Leah Renz learns more about wassailing, an old English ritual, ahead of this year’s event in Broomfield Park

Behind a padlocked gate and two-metre-high hedge slumbers Broomfield Park’s community orchard.

The former bowling green sings with the twittering of starlings, and the odd screech of a parakeet, underscored by the continual rush of Aldermans Hill traffic. On Sunday, 5^th January however, the orchard will open to the public for a curious old English tradition.

“We don’t go pagan or anything,” reassures David March, co-chair of the Friends of Broomfield Park, and one of the organisers behind this January ritual. Yet there’s something undeniably whimsical about the wassail, a mix of revelry, tree blessing, and unfettered pandemonium designed to awaken the orchard from its wintry slumber.

“We all shout and scream to wake up the trees,” explains David. In the finger-numbing depths of winter, attendees gather to sip from the wassail cup, hang toast slices in the spindly apple tree branches, and make a racket loud enough to rouse both the trees and, presumably, nearby dog walkers.

Passers-by might think that’s a bit aggressive, but the ruckus is followed by a more harmonious singing of old English tunes, and a wishing for a fruitful harvest next year. At the climax of the wassail, David says, “you get your pots and pans, and you do the parade around the orchard a couple of times, just bashing and…” – David stops and imitates bashing noises – “to chase away evils spirits, whatever they may be”.

We chuckle at the efficacy of this technique, and the alarm it might induce in an unsuspecting jogger.

The orchard volunteers dreamed up the first Palmers Green Wassail in 2012, and the event began with a humble group of 30, led by a local accordion player. Now, families, schoolchildren and Duke of Edinburgh volunteers swell the numbers to 150 participants, all led by the ‘caller’ (David), with help from precocious children wielding microphones.

Unique to the Palmers Green Wassail is the ‘bee worsle’, in which everyone buzzes in blessing to the apiary. It is something to be witnessed: the number of people buzzing en masse really “resonates around the space”.

Music is another cornerstone of the event, courtesy of the North London blues duo That Blue Patch. Having unearthed traditional wassailing songs and folk music in archival music libraries, they serenade the orchard and attendees with their voices, guitar and ukelele. Ruth, one half of the pair, explains that, while some are familiar songs, others are harder to sing along with to due to their “rather peculiar old English” lyrics.

Most important is creating an almighty noise and, over the years, people have brought ever bigger pots and pans for just this purpose. David himself brings “an old bin lid” with a “nice, crackly surface”, no doubt from repeated wassail bashings. He invites anyone and everyone to “come along with a tin can or kitchen pot [and] bash a pan lid or something”.

This raucous blessing of the orchard will bear fruit – literally – come September, when the Friends of Broomfield Park hosts its annual apple day, an opportunity to sample apple wine while enjoying live music, and tasting a delicious variety of home-grown apples. Both the wassail and apple day offer opportunities for deeper engagement with our local environment and hands-on learning about bees, biodiversity and apple growth cycles.

No matter how peculiar it may sound – or look – the wassail is, by all accounts, an exuberant celebration of nature and community. If you’re game for a bit of toast-hanging, pan-banging revelry, Broomfield Park’s community orchard might just be the spot for you.

Palmers Green Wassail is a free event at Broomfield Community Orchard on Sunday, 5th January, from 1.30pm-3.30pm. For more information:
Visit fobp.uk/wassailing

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