For our Christmas season talk on Wednesday 10th December we welcomed Sean Callery, Blue Badge tourist guide, writer and raconteur.
Sean showed how today’s Yuletide celebrations grew from a mixture of pagan customs, folklore and royal fashions. In doing so, Sean linked these to a whole host of Cotswold locations and how they shape Christmas celebrations and traditions.
Included in a rich tapestry of images, Sean explored the Cotswolds background to several of our most famous Christmas songs. These included the tune known as ‘Cranham’ – set to Christina Rosetti’s poem ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ . It was composed and named by Gustav Holst, resident of Cheltenham, after the nearby village where his mother was born.
We also learned, for example, that Christmas carol ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ is directly connected to Chipping Campden. The version we sing today was collected there in 1909 by folk music scholar Cecil Sharp, who heard it from a local resident, Mary Clayton.
Sean covered subjects such as wassailing, mummers, Christmas tree lights, light trails, Christmas markets ( especially at Tewkesbury Abbey), and the origins of charitable giving on Boxing Day .
It was a lively and entertaining look at the roots of our Christmas traditions and gave useful ideas for yuletide entertainment in key towns throughout the Cotswolds, with interesting questions to round off the evening.
About Sean Callery
Sean is qualified tour guide with a background as a teacher and children’s author.
His Blue Badge tourist guide is for the Heart of England (which covers the area between Birmingham and Gloucester) and he specialise in the Cotswolds.
Sean draws on his experience from writing about 60 children’s books. Some of these were stories but mostly were non-fiction, for some of the UK’s top publishers. Sean researches his information and finds fun ways to present it .
See much more on Sean’s website at Offbeat Cotswolds [opens in a new tab]
Next Talk: The Mitford Sisters >>
