Colyton festivals

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Robin Hood of Colyton visited Honiton, c. 10.5 km to the NW.

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|Colyton town centre / © Chris Allen, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2015-08-27. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-10-18.

Record

[1571/72:]
payd to master cogynge for one _˄⌜j li. of⌝ powdar when
Robarte hode of collyton came in          xiiii 〈...〉

Source notes

"˂...˃" indicates "lost or illegible letters in the original"; "⌜⌝" indicates "interlineation above the line"; "˄" represents a caret mark in Wasson's source.
1571/72: St Michael's Churchwardens' Accounts, f. 4. Accounting year: 30 November-29 November. Under heading "Charges". Note to bracketed ellipsis: "page torn".

IRHB comments

Mayers, morris dancers, Robin Hoods etc. often visited neighbouring parishes to perform and collect money for the parish chest and/or advertise an upcoming festival in their village. When Robin Hood of Colyton went to Honiton to perform or went there on a quête, it thus seems quite likely that he also performed at home.

Lists and gazetteers

• Lancashire, Ian, compil. Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain: a Chronological Topography to 1558 (Cambridge, 1984), No. 779.
• Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88, see p. 279.
• Not included in Wiles, David. The Early Plays of Robin Hood (Cambridge, 1981), Appendix I.

MS sources

• Anonymous. St Michael's Churchwardens' Accounts, Honiton. Devon Record Office, Exeter. 1639A PW1. 1570-1651, ff. 4, 15; not seen, but cf. Wasson (1986), pp. xlvii, 207-208.

Printed sources

• Wasson, John M., ed. Devon. (Records of Early English Drama) (Toronto; Buffalo; London, ©1986), pp. 207-208, and see pp. xxv, xlvii, 527.

Background

• Wikipedia: Colyton
• Wikipedia: Honiton.

Also see

• Honiton festivals.

Notes