-making tradition.

Notable Quote:

"It was just a case of making some different shapes to see what would work best. And that's what happened, really."
— Abigail North (42:07)

Ceremonial Rituals and Practices

The episode provides a vivid account of the wassailing ceremony, including the singing of traditional songs, the communal drinking from the wassail bowl, and the symbolic actions performed to bless the orchards and ensure a bountiful harvest.

Notable Quote:

"It's the word wassail echoes through the night, its origins rooted in the old Norse phrase vas heel, meaning good health."
— Matt Lewis (10:00)

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of Wassailing

As the ceremony concludes, hosts reflect on the enduring nature of wassailing and its significance in modern times. They emphasize the importance of preserving such traditions, which not only honor the past but also strengthen community bonds and celebrate the intricate relationship between humans and nature.

Notable Quote:

"It's a testament to the enduring human need for warmth, community and good cheer in the depths of winter. And also of cider."
— Matt Lewis (46:00)

---

Key Takeaways:

• Wassailing is an ancient tradition aimed at blessing apple orchards to ensure a good harvest, blending celebration with community spirit.
• The modern Halstow Wassail integrates traditional practices with contemporary understanding of fermentation and microbiology.
• Community involvement is crucial in sustaining and reviving such traditions, fostering a sense of belonging and continuity.
• The creation of a local wassail bowl from farm-sourced clay symbolizes the deep-rooted connection between the community, the land, and their cider-making heritage.
• Preserving traditions like wassailing serves to honor historical practices while adapting to modern values of sustainability and community cohesion.

For a visual journey and deeper insights, listeners are encouraged to watch the accompanying History Hit documentary on medieval winter celebrations, linked in the episode's show notes.

Transcript

[Matt Lewis]

Hello, I'm Matt Lewis.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

And I'm Dr. Eleanor Jaenega and we're.

[Matt Lewis]

Just popping up here to tell you some insider info.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

If you would like to listen to Gone Medieval ad free and get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to.

[Matt Lewis]

History Hit with the History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries such as my new.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Series on everyone's favorite conquerors, the Normans.

[Matt Lewis]

Or my recent exploration of the castles that made Britain.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

There's a new release to enjoy every week.

[Matt Lewis]

Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com subscribe or find the link in the show Notes for this episode.

[Jim Causley]

ACAST powers the World's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.

[Matt Lewis]

It's the question that's on everyone's mind. How do you live a good life? How much do work, health, relationships matter? What about happiness, meaning money and love? What if you're alone or anxious, ill or in pain? These are the questions we explore weekly on the top ranked Good Life Project podcast hosted by me, award winning author, four time industry founder and perpetual seeker Jonathan Fields. Every week I sit down with world renowned experts, iconic writers and researchers and while everyone from Olympic gold medalists to world shaking activists, a list celebs, musicians and more, all with a single goal to help understand what it truly takes to live a good life and to feel a little less alone along the way. Listen to the Good Life Project podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jim Causley]

ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.

[Matt Lewis]

Acast.com hello. I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History hit podcast that delves into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gob smacking details and latest groundbreaking research. From the Vikings to the printing press, from kings to Popes to the Crusades, we cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories, big and small that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval now, you might be thinking that all the Christmas and New Year festivities are done and dusted for another year. And you took your decorations down on Twelfth Night by the 5th of January, right? So they're all boxed up for the next 11 months or so until it all comes round again. Well, you'd be right. But there are some people and parts of Britain that still celebrate old twelfth night on the 17th of January. It's the time when folks go out to sing to local apple trees. Yes, that's right. Sing to the trees and eat King Cake or Twelfth Night cakes. In a new year act of generosity on the part of the high Lord of history, hit towers. Dr. Elena Jarniger and I have been let out of the gone medieval dungeon and we're being transported to deepest, darkest Devon for a very special treat. We're off to Grays Cider Farm in Halstow to witness the Halstow Wassail, which is a unique and fascinating, actually fairly new tradition, but one which is rooted deep in our medieval past. Wassailing is the tradition of singing to bless the trees for a good apple harvest. The Halstow Wassail tradition has been established over the last few years in conjunction with artists and academics as a celebration of the folklore and science behind cider making. Each year, Greys invite local singers and friends to join them in their orchards to take part in the ceremony and hear songwriter Jim Casley sing their very own Halstow Wassailing song before sharing a sip from the wassail cup to promote a healthy crop. Oh, there we are. Well, it's a little bit blowy up here, but we're on day release. We've come to Halstow Farm near Exeter. And I've managed to bring my best buddy Eleanor with me. Eleanor, why are we here?

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

We are here. It's the best reason to be let out of a dungeon of all time. We are here for a wassail.

[Jim Causley]

Wassel.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Wassel. So this is the most exciting possible thing because A, we're gonna do something really medieval, B, we're gonna hear some really cool songs based on old folk traditions, and C, we're gonna have cider.

[Matt Lewis]

There will be cider.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

I can't wait.

