[North East Derbyshire], Derbyshire


G.John (1921)

Gwen John (Auth.)
*The Derbyshire Mumming Play of St. George and the Dragon; or as it is Sometimes Called The Pace Egg
Folk-Lore, 1921, Vol.32, pp.181-193

*Full text of a play compiled from several version from the North East Derbyshire colliery district, performed by Guisers at Christmas 1921. the characters are: Old Fool/Old Bold Ben, Father Christmas, Saint George/King George/King George of Paradise, Slasher, Doctor, Black Prince of Paradise, King of Egypt, Hector, Beelzebub, Slip Slop, and Devil Doubt/Little Chucker Out.

I.Russell (1979)

Ian Russell (Auth.)
'Here comes me and our old lass, Short of money and short of brass': A Survey of Traditional Drama in North East Derbyshire 1970-8 [Derby Tup plays]
Folk Music Journal, 1979, Vol.3, No.5, pp.399-478

This paper gives a very full description of a survey of Derby Tup or Old Tup plays performed in north east Derbyshire between 1970 and 1978. Full texts, with tunes, are given for plays from Barrow Hill, Birdholme, Bolsover, Brimington, Creswell, Eckington, Harthill, Killamarsh, Middle Handley, Poolsbrook, Renishaw, Ridgeway, Stanfree and Unstone. For some locations, more than one text is given, and there are photographs of teams from Barrow Hill, Killamarsh, Renishaw, Ridgeway and Unstone.

The accompanying analysis discusses the state of health of the tradition, and compares the texts, modes of operation, etc., of the plays. Useful tables compare song stanzas, speech elements and tunes. An appendix lists the names of all the actors in each of the teams, and shows which parts they played in which year.

Variant: external-resource

  • Folk Music Journal, JSTOR, accessed 2023-12-20
    Over 15 Derby Tup Plays from North East Derbyshire

* indicates data that not yet been validated against the original source and/or has yet to be completely indexed.