England is noted for its eccentric festivals that have their
origins in medieval times but are still celebrated today for no reason other
than to give those involved a good excuse for having fun. One such event is the
“Wap” that takes place every year in the Gloucestershire village of Randwick,
near Stroud.
The event dates from the Middle Ages and centres on the
local delicacy of Double Gloucester cheese, but has also been known to involve
the downing of much cider and beer. The rowdiness that resulted is probably the
reason why the Victorians put a stop to it. However, in 1972 the local vicar
decided to take a risk and revive the festival – it has been running ever
since, much to the delight of locals and visitors alike.
The Wap, which probably takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon
“wappenshaw”, meaning “an assembly of men who are ready for battle”, takes
place in May with the first part scheduled for the first Sunday in the month.
Three truckles of Double Gloucester (a truckle is a small wheel of cheese
around six inches in diameter) are blessed at the church and one of them is
rolled anti-clockwise around the churchyard by several parishioners. The
original purpose of this was to ward off evil spirits, but today it is played as
a game to see who can keep the cheese rolling on its edge for the greatest
distance. After the roll the cheese is cut up and distributed, but the other
two cheeses have another sort of role to play.
The following Saturday is the day of the Wap, when everyone
dresses up in medieval and other period costumes for a procession through the
village. The route is swept clear by the Mop Man, whose mop has to be kept wet
enough to wash the path and flick plenty of water at the bystanders!
The procession focusses on two characters who have
previously been chosen by the villagers for this honour. They are the “Mayor”
and the “Wap Queen”, the latter being a teenager. Both are costumed
appropriately and are carried through the village accompanied by their retinue
of a swordsman, a flag-bearer, ladies-in-waiting and assorted princesses.
When they reach the Mayor’s Pool the Mayor is duly dunked in
the pool before also being showered with spring water.
At the Well Leaze, which is at the top of a steep slope, the
Mayor and the Wap Queen are presented with the two Double Gloucester truckles
mentioned earlier. They then compete against each other by rolling the cheeses
down the slope. They do this three times. The cheeses will eventually fall to
pieces, and the winner is the one whose cheese breaks into the most pieces by
the end of the third roll!
Needless to say, the event is a splendid day out for the
whole village and plenty of other amusements are organized on the village field
as a general fete.
The next day, of course, is another Sunday, when the vicar
hopes to get as many people in the pews as he had the week before – assuming
that everyone has sobered up by then!