[Matt Lewis]

Neither can I. But just before we find out more about what the evening has in store for us, I want you to imagine a winter's night just like this one, but many centuries ago. Frost is clinging to bare branches and darkness has descended across the land. This is the moment when the centuries old tradition of wassailing comes alive. The air will soon be filled with the sound of laughter, song and the clanging of tankards. We're here to celebrate the ancient practice of wassailing. The revellers emerge from the shadows. They carry with them a large steaming bowl, its contents swirling with the heady aroma of spices and alcohol. The word wassail echoes through the night, its origins rooted in the old Norse phrase vas heel, meaning good health. This simple toast would evolve over centuries into a complex tradition that blended celebration, superstition and community spirit. As Christianity spread across England Wassailing found its place in the yuletide celebrations on Twelfth Night. The fizz and pop of roasted crab apples bursting in the bowls of spiced ale marked the creation of lamb's wool, a favorite wassail drink. The warm, sweet aroma wafted through manor houses and humble cottages alike, bringing comfort against the winter chill. But wassailing wasn't always a peaceful affair. In some regions, the tradition took on a more raucous tone. Imagine the thunderous knocking on the feudal lord's door, the boisterous demands of peasants for figgy pudding and ale. Their drunken song songs and laughter pierced the night, a reminder of the social upheaval that Christmas temporarily allowed as centuries past, wassailing evolved. The clinking of coins dropping into wassail bowls replaced the earlier demands for food and drink. The tradition of going door to door transformed into what we now know as caroling, with songs of good cheer replacing rowdy demands. Back to the present day. And we're going to catch up with songwriter Jim Causley, who leads the Halstow Wassail. Eleanor and I are finally out of the gone medieval dungeon and in the wild. Thank you so much for joining us, Jim.

[Jim Causley]

Thank you for having me.

[Matt Lewis]

Can you tell us to start off with where we are?

[Jim Causley]

So we're on a farm called Halstow, which is near Tedburn St. Mary in Devon, and it's a very ancient farm with a very old name that might possibly mean holy place. We're not sure that's what local place name experts reckon. And we hold a quite a new wassail here. So this has only been going since 2020. It started as a project by a local artist called Simon Pope, who wanted to celebrate the more unseen elements in traditional cider making, like the mould and bacteria and fungi and the yeasts that are in the air. And Halstow's very traditional cider maker. They've been making cider here several generations in the family, and there's no artificial ingredients at all in their cider making. It's all old oak barrels and natural fermentation.

[Matt Lewis]

I'm glad we're doing this before we've got anywhere near the cider, otherwise this might be a very drunken chat, just.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Completely a huge write off. But I'll tell you what, when you're standing on the side of this hill in Devon, it's exactly what every romantic idea about Devon is. There's nothing but hills going on to the horizon. There's oak trees and we're standing in the middle of an orchard. Where all the trees are covered in moss. It's just the idealist, romantic vision of what you'd want. And you kind of get a sense of this holiness attached to the place name. So I'm choosing to believe this even if we have no record of it.

[Matt Lewis]

What's the history behind wassailing? I think it's one of those words, very medieval word. Lots of people might have heard of it. But what really is it?

[Jim Causley]

There's lots of different versions of wassailing today. The main thing people all agree on is that it comes from the Anglo Saxon word vas hael, meaning be you healthy, be you of good health. And some people believe it was used as a form of cheers as well. So people say wassail and the traditional response to that was drink, hail. Very handy response. And I feel like that needs to make a comeback.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

I mean, I guess it makes sense in a lot of European traditions now. Like, I mean, in Czech we say natravi, so, you know, to your health, whenever we cheers.

[Matt Lewis]

So.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Jim Causley]

And actually, it's good that it's revived because often people say, you know, prost or slanjeva, and then when it comes to English, people are not sure what's the proper English word, apart from cheers. And so they should get wassail back on the scene again.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Bring it back, bring it back.

[Jim Causley]

So it's evolved into several different interpretations over the years. So in big country houses and wealthy people, you'd have a wassail feast or a wassail ball, and there'll be a big elaborate wassail bowl on the table as a centerpiece, and it was just a big old party, basically. But in the country, it's evolved into a couple of different versions. So what we do here at Halstow is an orchard visiting wassail, where we go and sing to the trees, because that's considered normal around these parts. And we sort of wake up the trees in the middle of winter and possibly scare away any evil spirits that might be hampering the harvest and kind of just remind the trees what they're supposed to do. So it also involves pouring some cider on the roots to show them what they've got to make in the autumn. And there's an another type of wassailing, which is basically like carolling in any other name. And the famous one is at Bodmin in Cornwall, where they go around the town and sing wassail songs and carols, and they dress very, very smart and get fed cider and other drinks as they go around house to house and get progressively merrier.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Well, I guess I've got a question. This is a relatively new wassail, as you said. How did it come about? Is there a particular place that you're drawing this new tradition from?

[Jim Causley]

Yes, there's lots of wassails, particularly in the West Country, Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. And a lot of wassail's songs were collected by folk song collectors in the late 1800s, like Sabin Bering Gould here in Devon and Cecil Sharp in Somerset. And they also collected or wrote down some of the ceremonies that they saw taking place as well. And a few of them have survived. So we have got a few that are completely unbroken traditions, as far as we know. And then quite a lot died out during. Particularly during the Second World War, a lot of traditions where men went away and didn't come back. A lot died out. I come from a village in East Devon called Wimple, which was famous for its cider making. Not anything to do with the hats at Nunsworth.

