The following brief note has been sent in by Francis Doherty of New Zealand. It is a nice reminder that in England, not all "Mummers" performed folk plays - the Pace Egg plays in Rochdale being performed by a separate groups.
"I am an ex Rochdalian living in New Zealand. I am 65 years old and in conversation recently the subject of old customs and 'festivals' arose. I said that I remembered during the war in the early forties, as children we would do the pace egg play with prompting on the dialogue from our parents, and at nights we would go Mumming, all dressed in black with faces blacked with soot, knock on doors and go inside pretending to clean. We were not allowed to speak or answer anyone in the house who spoke to us, if we did we did not get any contributions."
Fay & Francis Doherty