Sidmouth Traditional Mummers
Welcome
to the home
of the Sidmouth Traditional Mummers and thank you for visiting us.
We hope you will find our website interesting and informative
and
we also hope it might be an encouragement to anyone thinking of
reviving a local tradition in their own area.
We would also hope that it might be a source of useful information for
future generations of folklorists, and anyone else who is interested in
old folk customs.
We
would be delighted to hear from anyone with an interest in mumming
generally - especially the mumming tradition of Sidmouth and its
surrounding area. Should you have any questions that our
website
does not answer or you would simply like to 'talk mumming' with us
please contact us at sidmouthmummers@yahoo.co.uk
or telephone Henry Piper on 01404 811491.
This
website is affectionately dedicated to Arthur Baker and his mumming
companions of 1905, both known and unknown and also to the present
generation of the Baker family who have given us much help and
encouragement.
This is a photograph of
Arthur Baker's
troupe of mummers. It was taken in Mr Fish's photography
studio in
Sidmouth some time between 1905 and 1908 and was apparently one of the
earliest 'flash' photographs to be taken in Sidmouth. This
troupe
were formed in 1905 to perform at the celebrations for the centenary of
the Battle of Trafalgar and continued performing for several years
afterwards.
This is the only surviving one of two known photographs of the troupe.
The other has been lost over the years but apparently shows a
slightly different cast with one of the performers lying down in front
of his colleagues and was presumably taken to record a different years
performance.
Arthur Baker, from whom the play was collected in 1954, can be seen
standing on the extreme left as Nelson with his brother Fred standing
next to him. Fred usually played the Duke of Wellington.
The
present-day Sidmouth Traditional Mummers were formed in 1979 by a
group of Sidmouth residents. The photograph below shows the
2007
cast miraculously transported to the same Sidmouth photographer's
studio of long ago. For a detailed history of the
early days of our revival please click here.
This is a video of the 2007 version of our play,
here.
To see where we will be performing next please click here.
If you live in theSidmouth area or have a connection with
Sidmouth and are interested in joining us, please contact us by e-mail
at sidmouthmummers@yahoo.co.uk and we will get back to
you.
Please click here for some photographs of the
current troupe performing during the last few years.
Please click
here to view 'The Last Page', a
selection of anecdotes, FAQ's and other miscellaneous information about
us.
Please
click the link below should you wish to leave a message for Old Father
Christmas! To return to this page after leaving your message,
please use your browser's 'back' button.
Sign
Guestbook
View
Guestbook
This website is designed by Rosie
Piper and maintained by Henry and Rosie Piper on behalf of Sidmouth
Traditional Mummers.
