Creating a tradition – a short history of the Widcombe (Bath) Mummers

The Widcombe Mummers were founded in 2005 following two sightings by me of the Marshfield Paper Boys. One had been at their traditional performance spot on Boxing Day, and the other had been after a mid-summer encounter at the English Country Music event in 2005, where I also attended a talk by Doc Rowe. I went home thinking this would be good to do in Widcombe, my part of Bath. We did our first performance on New Year's Day in 2006 to great acclaim, which led to one of the participants saying to me afterwards, Well done, Ian, you have created a tradition!' We have performed every year on New Year's Day since then, varying the script to incorporate some topical local talking point, and varying the music and songs. In addition to this continuing and strengthening