Hal an Tow – A Padstow Perspective

These words have an air of mystery about them. Are they old Cornish or corrupt English? I leave that with you.

They are certainly associated with activities on May Morning in Helston, as the excellent article by Andy Norfolk ‘The Folklore of the Hal an Tow’ (May 2022) explains.

One quote he made stood out for me and that was from Nicholas Bosun 1660:

At the elevation of a Maypole, the Cornish at Newlyn are said to have used this cantation ‘Haile an Taw and Golly Rumbelow.’

So, in Helston and Padstow and Newlyn. How widely might this phrase be understood?

Did Helston have a Maypole once? Padstow certainly has, and crowds gather to see it put up: these days a day or so before May Day. But what if it were May morning very early? What kind of ceremony would that evoke along with the gathering of greenery? In the old days the site at Cross Street was used. The Christian Cross, set in pebbles, would be dug up and in the pit the Maypole was erected. What a potent symbol that is. 

Hal an Tow – three words on the Old ‘Oss May Day Poster this year – 2025.

What did they signify? Had I missed a special event?

I had it on good authority that it was a nod to older posters on display in the meeting room.

Fair enough, but what of those posters from the 1950s when we are told the ‘Petrockstowe Mermaids’ performed a ceremony to mark the ‘gathering of the greenery’ early on May morning (6.30!).

Petrockstowe Mermaids (Photo: Tom Weedon Collection Padstow Museum)

When the ‘Mermaids’ came into the picture alongside the ‘Doom Bar Pirates,’ the Old ‘Oss party were making adjustments in the way they presented themselves in view of increased publicity and visits to the capital. The ‘Festival of Britain’ and the Queen’s Coronation, plus a unique Film Documentary all helped increase the profile of our ancient and much-loved traditional custom. A spruce-up was considered in order.

We can look no further than the words of the wonderfully evocative Padstow Night Singing to get a feel for how things might have been in centuries past.

Rise up Miss ……. All in your gown of green.

You are as fine a lady as waits upon the queen

In the merry morning of May

Followed by

I warn you young men everyone.

To go into the greenwood

And fetch your May home

In the Merry Morning of May

I feel that the ‘gathering of the greenery,’ the branches of sycamore to decorate the streets, perhaps had greater significance in those far off days.

Girl with Greenery (Photo: Tom Weedon Collection Padstow Museum)

Who had the idea of a Padstow Hal an Tow ceremony we are not sure. Walter Chapman, who was behind the improvements to the Maypole display, could have had something to do with this. I think he was seen as a kind of ‘Artistic Director’. Or perhaps it was Laurie Giddy who we think composed a poem for the occasion.

The organisers would have been aware of the situation in Helston where the Old Cornwall Society in the 1930s had revived and re-invented the Hal an Tow as an integral part of the day’s proceedings. Padstow was not about to follow suit. Some of them would have been aware of the Thurstan Peter study of 1912 which goes into great detail with both the Padstow and Helston customs at that time.

Hal an Tow, Helston

There are words and music for both, and here we find a ‘Hal an Tow Jolly Rumbelow’ verse in both places.

In Helston it survived to live another day and form the basis for a rather splendid display of Community tomfoolery. Take that as praise from a Padstow man.

In Padstow, the particular verse was abandoned but the accompanying verses form the basis of what we call ‘St George’ or the ‘Dirge’

O where is St George, O where is he O

He is out in his long boat

All on the salt sea O (etc.)

So, we can see that Padstow had some justification for using the phrase in the 1950s to herald an additional layer to the May Day proceedings. Unfortunately, it did not last. Perhaps a 6.30 timing was just a step too far. Dave Roberts remembers seeing these young ladies coming down Fentonluna Lane, from the morning visit to Prideaux Place, behind the MC who was leading the procession; a sight that remains in his memory.

We have not been able to track down any former ‘Mermaids’ to verify any of this and curiously nothing seems to have been reported to the press.

One recent piece of luck was the arrival at Padstow Museum of a collection of black and white images taken on May Day 1953 by Tom Weedon, a Surrey based professional photographer. They include some of those ‘Padstow Mermaids’. On the back of one it states: “Girl with branch sings the line from the May Day song.”

This day I wake to greet the Day,

The gentle blossom first in May,

I wind a garland in my hair

And cast away, begone dull care!

The Hobby Horse and Teaser bend and squat to the death of winter

This verse is not from the May Song proper but must have been written for the performance of the Hal an Tow’. It appears on an Old Oss Leaflet from the period and can be read in full in my ‘Bygone Maydays’ available on the Cornish Story web site. We do not know if it was set to music.

It all goes to point to the slippery nature of this kind of folk performance. Both Helston and Padstow have been on a long journey that has brought them to where we are today. 

We often think of how they might have been in the past and, during this exploration, my friend Dan Thomas drew my attention to the writing of Richard Nicholls Worth (1837-1896) who published in 1878 ‘A Westcountry Garland’.

He describes the digging of the May Pole Pit at Padstow and goes on to describe the day itself.

“About ten the next morning the Hobby Horse makes his appearance and is taken round the town to discordant music, if music it may be called, of a heterogeneous collection of whistles, concertinas, drums, triangles and tambourines occasionally strengthened by engaging the services of an organ grinder. Well to do people not many years ago took part in the festivity; but it is now rapidly falling into decay.”

Tambourine and Triangle (Courtesy Padstow Museum)

Triangles in use (Courtesy Malc McCarthy)

Richard Worth’s obituary makes this quote.

“Nothing can really be unimportant or uninteresting to us that was ever important or interesting to our race, and I think, in these days of rightful devotion to science, there is danger that, in contemplating the great world of Nature, we may be regardless of the little world of humanity.”

Fine words indeed. So I feel we can take his reporting on May Day with some degree of accuracy.

It would seem that we have indeed come a long way with the Music in both Helston and Padstow.

I was struck by the similarity between the description of the music in Padstow by Worth and that of the present Helston Hal an Tow.

Of course, Robert Morton Nance could have read this too and based his revival at Helston on this description. There’s a thought.

However, what we have with ‘the sound of the big bass drum’ in Helston and the wonderful, massed drums and accordions in Padstow today, is well suited to the times in which we live.

Who would want to change anything?

Dedicated to Mathew Avery Courtney Trebilcock former Bandmaster with the Duke of Cornwall’s Volunteer Artillery at Padstow and Hayle who supplied the early researchers with words and music to the Padstow May Song.

John Buckingham 

‘Spiser Jowan’

Living in Padstow and loving the stories I have learned from my life here has given me the encouragement to write about some of them. Thanks too, to my friends, past and present, in Padstow Museum and the Old Cornwall Society and to the opportunity given to contribute to the Padstow Echo over a period of many years.