[Matt Lewis]

Sorry, why are you wearing a wimple? Sound fun?

[Jim Causley]

But Wimple had a famous cider factory called White Ways of Wimple that went back many years. But also they had a wassailing tradition that Bering Gould wrote about. And then it was filmed by pathe in the 1930s and then it died during the war and then it was revived again by the Local History society in the 80s. And that's how I got involved.

[Matt Lewis]

It's so important to have those old records then somebody has gone to the trouble of writing this down or filming it in the 1930s, just before the tradition was broken. But that allows you to get as close as possible to recreating what it was.

[Jim Causley]

Definitely, yes. One of my favorite records was written by Sabin Bering Gould and he wrote about how an old lady who was a widowed farmer, she was the only one left of her family and she lived near him and she believed that the wassailing was so important that she would go out into the orchards every January and wassail the trees all by herself in the dark. That really moves me, that story, because nowadays we do it for a bit of fun and it's a bit of just a good knees up and to get the community together. But obviously back in the day, people did really believe in this.

[Matt Lewis]

It's the genuine belief that you need to do this to have a good harvest next year and therefore to be able to survive.

[Jim Causley]

Exactly.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Well, I think that this is such a really interesting thing as well, because I think there is some kind of false modern idea that if a tradition is a tradition, it's been going the whole time. And if we think about our medieval ancestors, I mean, surely the wassailing might have got a little disrupted by the Black Death or see say the Hundred Years War. If your village is drawn really heavily on and suddenly you've just not got a lot of people about. These are things that can kind of fall by the wayside and it doesn't make something non traditional to bring it back. It just means there was a gap there and I think that's as legitimate as anything else.

[Jim Causley]

Exactly.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned that there's two kind of different main sorts of wassail. But do we need to think of wassailing as. There's loads of different ways to wassail, even within those two categories. It's a local tradition, so it spiders out everywhere and everybody's doing different things, but they're all valid wasetles.

[Jim Causley]

Yeah. There's a big wassailing umbrella, as it were, and this which we're standing under right now.

[Theo Gray]

Exactly.

[Jim Causley]

And a lot of people lump things under it. You know about the Murray Lloyd in Wales and that gets put under the wassail umbrella. Some people don't always like that because they said this is our tradition. It's not to do with that. And also the traditions are evolving all the time, like this one here. So this is slightly new wassail concept.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Well, I was wondering because, you know, there are some wassail traditions which I'm into because they get a little rowdy. So where do we on the rowdy scale from? We're going door to door, we're knocking on doors and we are demanding ale from the local lord to. We're just having a bit of a sing with the trees, isn't it?

[Jim Causley]

Yeah.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Where does this wassail fall?

[Jim Causley]

This is actually. You're going to be a bit disappointed, Eleanor. This is actually quite makes you think.

[Matt Lewis]

Eleanor wants to go drinking and not the actual.

[Jim Causley]

I'll say the wassail part of the ceremony is quite polite and reverend, but the after show where people go into the barn and sample the cider and usually bread and local cheese and apple cake, then that's when the party begins.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

All right. Well, I mean, I'm here now, I'm about to make a row.

[Jim Causley]

It's fine.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

It's all right.

[Jim Causley]

Actually, you touched on interesting point there, that going door to door and begging is like was sailing is really just part of a bigger umbrella of lots of folk traditions in the British Isles, which are often just elaborate excuses for going begging. And we've got them throughout the year. So, like souling people go door to door, sing a souling song, and then you might get a soul cake in return. And then there's maying traditions where you go to door and sing a May song. And every occasion throughout the year, legitimising.

[Matt Lewis]

Reasons to get drink and food from wealthier people who otherwise wouldn't want to give it to you.

[Jim Causley]

Exactly.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

I love that.

[Matt Lewis]

How did this wassail come about and what's unique and new about this?

[Jim Causley]

Simon Pope, who started this, he's very interested in community art projects. And I worked on a previous one with Simon that was all about looking at the tin mining industry of Dartmoor, celebrating that and creating a new tradition around that as well. And so Simon knew of my wassail involvement and so he grew up quite near to here in Tedburn, and he wanted to look at wassailing from a different angle and again, look at the unseen elements in cider making. And also looking at this slightly gross, but things like gut flora and stuff that's in the community in an unseen way, as a kind of way of bringing the community together. And part of his envisagement for this tradition was to create a new wassail bowl that was made of the earth from this very farm. So they dug up some clay here and got a local potter to make a wassail bowl, communal bowl, which is also part of some wassailing traditions, where you all have a sip of cider at the tree. And we were very lucky because the very First Wassail was January 2020, and then two months later, drinking from Communables was not so fashionable.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Well, I actually really love this because I like the focus on community and the fact that what you're kind of doing with this project is really expanding the way that we can define what our community is.

[Matt Lewis]

So.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

So it includes microbes, it includes our own gut microbiome, it includes everything that's around us. It's not just about what people do, it's how people are also relating to the plants around them, the yeast in the air, all of these things.

