Grasmere Dialect Plays

@grasdialectplays.bsky.social

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Researching & sharing information about the extraordinary village plays performed in Grasmere from 1893 to 1937. Most were written and produced by Eleanor Rawnsley (nee Simpson); all were in Westmorland dialect. #LakeDistrict #Cumbria #GrasmereDialectPlays

Decorated eggs in a basket
Extract from 'A North-Country Flood', in H.D. Rawnsley's 1902 book, 'A Rambler's Notebook at the English Lakes', page 115. The sexton of Crosthwaite Church tells how he got to the church, despite the floods, by walking along the railway embankment. (He speaks in Cumbrian dialect.)
Photo of first page of Cumbria Life article on the Grasmere Dialect Plays. 3 black-and-white images: a large one of pace-egging on stage, and two smaller ones: rushbearing on stage and a publicity postcard of two young lovers in a hayfield
Three costumed actors, reading from scripts, in front of bookcases. Older man on left, younger man in centre, older woman on right.
Two traditional bearings - as used in the annual Grasmere rushbearing procession, which features in the Grasmere Dialect Plays. They're made of sheafs of rushes, bound with twine, and decorated with pink-and-white flowers and sprigs of bracken
Grasmere resident, Richard Hardisty, wearing a blue check shirt, holds up a photograph of the 1924 Grasmere Dialect Play, "On Second Thoughts". The photo shows his great-uncle, Johnnie Hodgson, playing the fiddle in a rushbearing scene, with children
Members of the Lakeland Dialect Society, in costume, reading from the Grasmere Dialect Plays. They are in the library of the Armitt Museum, with bookcases and a projector screen behind them. Two men and one woman are standing, with scripts, and another woman is seated.
Members of the Lakeland Dialect Society, in costume, reading from the Grasmere Dialect Plays. They are in the library of the Armitt Museum, with bookcases and a projector screen behind them.
Announcement of an event - readings from the Grasmere Dialect Plays - at the Armitt Museum, Ambleside, in 13 August, 2.00-3.30 pm. Illustrated with a photograph of a young man and woman in a hayfield, taken from one of the original productions of the plays
List of 9 plays by Eleanor Rawnsley (nee Simpson), with an image of her + an image of the covers of 6 playtexts
Extract of text from Eleanor Rawnsley's Grasmere Dialect Play, 'A Woman of Property' (1922), referring to the practice of bracken-harvesting. There are 3 speakers: Miss Postlethwaite and rival suitors William (a farmer) and Isaac (a joiner). Miss Postlethwaite asks William how things have gone on the farm that week, and he says the last load of bracken wasn't brought in before the storm (although a neighbouring farmer's was). Isaac retorts that it's a poor farmer who can't predict the weather - and William retorts that Isaac should stick to his joinery work and not meddle in farming business. Miss Postlethwaite sends them both packing!
Six decorated eggs, in a linen basket (from museum in Bled, Slovenia)
Painting of Grasmere villagers in the annual rush-bearing procession outside St Oswald's church. Green-pinafored girls carry rushes and a sheet laden with flowers, and they are surrounded by women wearing straw hats. The painting, by Frank Bramley, is owned by the National Trust, and is dispalyed (inside a cupboard) in Grasmere Village Hall.
Stage scene in which five children practise marching while holding 'bearings' made of rushes and decorated with flowers. A fiddler plays and an adult woman looks on. [Image with kind permission of the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere]
6 girls in green pinafores and straw hats, carrying rushes and holding an embroidered cloth; church interior with floor covered in rushes
Words of a "pace-egging" song, in two columns
Decorated eggs, on a bed of straw
Five children, in costume, enact a pace-egging play, watched by three adults, in a parlour scene
Scene from a traditional Easter mummers play: a purportedly-dead character lies on the ground, and another character bends over him, ready to revive him. Others players look on.
Display of the playtext of 'Pace-Eggin' Time' (one of the Grasmere Dialect Plays) at the Armitt Museum, Ambleside. The playtext is accompanied by an explanatory poster on the wall above.
Scene from 'The Mistress of Mosshead' by Eleanor Rawnsley - one of the Grasmere Dialect Plays. Shows two women and two men, in period costume and seated in a wood-panelled parlour with a fireplace. They're being served tea by the hostess and a maid. One man is drinking his tea from a saucer.