A crowd of wassailers of all ages gathered at the community orchard at Weylands for the annual wassail ceremony on Saturday 8th February.
Wassailing has been practised since medieval times, especially in apple-growing regions, and is designed to ‘wake up’ an orchard by ‘toasting’ the trees (tying toast to the branches), pouring cider on the roots, and making lots of noise.
The event opened with town crier Martin Scott and dancing by Bounds of Selwood Morris, followed by the wassail ceremony itself, led by performers Annabelle Macfadyen and Jamie Wood, accompanied by Frome Street Bandits.
Despite the cold weather, around 300 wassailers joined in the fun, made wassail crowns with Frome Families for the Future, decorated sticks with ribbons and bells to shake, and enjoyed hot mulled cider and apple juice from Dowdings. A Frome Town Council tree giveaway saw 45 apple tree saplings head to new homes.
The community orchard at Weylands was planted in 2019 and 2020 by Charly Le Marchant of Wood for the Trees and Pavla of Hejgro, who designed and organised the tree planting under the Tree Group, with help from FROGs and Shared Earth, and with funds and support from Frome Town Council and Pumpkin Day in 2019 and 2020.
Mayor Cllr Andy Jones, the first to toast the trees, said, “What a fantastic turnout for the third Weylands Wassail! Thank you to Annabelle, Charly, Jamie, the Frome Street Bandits, Bounds of Selwood, Martin Scott, and deputy town crier Andrew Hardy (celebrating his anniversary as Frome’s town crier!)—and to everyone who came down despite the chilly weather to wake up the orchard and look forward to spring!”
Pictured Above: Mayor Cllr Andy Jones and Martin Scott, town crier, Photo credit Charly Le Marchant
Below: Frome Street Bandits, Photo credit Charly Le Marchant
Below: Frome Families for the Future willow crown making