[Jim Causley]

And a lot of modern cider producers these days use champagne yeast, and they're in big stainless steel vats and things like that. So Halstow is quite rare in being one of the very few completely traditional cider makers in that way. And they use natural fermentation. So the yeast that's all in the air and on the cob walls and in the Cobwebs and so on. So Simon envisaged this tradition to celebrate all of the elements. So we've got three different stages, basically, of this wassail. So we go into the orchards and sing to the trees and the lichen and all the stuff that's around the trees. And then we go into the. A cider cellar where all the barrels are, and we sing to the barrels and all the bacteria in there. And then we go into the pound house, which is where all the apples are crushed and turned into juice.

[Matt Lewis]

But it doesn't seem to me that this is that far away from what medieval people were doing. They were trying to drive a good harvest and get closer to nature and build that connection, which it sounds like exactly what you're doing, with a bit of added understanding of germ theory and microbes that they wouldn't have been aware of, but probably talking about roughly the same thing.

[Jim Causley]

Yeah, bang on. Now we have this understanding about the science behind it. One of the phrases that we feature in the song is they either call it God is good or the great good unseen. So they believe there was this magic that made the fermentation happen. They just didn't know how it happened. Now we think we know how it happened.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

So I love this. You see this all the time in medieval documents. So, for example, herbariums, which are big collections of various kinds of plants, when they will talk you through the medicinal properties of these things. And oftentimes there will be things like a prayer to a nettle that you say before you collect it, or an incantation that you say over the willow as you collect the bark. And there's this idea here that there's a kind of magical property or there is a holy property that you are bringing out of the plant. And I don't see how this is any different, except for you get delicious cider at the end. So it's therefore better.

[Jim Causley]

Exactly. We've had some very interesting conversations. Other wassails I've been involved in, where the community's been really up for having a new wassail in their village. And there was one recently where they got the local vicar involved. And the vicar was really up for it too.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Yes.

[Jim Causley]

But then the parish council said, no, we don't want this. We think it's ungodly and we don't want this, even though the vicar was really game. And so we tried to explain that, you know, a wassail is basically, it's just a blessing of the crops. And some wassails, they actually have the vicar come and bless the wassail before they do the wassail, which is very interesting. And I use the example of rogation, which is Christian festival where they go and bless the crops and sing hymns and stuff. And that came from the Roman celebration. Is it rogari? So the Christians next a Roman thing that they Christianized and then Christian church.

[Matt Lewis]

Has always been big on, you know, adhering itself to all of those festivals that everybody likes and wants to keep doing. So you just need a Christian reason to keep doing them. They've always been good at that. And it's unusual. They wouldn't want to do something that encourages community and engagement with nature and all of those kinds of things.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

But it sounds like the plot of an 80s movie. It's like, you know, the community just wants to have a wassail and the parish council has stepped in. So we're going to have to hold the greatest wassail ever to change their minds. Lads.

[Matt Lewis]

Sure. It's an episode of the Vicar of Dibley or something.

[Jim Causley]

And I think people have always hedged their bets religion wise for many hundreds of years. So just tick all the boxes.

[Matt Lewis]

And this is particularly interesting I think because in the modern age it can be easy to be cynical about the things that our ancestors did, you know, singing to trees and stuff like that. But it speaks to their belief in things that they didn't quite understand and the fragility of that relationship. And you do whatever you can to encourage it and build it. And although we might understand a bit more of the science, or at least we think we understand a bit more of the science, I think it's nice that we can still do that on a scientific basis and celebrate all of those things. So we're doing the same thing maybe for slightly different reasons.

[Jim Causley]

Yeah.

[Matt Lewis]

Even though we have a closer understanding of precisely what's happening and our ancestors are maybe doing it in hope and we're doing it in a little bit more knowledge.

[Jim Causley]

And it feels at the moment the was cells are really taking off. There's loads of new ones springing up everywhere, like even central London and up north where they're not particularly orchard visiting wassels anyway. And there seems to be a need for this for some reason.

[Matt Lewis]

It's such a good community thing, isn't? I saw your face light up when you said London.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Be right back. I'm just googling the central London wall. It's fine, it's fine. But no, I think that this is such an incredible thing and it's one of the things we can really learn from our medieval ancestors. Right. Is that there is a lot to be celebrated in these various parts of the year. And I think we actually really identify with that still. It's very easy in the 21st century to see ourselves as always, atomized off from each other, but there is some kind of deep human need to relate to nature, to our neighbors. And I think this is just such a beautiful example of that.

[Matt Lewis]

And then when just people get more and more interested in things like mindfulness, this seems to me a great example of that kind of just being in the moment, getting closer to nature, being with the community around you, engaging in a communal activity. It's quite a mindful thing to do.

[Jim Causley]

It definitely has that effect. Especially when you're there on a dark January night in an orchard. If that doesn't wake you up, then when the guns go off, that really makes you very present.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

So you've mentioned that there are different wassails that happen in different ways all across Devon. Is that also true of the songs? Do they have different ways of approaching it?

