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Welcome to the Yarpole Parish website - get information on events, facilities within the Parish, social groups, Yarpole Community Shop, The Bell at Yarpole, volunteering opportunities, the Parish Council,  the PCC and more.

 

 

 Yarpole

Chinese night at the Bell - Thursday, 22nd January. £17.50pp.

YPGNS Annual Big Quiz - Saturday 7th February, 7.00pm start, book your table on 01568 780321

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 Welcome to Yarpole, nestling in rolling countryside in North Herefordshire, mid way between the market towns of Ludlow and Leominster.

 

Wassailing:

Anglo-Saxon tradition dictated that at the beginning of each year, the lord of the manor would greet the assembled multitude with the toast waes hael, meaning “be well” or “be in good health”, to which his followers would reply drink hael, or “drink well”, and so the New Year celebrations would start. It is likely that such celebrations were being enjoyed many years before Christianity began to spread throughout Britain from around 600 onwards.

Depending upon the area of the country where you lived, the wassail drink itself would generally consist of a warmed ale, wine or cider, blended with spices, honey and perhaps an egg or two, all served in one huge bowl and passed from one person to the next with the traditional “wassail” greeting.

Wassailing in Herefordshire.

The Wassailing celebrations generally take place on the Twelfth Night, 5th January, however the more traditional still insist in celebrating it on ‘Old Twelvey’, or the 17th January, the correct date; that is before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

The wassailing, or blessing of the fruit trees, involves drinking and singing to the health of the trees in the hope that they will provide a bountiful harvest in the autumn. This ancient custom is still practised across the county today.

The celebrations vary from region to region, but generally involve a wassail King or Queen leading the assembled group of revellers, comprising the farmers, farm workers and general villagers, in a noisy procession from one orchard to the next. In each orchard the wassailers gather round the biggest and best tree, and as a gift to the tree spirits, a piece of wassail soaked toast is placed in its branches, accompanied by songs such as;

“Apple tree, apple tree we all come to wassail thee,
Bear this year and next year to bloom and blow,
Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered sacks fills…”

The wassailers move through the orchard singing, shouting, banging pots and pans, and even firing shotguns, generally making as much noise as possible in order to both waken the sleeping tree spirits, and also to frighten off any evil demons that may be lurking in the branches.

Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, wrenboys, and galoshins). Historically, mummers' plays consisted of informal groups of costumed community members that visited from house to house on various holidays. Today the term refers especially to a play in which a number of characters are called on stage, two of whom engage in a combat, the loser being revived by a doctor character.

Although the term mummer has been in use since the Middle Ages, no scripts or details survive from that era and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds. The earliest evidence of mummers' plays as they are known today is from the mid- to late 18th century.

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Yarpole is a parish of approximately 700 people and comprises the villages of Yarpole, Bircher and Lucton and the communities of Bircher Common and Bicton. The Parish of Yarpole is unusual in that there are two working parish churches. St Leonard's situated in the village of Yarpole and St Michael and All Angels Church situated next to Croft Castle, a National Trust property. Many visitors assume that the church is managed by the National Trust as it is part of a visit to the estate. The National Trust does not contribute to the running costs of St Michael and All Angels church.

There has been a community recorded here for over 2000 years. The village is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The Anglo-Saxon meaning of Yarpole (Iarpol or Yarpol) is fish pool or dam for containing fish. The original fish pool has long since been abandoned, the remains of the dam wall are still visible.

Yarpole still retains its red telephone kiosk, its community owned and managed pub, The Bell at Yarpole and has an award winning community run village shop and Post Office operating from within the Parish Church, St Leonard's. The first full time shop in a church.

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Mobile phones don't work here!