Manning and Mumming

Abstract

Percy Manning (1870-1917) was an Oxford antiquarian, and a collector of anything to do with Oxfordshire - archaeology, material vernacular culture, brass rubbings, folklore, morris dancing, and last but not least, mumming plays. He is probably most famous in the folk world for sponsoring the revival of Headington Quarry Morris in 1899 - the side encountered later that year by Cecil Sharp, and which influenced the English folk dance revival of 1905 onwards. Manning donated many items to the Pitt Rivers Museum during his lifetime. On his death, he bequeathed his collections to the University of Oxford, who split them between the Bodleian Libraries, and the Ashmolean Museum. Some material ended up in other locations, such as the Archaeology Department, and there is further Manning material in external collections, for instance the Cecil Sharp manuscripts and the Ordish Papers.

Plans are afoot to celebrate the centenary of Manning's death in 2017, with a number of academic and cultural activities, organised under the leadership of the renowned morris historian and retired Bodleian librarian Mike Heaney. A preliminary workshop was held in Oxford in October 2014 to identify the materials that are available in the various collections, and to discuss the activities that might be appropriate for the anniversary. While the size of the mumming component of Manning's collections is quite modest, it makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. Apart from the texts that Manning collected, it also includes original material from the folk play scholars E.H.Binney and T.F.Ordish, and has a number of early photographs of Oxfordshire mummers. In this paper, I will summarise Manning's career and describe the mumming content of his collection, along with some preliminary analyses. I will also outline some of the activities that are being considered for the anniversary and invite further suggestions.

About the author

Peter Millington, University of Nottingham, has been researching British and Irish folk drama for 40 years, and gained his PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2002 for his thesis "The Origins and Development of English Folk Plays". He founded the Traditional Drama Research Group's website https://folkplay.info/, and currently runs the Master Mummers website http://www.mastermummers.org/.