Homer Sykes writes about the project and the photographs:

The Project
… from Homer’s rare 1977 book “Once a Year some traditional British customs.”

Once a Year was my first long term photographic project. It involved travelling around the country over a period of seven years, and photographing around a hundred traditional events that had an unbroken record of taking place once a year.
I tended to concentrated on those events that were steeped in local history rather than the folk club revival, ‘traditional country customs’ and other events that were more about tourism than our traditional popular culture.
As a documentary photographer, whenever possible I tried to include accidental participants, spectators to the performance, and to document the unfolding drama against a backdrop that gave the images a contemporary feel rather than just concentrate on the event itself.
Be they religious or secular, these customs stand as strange, often amusing signposts to Britain’s rich heritage, nonetheless they remain rooted in the annual cycle of a town or village’s way of life. Indeed, today, they may be the only expression of that past.

The Prints

Caking Night in Dungworth Yorkshire.
By wearing masks and fancy dress, competitors at the Caking Night ceremony at the Royal Hotel Dungworth (a small village on the outskirts of Sheffield) conceal their identity. The custom traditionally took place on November 1st. Caking Night no longer takes place at the Royal Hotel and has not done so for a long time. In this once popular local tradition the dead visited their former homes and partook of the food of the living. Associated with the Christian calendar, All Souls Day, and in part with a pagan past, the ceremony no longer exists. Until the mid 20th century, ‘cakers’ would visit local neighbourhoods where the householders tried to guess their identity. If unidentified they received a small sum of money, but if they were recognised they were given a piece of home made Parkin cake. In this picture taken in 1974 the judging had taken place. This participant was still not revealing his identity but was supping a pint of beer through a straw.

The Burry Man. South Queensbury near Edinburgh.

What are the origins of a custom where a Green Man is covered from head to toe in burrs? This has long been a subject for discussion, but suffice to say it is the remnants of an ancient fertility figure. There are reports from the nineteenth century of the Burry Man appearing in other Scottish locations when the fishing harvest was failing. The twentieth century Burry Man makes his perambulations of the town boundary on the date preceding the annual Ferry Fair. It is thought that this was once a fishing fertility rite, although these days it is associated with the local borough or burgh. The fair has been in existence since 1687, and now takes place during the second week in August. By 1971 nothing of what was once an eight day fair remained save the road race, run for a traditional pair of black boots.

The Britannia Coconut Dancers, Lancashire.
Originally, married men who worked at the Royal Britannia cotton Mill in Bacup used to perform the Coconut Dances around the town boundaries on Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Again, the origins are obscure; the dancers have blackened faces and wear white caps, black breeches, red and white barrel skirts and black decorated clogs. Some researchers believe they have a Moorish genesis. The coconut dance is a series of jumps and leaps, and at the end of each phase the ‘coconuts’ are struck together with a smooth circular movement of the arm in such a way as to produce a curious rippling sound. Their name derives from the hard wooden discs, the tops of cotton bobbins, which are attached in three places: just above the knees, to their hands and to the waist.

Ripon Sword Dance Play. Ripon Yorkshire.
Performed by members of the Hardcastle family for over two hundred years, this mumming play can trace its development back to the 17th century, and is loosely based on the legend of St George and the Dragon, the central theme being death and resurrection, good versus evil. The Ripon Sword Dance Play used to take place on December 26th, and is a traditional Christmas mumming play, with no sword dancing. During the play a sword fight takes place, with the protagonist killing the hero, who is then miraculously revived by the Quack Doctor with his magic potion. In 1971 when I made this photograph there were three performers, Eddie Hardcastle on the right, his brother Walter, and Walter’s son-in -law Tony Chambers. They employed two “cadgers”, Bill Chapman and Norman Carter to collect money from passing motorists and anyone who stopped to watch the performance. The collection was shared out at the end of the day. The first performance was in a residential street where one of the performers lived and they then followed a particular route around town performing at traditional locations regardless of whether there was an audience or not. Eddie Hardcastle died in 1974 and with him this tradition.

Minehead Hobby Horse. Minehead Somerset.
This young man has woken up at dawn to see the Sailors House return from Whitecross a mile or so west of the town on May Day morning, where as part of the traditional celebration the Sailors Horse accompanied by three musicians play the ‘Hobby Horse’ tune, or ‘Sailors Joy’. At Whitecross the hobby horse bows three times to the morning sun, and then makes its way back into town. During the 19th century this was much grander, with the vicar blessing the Hobby Horse and a May Queen being crowned. In 1971 after the morning’s excursion, the Hobby Horse then reappears that evening, carried by van to Dunster where it is danced in front of the castle. The following two evenings it appears in Periton and Cher giving some credence that these celebrations combine traditional May Day festivities with the ‘beating the bounds’ ceremony. More boat than horse shaped, it is made of a wooden frame built up inside so as to be carried on the shoulders of the hobby horse man. Covered in sacking and decorated in coloured cloth ribbons the hobby horse rushes to and fro chasing children, and flicking them with its tail. It’s considered good luck to touch the “Oss”.

Marshfield Paper Boys. Marshfield Gloucestershire.
Like the Ripon Sword Dancer Play, this Boxing Day tradition is based on a death and resurrection theme. The town crier ringing his bell leads a troupe of Paper Boys into the village square to start. Each of the five separate performances takes approximately five minutes. Records show that the play died out during the 1890’s, to be revived again in 1932. The traditional costume is made up of strips of newspaper stuck onto a ‘cowgown’, and more recently additional coloured paper has been added. In 1975 the Paper Boys collected eighty four pounds all of which was donated to local charities and village organisations.

Castleton Garland Day. Castleton Derbyshire.
May 29th, also known as Oak Apple Day sees this annual custom takes place. During the day a garland of wild flowers shaped like a bee-hive and topped by a posy, known as the Queen is prepared. At about 6.30pm it is placed on the head and shoulders of a man wearing Stuart costume who is led around the village on horse back. A lady in similar period costume follows riding side-saddle and a group of local school children dressed in white follow behind dancing to the village band. Adults take some refreshments at each of the six pubs whilst the band plays the ‘garland tune’ and the children dance. The procession finishes up at the church gates where the garland is hoisted to the top of the church tower where it stays for a week tied to one of the four pinnacles. The other three are decorated with oak branches. The origins are lost in the midst of time but its genesis may be based in the Green Man fertility figure. The present ceremony dates from the Restoration of King Charles II on 29 May 1660 (this area of Derbyshire was strongly royalist in the civil war.) which accounts for the Stuart costume, and the dressing of the church pinnacles with oak branches (which would commemorate the Kings escape from the Battle of Worcester in 1651 by hiding in an oak tree).

Allendale Tar Barrel Parade. Northumberland.
New Years Eve or Hogmanay is of course much more a celebration in the north than the south, and Allendale would feel the influences of Scotland strongly. There, celebrations start like elsewhere shortly before midnight, but as the New Year draws closer, local men known as ‘guisers’ dressed in fancy dress carry flaming tar barrels in procession around the town on their head, eventually to be thrown into a celebratory bonfire as midnight strikes. Traditional first footing used to take place in outlying villages where open house was held for all the ‘guisers’. The first record of this celebration is recorded in the Hexham Courant of 1884 but was probably practiced well before that date.