Throwing the hood at Haxey: a Lincolnshire Twelfth-Night custom

The Lincoln Herald told its readers in january 1832 that: ‘The Morris Dancers and Christmas Plays which had waned lately have been revived this season with a great spirit’. It then mentions the ‘Collingham party’, which had collected over £20 — a surprisingly large sum. Collingham is just over the border in Nottinghamshire, and a hero-combat type play was performed there, which perhaps seemed exotic further east, since nearly all the Lincolnshire examples belong to the wooing-play category.