The Wantage Mummers perform their traditional Boxing Day play: at midday outside the Bear Hotel in the Market Place, then at Childrey Village Hall, where singing and music follow. It’s a hero-combat play typical of this part of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
The play
- King Alfred fights Beau Slasher and is killed, then revived by The Noble Dr Good; they fight again until Beau Slasher dies, and he’s brought back to life by Jack Vinney.
- Molly introduces the play, Happy Jack collects donations, and Old Father Beelzebub, a soothsayer, comments on the year’s events.
- It ends with the Mummers Dance.
The play was revived on Boxing Day 1977 at The Greyhound in Letcombe Regis, based on traditions from villages around Wantage. The Mummers, sponsored by the Icknield Way Morris Men, have given more than £35,000 to local and national charities.
