Figure 1.--Here we see English children dancing in the Streets of St, Austell, a small town in Cornwall. The boys wear their school clothes, the girls wear hite dresses. An English reader writes, "This would be a Spring celebration. Taking place early in May. The town seems to be done up with flower bunting. There may have been a May Pole somewhere in the village. The children were probanly the May Poll dancers." The photograph was takem on 1927.

We note daning as part of town and village celebrations in the erly 20th cntury. we suspect this was a well-establihed tradition in the 19th century with much earlier roots. These dance traditions seems to have significantly declines since World War II, especially for boys. The uncreasingly popularity od sports here may be a factor. Before World War II we notice images of many of these village events throughout England. The children dressed up for the events. Boys commonly wear school clothes, the girls often wear white dresses. The younger boys were also sometimes done upmin white. The children participation was often organized through the schools. We have not yet found much imnformation about the dancing, but we have found quite a few examples in the photographic record. The children here are a good example (figure 1). They appear to May Poll dancers patricipating in the festival after they did the May Poll.

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Created: 8:43 PM 11/7/2009
Last updated: 7:29 PM 3/20/2016