[Jim Causley]

Definitely. So the house visiting wassails very clearly usually start saying, hello, good master, good mistress, we've come to sing to you, blah, blah, blah. And then it usually goes on to say a bit about what they're coming to beg for as well. And give us some figgy pudding. Yeah, Exactly.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

For about 15 verses. It's fine.

[Jim Causley]

It's normal, that sort of thing. Yeah. So they're pretty standard. And then again, the orchard visiting wassails are also pretty standard. Standard across the board. And just like the house visiting one sing about, hello, good mistress master, the orchard one's like, hello, tree, we've come to sing to you on this lovely night. And you'll hear in the rhyme as well, it talks about you'll produce a huge crop of cider apples and all stuck to underneath the stairs. And yes, interesting, though they don't mention so much about scaring away evil spirits in the song. So I do wonder if that's something that's been added on in recent years. A bit more, perhaps. It's not something you hear so much about.

[Matt Lewis]

Are there stages to the wassail song? So do you go through steps in the process? Maybe at each different place you do the orchard, the barrel store, and where the apples are pressed. Is there important sections to what you need to do at each of those stops?

[Jim Causley]

There are, yes. So each verse has been tailored to sing about very specific aspects that we want to recognize. So the lichen on the tree and the bark and everything related to the trees in those verses. Then we go indoors and we sing about the barrels and the bacteria and the use and the carbon, so forth. Nothing is left out.

[Matt Lewis]

Here at Gray's Cider Farm in Halstow, we've got the chance to speak to Theo Gray, who represents the 13th generation of his family to be making cider here over more than 350 years. We're meeting him in the so called pound chamber. Theo, it's great of you to join us. Now, where have we come?

[Theo Gray]

We're indoors, so we have just walked into our pound chamber above our pound house in the top of our main cider building. We're getting closer to the cider with every step.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

But I love this. It's got this great old beams, got a nice a frame roof. It's everything that I would kind of expect from a medieval building, even if it isn't medieval itself. Come on. It doesn't change that much.

[Matt Lewis]

And what is a pound house?

[Theo Gray]

A pound house is where you make cider. We're above it in the pound chamber and we're a level above the pound house, which is convenient because the apples come in above the press. And then interestingly, the seller is even further down the hill. So the apples come in at the top level, they go down one level into the pound house where they're pressed and then everything's gravity down the cellar into storage until we get cider.

[Matt Lewis]

And your family own and run this cider farm. How long has your family been here?

[Theo Gray]

We've been here since around 1660 sharing the same name. So, yeah, I'm Theo Gray, Gray Cider. We've been here for 13 generations, we think.

[Matt Lewis]

Wow, so you're the 13th generation making cider on this spot?

[Theo Gray]

I am, yeah.

[Matt Lewis]

It must be incredible to feel attached to that much history and tradition.

[Theo Gray]

Yeah, definitely. I do. It's quite hard to explain that. It's very special. You know, I love being from here and having that sort of connection to a place where my family's been such a long time.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

So we know this for sure about your family. You've had this farm and this orchard for quite some time. But do we have any evidence, for example, like, I can't imagine that these were the first people who were like, oh, you know, I think this might be a couple place to grow some apples.

[Theo Gray]

No, I mean, it's a very typical traditional Devon longhouse with buildings and a pound house and orchards. But this is cider country and people would have been making cider here possibly since the Romans, you know, we've got good climate for growing apples and there's lots of orchards and lots of evidence of lots of old cider makers. So, yeah, a long time.

[Matt Lewis]

That's even more impressive, though, isn't it? So your family have been here 350 years, 13 generations, but you're tapping into stuff that has been on this spot for maybe 2,000 years.

[Theo Gray]

Yeah, it seems like we've been here for such a long time that that's been going on since people have been here almost. I suppose you almost feel quite small in the chain of cider makers.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Speaking of quite small things, one of the things I'm really excited about in terms of what we're going to see today is the fact that you are using really traditional, very old cider making processes, or whereby you're not using any additives in the process, are you?

[Theo Gray]

No. So the dry cider that we make is just the juice from the apples sourced only on our farm. We've milled them, we've pressed the juice and then we've racked it. So we've pumped the cider from one container to another, leaving behind sediment at each turn. So eventually we're left with a nice clear, not cloudy, dry cider, which we sell with no additives. And the sweetener has just got a bit of sugary stuff added to it.

[Matt Lewis]

So.

[Theo Gray]

Yeah.

[Matt Lewis]

And what is the process? So when we think about the wassail today, we're going out, blessing the trees, hoping for a good harvest next year. Assuming you get that good harvest, what is the process through the year of collecting apples and then turning them into eventually glorious sight? Not that I'm obsessed with sight.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

No, you're being normal.

[Theo Gray]

We're actually in a pretty bad year at the moment in terms of apples. We've sort of slipped into an every other year cycle where we have a massive crop. And then this year, I mean, looking out into the autumn orchard we've just been in, there is barely an apple on the tree.

[Matt Lewis]

Eleanor and I are here to wassail hard for you.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Yeah, we are going to take care of this, don't worry.

[Matt Lewis]

We need all the help we can.

