ON the evening of Saturday, January 21, around 60 adults and children gathered to wassail Camelford’s community orchard.

The orchard was planted in 2013 with 60 fruit trees to commemorate the queen’s jubilee. Whilst still a young orchard, the event is fast becoming an important part of the year for Camelford.

Organised by Camelford Town Council and ably assisted by the 1st Camelford Scouts — who did a grand job with the fire and serving the wassail — everyone who came along soon joined in the wassail spirit.

Tywardreath Morris Side got everyone up with dancing and singing. Savannah Mc’Connell and Adam Barfoot were the 2017 wassail queen and king, and ‘a brilliant job they did too!’

After the crowning ceremony, the king and queen led the procession to the apple trees for the wassail ceremony.

A key element of the procession is noise — children are given this one night of the year to make as much noise as they want, and nobody will mind. Whistles, drums, a cake tin and a wooden spoon will work just fine — the event needs a lot of noise!

Wassailing is an ancient tradition of drinking to the health of the apple trees, in the hope of a good crop of apples the following season. It involved the wassail king and queen pouring cider around the roots of the guardian apple tree, whilst a poem is read by the wassail master.

The king and queen each hang a piece of toast, which is dipped in cider, on the branches. Everyone then joins in by doing the same, and by the end of the evening, the tree is covered in little pieces of toast. Everyone then proceeds to sing to the tree, and make lots of noise to wake it up in time for spring.

A rhyme is also read during the event, which says, ‘Old apple tree we wassail thee, and hoping thou will bear,

‘For the Lord doth know where we shall be, till apples come another year,

‘To bear well and bloom well, so merry let us be,

‘Let everyone take off their hat and shout to the old apple tree,

‘Old apple tree we wassail thee, and hoping thou will bear,

‘Hats-full, caps-full, three bushel bags full,

‘And a little heap under the stairs, dark, it was muddy and it was very loud.’

The 2018 wassail will take place on Saturday, January 20, with the town council encouraging everyone to ‘mark it in their diaries now!’

For those who would like to help this event grow, get in touch with Claire Hewlett via Camelford Town Council on 01840 212880

l COWSLIP Work­shops, located just outside of Launceston, held a wassailing event recently.

Cowslip invited members of the public to come along and toast the apple trees.