Invented traditions

Morris dancers and pagan curious residents gather in Kent for Jack in the Green festivities

Since 1983, people have met at 5am on Blue Bell Hill on the first of May for the ‘Jack in the Green’ tradition. Steven went along to find out what happens at the picnic spot, how traditional all this is, and a Shooter’s sandwich.

It is 4am and I am awake.

I am so paranoid about oversleeping that I wake up before the alarm goes off.

I prepared my outfit the night before so as to provide minimal disturbance to the rest of the house.

As I stand dressed and ready to leave the bedroom, the cat and dog wait expectantly for feeding until the dog, sensing that it is still early, goes back to sleep in his bed.

I decide against making myself anything to eat and drink and choose to order a taxi now so that when it takes 30 minutes to arrive, I would still be on time to meet my lift to Blue Bell Hill between Maidstone and Medway. However, I am ‘in luck,’ and two minutes later, the taxi is outside the house before I am ready to leave.

I am going to the home of local historian Chris de Coulon-Berthoud and his wife, legend of the Medway Music scene, Kyra De Coninck. The pair have been going to the raising of Jack in the Green at Blue Bell Hill for a number of years. I have been enticed to do this by the promise that it might be something interesting to write about and by a Shooter’s sandwich, although I don’t know what that is.

Being driven through Medway in the early morning dark is a unique experience. Unusually for these streets, there is no traffic congestion, so thanks to my enthusiastically prompt driver, I arrive at my destination early. There is glorious bird song as I arrive.

We are going to the raising of the Jack in the Green at Blue Bell Hill, which is a May Day morning tradition and ties into Sweeps, Rochester's May Day Festival. Chris explains, “Jack in the Green is an avatar of Spring.” Chris isn’t quite ready to be interviewed on the topic this early in the morning before gamely going on to explain that “it's an evocation of the spirit of Spring and the changing of the seasons.” There are songs and dances to the Jack to wake him up as dawn rises over the Medway Valley.