[Theo Gray]

Get looking at in terms of harvest next year. I mean, we had a big harvest last year. We're quite High, about 600ft, so we tend to be quite late picking. So we're picking apples at the end of October into November, and then as soon as we pick them, you know, we start pressing as soon as we've got apples to press. And again, it's Quite a simple process and it always has been. You get some apples, you squash them, you know, you mill them first, you scrap them and then you squash them and get the juice. It's a simple process, but just one you've been doing for quite a long time.

[Matt Lewis]

But why mess with ancient perfection?

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Well, I know, I think that it's a really cool thing because the closest that I have really seen to this in terms of other brewing processes is like lambic in Belgium, where they're using wild fermentation. They kind of just have very big open air fats where they put all of the fruit and the grains and such things. So, you know, whereas many other modern cideries might use, for example, yeast that they popped in. You're not doing that.

[Theo Gray]

No, we don't add any external yeast. All of the yeast that we end up using is naturally occurring in our cider apples. And again, in the very old orchards, we are not certain of all the varieties that we have, only the modern ones that were planted that my father planted and in my grandpa's time. But in some of our older orchards, we don't know what's in there, but we still use all the fruit.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Ah, that's an apple, I think, you.

[Matt Lewis]

Know, but it's interesting that you're still tapping into that, that very medieval idea and the idea of the wassail that you're using what is in the apple, what nature is giving you to finish your product. You're not adding loads and loads of stuff to it, you're not going through myriad processes, you're just following nature. And that's surely what the wassail is all about.

[Theo Gray]

Yeah, like I was saying, it's. It's quite a simple process. You know, we see apples, we mill them, we squash them and we make cider.

[Matt Lewis]

There should be like a family motto.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Sea apples. We squash and we make cider.

[Theo Gray]

It's probably quite agricultural in that respect. You know, some people are very technical and, you know, they know a lot about individual yeast and things like that, whereas we don't. But we know we've got our own and that's what we use every other year.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah. But I think today where we're trying to get away from the use of chemicals and additives and additional processes and we're all conscious of how processed a lot of our food is, it feels really nice to be getting back to that really simple natural process that you've always done here.

[Theo Gray]

Yeah. And it's interesting, it shows sometimes, you know, people want to know what's in the cider. Every now and then you'll be asked, you know, have you got kiwi cider? Have you got strawberry cider? And then people ask what's in it? And I say, well, just apple juice. We're getting the dry. That's all it is. And the sweet, there's a bit of sugar in there.

[Matt Lewis]

It's apples and Devon. That's all you need. Exactly.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

This is the return to bimbo cider. I think that that's very important, you.

[Matt Lewis]

Know, have you got a favourite cider that you make?

[Theo Gray]

All the cider we make is dry cider. We let it ferment all the way until it's about sort of six and a half, 7%. So all the natural sugar is gone and that's the dry. And then we back sweeten that to make sweet and mix for a medium. So we've got sweet, medium and dry. And I'd say my favorite is probably the dry air. So, you know.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Oh, good man.

[Theo Gray]

Nothing added or taken away.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

You know, I'm gonna have to do a thorough investigation before I make any claims. Okay. You know, just. Let's just see what happened.

[Matt Lewis]

We're available to test cider. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us there. It's been great to chat to you. I'm looking forward to the wassail and to seeing the cider process. Yeah.

[Theo Gray]

Thank you very much.

[Matt Lewis]

Thanks very much.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Thank you.

[Matt Lewis]

Well, the sun's beginning to go down now and I spy quite a few people gathering by the farm buildings. These are our wassailas, I suspect. They're certainly dressed for muddy fields and the bracing night air. And there are a few handsome looking dogs in tow too. So let's find out a bit more about some of these distinguished fellows who've come to wassail to the app.

[Jim Causley]

Hi, I'm Trev Munkenbeck and we've been supporting or coming along to Halstow for the last three years. I think we are a shanty group, but we keep going with the local traditions because we're quite a long way from the sea. And wassailing is one which we always enjoy and come along and support and sing the old wassail songs. Shanti singing was very much about rhythms and work songs and that's why we sing the call and response time type of songs. Whereas wassailing goes back probably a little bit further than chanty singing and is about driving away the evil spirits from the trees so that you get the good apple harvest. So it's one of the old folk Traditions and yeah, shanti singing is one of the newer folk traditions in comparison, I guess. Yeah.

[Matt Lewis]

I'm Eric Partridge, I'm from North Tawton in Devon and I've been with mariners for four years now and I've come to all three of the wassails that we've done. Thoroughly enjoy it despite the cold.

[Bill]

I was born and bred in Devon.

[Matt Lewis]

And unlike some of these poor blokes. But yeah, I think it's really important to keep all these traditions going and we've been here now, this will be three years, four coming up and important.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

To keep it going.

[Bill]

I think we sing to all the.

[Matt Lewis]

Different parts of the process. So yeah, hopefully you get enough helps our singing. I'm Ian McEvoy, I've been with Mar about eight years now. I'm a Scott from Devon and I used to sing folk songs most of.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

The time and sea shanties are just.

[Matt Lewis]

A different branch of the folks scene and it's great fun.

[Bill]

Hi, I'm Steve.

[Matt Lewis]

I was a young man when I.

