Fools, Lords and Boggins – folklore and photography on Lincolnshire’s Isle of Axholme.

This paper, richly illustrated with the author’s photography and a range of archive material, considers the folklore and photographic representation of the Haxey Hood, a traditional calendar custom with a history dating back as far as 1359, which takes place on the 6th January in the area of North Lincolnshire known as the Isle of Axholme. Each year, participants act out a folkloric narrative specific to the history and landscape of this former marshland area, involving communal singing, procession and performance, a chase and mock burning, and finally ‘the sway’, a mass game in which as many as two hundred participants attempt to guide the ‘hood’, a tightly bound roll of leather, towards a pub in either Haxey or the nearby village of Westwoodside. As with other similar customs, the ritual and performative aspects of the event provide a number of photographic opportunities, moments when key characters and action can be more easily captured, which have come to represent the event. As a result, photographers, like folklorists, can find themselves following in the footsteps of those who preceded them, partaking in a ritual of re-photography, a remaking of all those photographs that came before. Whilst visually simplifying the complexities of the custom for easy media consumption, this also provides a fascinating opportunity to slice through history, tracing similar moments across time, marking both similarity and difference.