Traditions changing at Clun Arbor Day
Flags have been put on the arbor tree in a Shropshire village for hundreds of years, but the way the spring event is celebrated is changing.
Bank holiday weekend was Arbor Day in Aston on Clun, one of the few English villages still to celebrate the ancient custom.
The festivities are still in fine fettle with children making flags, dancers, singer, poets and folk musicians all joinging in a parade to the tree followed by fun and food at the village hall afterwards.
But the tradition of having children to play a bride and groom – reenacting the marriage of a local squire in 1786 who decreed the tree should be dressed from then on in their honour – may be one of the elements lost to the mists of time in future years.
This year Beatrix Hadwen played the bridesmaid – but there was no specifically taking the role of the groom.
It may not be such long-held tradition in any case, Ruth Brassington, one of the organisers, said.
Though the ancient tradition of tree dressing certainly pre-dates the 18th century wedding, and possibly goes back even to pre-Christian times, actually re-enacting the squire's marriage with local children is probably a much more recent variation on the pageant.
"We think it was probably only around the 1950s that someone had the bright idea of getting a horse and trap and and re-enacting the wedding procession," Mrs Brassington said.
But she said for the past few years it had been harder and harder to get local children to be available for any pre-planned rehearsals – or to get boys in particular to volunteer for the role.
She said: "Some of the boys dressed up on the day but none of them wanted to dress as the groom.
"What has happened more in recent years is that the children just turn up on the day, they haven't got the time to be coming along for rehearsals."
She said it was a sign of the times, as there were also fewer children in the village and many families went away for bank holidays nowadays, unlike in decades past.
But it wasn't that the school children were uninvolved.
She said: "This year we got a grant from the local shop in the village that enabled us to do three workshops at Stokesay School, Clun School and Clunbury School. Artists Kirsty Stevens and Jacs Collins did an afternoon in each school about local customs, what kind of tree it is, and how to design a flag.
"On the day some of the children from each school processed up with their three flags, which is something we have never done before.
"Raise the Dust Appalachian dancers performed and a group called Mostly John. It was a lovely sunny day so people really enjoyed the atmosphere on the filed and we had a book stall raising money are Severn Hospice too," she said.
The origins of "tree dressing" are ancient and unknown, but Arbor Day is also likely linked with Oak Apple Day when King Charles hid in a tree at Boscobel House, Bishop's Wood, to escape the Roundheads during the English Civil War.
Aston on Clun's ancient black poplar tree which dated from 1500 fell down in the 1990's and was replaced by a sapling from the original tree.