[Bill]

Started 17 years ago, was only 22. It feels like I'm a lot older than that, but all a myth really and we come here very often to sing to the cider and we can't think of a reason why we shouldn't. It's very nice. Good fun, old traditions.

[Matt Lewis]

Hello, I'm David Ashby and I am also a shanty singer and I'm also a was sailer. In fact, I was a sailor. Oh, dear. I think some of those jokes are maybe left over from the medieval period too. Although, as I always say, all the best things are. Now here's a very dapper gentleman in a bowler hat brandishing a metal drum. His name is Bill. Bill, you're wearing a very dapper bowler hat and I can see a drum hanging at your waist. What part does the drum play?

[Bill]

Well, the drum just beats out the beat, but you've got to make a lot of noise in wassailing. It's really important. People bring along all sorts of tin items, old pans and things like that. Just a bash. So I'm not really a drummer, but this is a drum I picked up in plymouth in about 1970 for a fiver at a shop. It's just a decent old drum really, made by Hawks who became boozy and Hawks. That was a London firm and so it has got a bit of an old pedigree to it, this old fantastic.

[Matt Lewis]

How long have you been wassailing?

[Bill]

Well, we've known about it for a long, long time and. But it's becoming very popular now. So I remember going to wassails and organizing wassails about 1970, something like that, and reading about them, reading about the local wassails in old history books and things like that. It died out for a long time and I suppose after the war perhaps and after the Second World War and now it's being revived quite well at any orchard you can find. Let's have a wassail. Most villages around here do have them now. They're not as big as this one, but they do get together and talk about the apples and praise the apples and what it produces, which is lovely cider. A Devonshire cider is particularly good. I don't know what it is. It's the soil, probably the soil. By far the best.

[Matt Lewis]

Yeah, it's a nice sale. Have you got a favorite part of the wassail process and why is it drinking cider?

[Bill]

Yeah, it's a favorite. It's a community gathering which is really important. They don't get enough of them. Now, everybody getting together in the well, it's often very cold and rainy, but they dress up, they put on coats and then around the orchards, if it's quite a big wassail, they'll have a bowl of cider based punch warmed up for you to have as you go around. And you've got to remember to take a mug with you because they don't lend them out.

[Matt Lewis]

It sounds like though, all of the cozy things that we think of for all autumn, like around bonfire night and all of that. But in January, yeah, it's that same kind of cozy community warming on a cold night kind of thing. But in January and people have forgotten it and we should bring it back.

[Bill]

Certainly the fire generally in the orchard where the wassail is taking place, they do have a decent fire and that does warm you up both visually and also, you know, on your skin as well. I think it's great to keep these traditions going and the youngsters enjoy it. You stick a little maid up in the tree and you put toast in the tree. You get it down again afterwards. But it's. There's all these little things that people do and they make up their own rules, some of them do, or their own traditions within the main tradition. I mean, the most important day of any tradition is the day when it's not a tradition. It's the day when it starts and then you keep that going and it becomes a traditional.

[Matt Lewis]

I'm looking forward to this, Bill. I can't wait to see you up there. Beating your drum.

[Bill]

Well, I'm looking forward to it as well. There's nothing I like better than beating me drum.

[Matt Lewis]

Right, seems like everyone's in line now. Bill is poised over his drum and Jim Causley's got his accordion out. So let's head up to the field for the ceremony. So we're arriving in the orchard, there's a bonfire crackling that's welcome. And we're going to start circling round and round the apple tree. The wassail song will begin with an incantation before breaking into a celebration of the yeasts, bacteria and molds to be found in the orchards and barns, on the apples and the presses in the barrels and significantly, within each of the guests and in the cider they drink as they take part in the wassail. They've given me and Elena a song sheet, but we'll spare your ears. Now it's time to thank the tree for its rich yield of apples and for Theo and his dad to fire off a couple of shotguns as you do. Here's to the old apple tree that blooms well and bears well. Hats full, cups full. 3 bushel bags full and all under one tree.

[Jim Causley]

Hip hip, hooray.

[Matt Lewis]

Hip, hip, hip, hooray. Now, there's one more part of the outdoor ceremony to take part in and that's drinking cider from the communal bowl. Now I've got to drive home, so I don't get to partake this time. I'm having to restrain Elena on a bit of a leash here. The ceramic bowl itself is hanging from the tree and there's something very special about it. It's been made specifically for this ceremony by Abigail North, a ceramicist from Gidley in West Devon.

[Abigail North]

So I have a lovely neighbour called Bill Murray, who has a fine voice and is very up to date with all the Devon traditions and knowledge, and he asked me if I would be involved in that project. And then I went to Helstow and saw everything there. Was particularly struck by how beautiful the old barrels were in the cider making process. And I think that sunk into my thinking somewhere. So when I started to make the bowl or make prototypes for it, it was the casks with the great big lovely bands of metal around them that kind of influenced the form, as it were.

[Matt Lewis]

How, then did you go about creating the bowl? What did you have to bear in mind when you were creating the bowl for them?

