- What: One of England's oldest and most bizarre traditions. A dance with reindeer antlers that has been going on for at least 800 years - and maybe 1,000.
- When: The first Monday after the first Sunday after the 4th of September (also known as Wakes Sunday), starting shortly after 8 a.m. near St. Nicholas Church.
- Where: Abbots Bromley in Staffordshire
- Admission: Free
- Website
- Abbots Bromley is about half way between Uttoxeter and Rugeley on the B5235.
- There is train service to Uttoxeter and Rugeley and taxi service from either.
- From Uttoxeter, you can also take the D&G no. 428 bus towards Lichfield.
1,000 Year Old Antlers and Anglo Saxon Roots
Every now and again you come across a really ancient and bizarre English tradition with no particular explanation but a very long history. The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is one of these and, if you are in England in September, try to get to St. Nicholas Church in the small Staffordshire village of Abbots Bromley, early on Wakes Sunday to see it.On the day, traditionally the Monday after Wakes Sunday (see above), the "horns", which are actually six pairs of very heavy reindeer antlers (16 to more than 25 pounds) attached to wooden hats, are collected by the dancers from the Church where they are kept. The horns never leave the Church except for this event.
In addition to the six horn dancers, there is a jester, Maid Marion, a hobby horse, a musician playing an accordian, a boy playing a triangle and a boy carrying a bow and arrow. They dance around the village and then off to farms and hamlets near by. In all, they carry the heavy pairs of horns for about 10 miles worth of dancing.
Carbon Dating the Horns
There is a record of the dance taking place at St. Barthelmy's fair in 1226, but the tradition may be much older. In the 1970s, one of the horns was slightly damaged creating an opportunity of radio carbon dating it. It proved to be more than 1,000 years old. There have not been reindeer in Britain in millennia, so the horns may have been imported from Scandinavia.But the story gets even better. The dancers have come from only two families (the members sometimes returning to the village just to perform the dance) in all that time. Until the 19th century, the Bentley family provided the dancers. In the 20th century the responsibility passed to their relations, the Fowells, who provide the horn dancers to this day.
