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Our
History:
The 1960's was a resurgent age for English folk music with shaggy bearded singer song writers meeting in folk clubs all over the country. Many men were involved too. One such gathering was the Bradshaw Tavern Folk Club, meeting at; well you may have guessed it, The Bradshaw Tavern in Bradshaw, a village near Halifax in West Yorkshire.
The club became like a family welcoming the top folk acts of the day to entertain on a weekly basis. For their New Years Eve party held in 1972 a Mumming play was performed by the regulars and, hey they enjoyed it and what's more so did everybody else.
For anybody who saw it and more to the point, has enough grey matter left to remember it, it will come as a surprise to learn that it was rehearsed. The amazing thing was that the players got nearly as much fun out of the rehearsal as they did from the performance. A plan was made to take the show on the road and so the Bradshaw Mummers were born.
Initially the intrepid players, wives, children and assorted hangers on looking like a bewildered group of new age travellers' gate crashed festivals and busked the streets of towns across the north of England. On the way they made many friends and some even invited them back.
The Bradshaw Mummers were very fortunate to have two gifted writers amongst their number, John Scrimshaw and Phil Lyon. Over the years many plays have been written and performed and the legends have grown. A pattern which continues to this day with our two latest plays having been written by Janette Owen, a Mummers wife.
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