[Abigail North]

I knew that traditional wassail bowls are very ornate, with lots of sprigging and little figures and trees and whatever, and I knew that wasn't the way that I wanted to work. And so it was just going with my instinct about something much simpler and plainer. And actually what I realized was that wood turned wassail bowls, which is from the 17th century, I think, were also banded and also very simple and plain. And so I thought that was the direction that I wanted to go in. And so it was just a case of making some different shapes to see what would work best. And that's what happened, really.

[Matt Lewis]

It's interesting that you made the decision to go for a plainer bowl, I think, because when you're standing there on Gray's Farm, it is just such a beautiful spot. Almost like it doesn't need too much more adornment, does it? Because you're surrounded by all of the beauty of nature. Anyway, the bowl can be plain with that banding. That just fits in with the cider, the elements of what it's doing. So I can see the logic of what you're talking about there. It was great. And I understand that the bowl is made with clay from the farm, is that right?

[Abigail North]

Yep, it is.

[Matt Lewis]

How important was that to the project? To have something that came from the soil of Gray's Farm?

[Abigail North]

I think that's a really lovely thing. Subsequently, I've worked with clay from around my studio here. And there's something really lovely about not transporting materials hundreds of miles and staying as local as you can is a really nice ethic. So that was really the beginning of my involvement in using local clay.

[Matt Lewis]

That's really interesting that it's affected your work in that way too, because I guess from the wassail's point of view, it really fits with what they're trying to do. To have a bowl that is made from the earth of the farm beneath the tree. When they're talking about the joining together of the earth and the roots and the tree and the fruit and nature all around it, to have the bowl be part of that, it's not from outside the setting that it's being used in. It's a really nice touch.

[Abigail North]

Yes. It was nice to be able to make a form that I was happy with and not be trying to do something that perhaps would have been. The majority of wassail bowls, I think, are the heavily decorated, embellished with sprigging. That would not really be something that I could even hope to do, let alone it's not something I wanted to do.

[Matt Lewis]

Do you go to the house, though, Wassail?

[Abigail North]

Yes, I've been a couple of times.

[Matt Lewis]

How do you find it being involved in a ceremony like that and also seeing your bowl being at the centre.

[Abigail North]

Of it, it's beautiful. I love it. I particularly love the music. In the distant past, I played music and was at university doing a music degree. So the music in particular I just find really beautiful. But the whole setting is incredible there. It takes you to a different place, doesn't it, listening to the music? I think it's just so special and timeless.

[Matt Lewis]

And it is, because you get out on that hillside with a bonfire going and a chill in the air and everybody around singing, and you could be at any moment in time stood on that hill.

[Abigail North]

Exactly. Which is one of the things about Dartmoor, where we are, because you're up on the moor and it could be from any time in history, because not much, really. I know there was obviously more trees up there, but not much has changed. And it is this connection through time. It feels like you're really connected. It's really lovely.

[Matt Lewis]

Thanks to Abigail North. Well, I think Elena has managed to empty the wassailing bowl by herself while you were gone. So, Eleanor, what did you think we've wassailed?

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

I mean, this is genuinely one of the most special things I've ever got to do.

[Matt Lewis]

And it's incredible, just that connection back to what people have been doing for centuries to celebrate the connection to the earth and the fruits that it gives us and the cider that we make from it.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

I have to say, being able to drink out of a bowl from the clay in the ground here with the cider that it's been produced, that's just incredibly moving. It's a wonderful thing to be a part of and it's so nice to see a tradition this alive.

[Matt Lewis]

Well, I think it's time we staggered back home.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

All right, well, I gotta go get more cider first, but I'll meet you at the car.

[Matt Lewis]

Well, I think it's heartening that today in some corners of England, you can still hear the echoes of this ancient tradition. The pop of a cork from a bottle of spiced cider, the gentle sway of apple branches in the winter wind, and the harmonious voices of modern Wassailas, all harking back to a time when community celebration and a little bit of magic helped people survive the darkest days of winter. And if you want to actually see all of this, we filmed it. It's in a history hit documentary about medieval winter. The link is in the show notes. So the next time you raise a glass in toast, remember the Wassailas of old. Their legacy lives on. In our holiday traditions. It's a testament to the enduring human need for warmth, community and good cheer in the depths of winter. And also of cider.

[Jim Causley]

Acast powers the World's Best Podcasts Here's a show that we recommend Hi, I'm Pace Case.

[Matt Lewis]

And I'm Bachelor Clues.

[Jim Causley]

We host Game of Roses, the world's best reality TV podcast. We're covering every show on reality TV at the highest level possible. We analyze the Bachelor, Love is Blind.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

Perfect Match, Vanderpump, and anything else you.

[Jim Causley]

Find yourself watching with wine and popcorn.

[Dr. Eleanor Jaenega]

We break down errors, highlight plays, MVPs.

[Matt Lewis]

And all the competitive elements that make.

[Jim Causley]

Reality TV a sport.

[Matt Lewis]

And we interview superstar players like Bachelorette.

[Jim Causley]

Kaitlyn Bristow and Big Brother champion Taylor Hale. If you want to know so much about reality TV, you can turn turn any casual conversation into a PhD level dissertation. You definitely want to check out Game of Roses. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.

[Matt Lewis]

Acast.

[Bill]

Com.