George Frampton’s latest edition of this work challenges the belief that the custom of “hoodening” had been dying out between the 1920s and the 1960s. Hoodening is a calendar custom, particularly performed at Christmastime by small groups of male family members and neighbors, who disguise themselves as a frightening horse or horse rider, visiting neighboring houses and pubs. The hooden horse head is typically made of wood, with a clamping jaw that can be manipulated by the wearer, who hides under a sheet or sack. The tradition has often been accompanied by caroling, mummers’ plays, and Morris dancing. Frampton’s research provides numerous anecdotes that reveal experiences with and attitudes towards the hooden horse tradition during these decades in which it has not been examined in previous studies. While the author provides numerous personal experience narratives, he doesn’t bring them into a clear or concise theoretical argument, rather providing these narratives as evidence that the practice had in fact never actually died prior to its revival, an interesting finding in itself that could be explored further. Frampton relies heavily on the data from Percy Maylam’s work from 1909 to discuss the history of the tradition, supplemented by his own ethnographic interviews with hoodeners and former hoodeners from several districts in the region of Kent, England. Frampton’s research employs the historic-geographic method in surveying the custom and its performers, comparing local variants. He doesn’t approach the study from the angle of performance theory, with attention on a particular community’s motivations in practicing hoodening, or with analytical attention to the politics of race, gender, and class.
Frampton organizes the work by region and town, and uses an informal tone throughout the work, as he hopes that this text might be useful for genealogical research by members of the communities studied. The text features colored photographs throughout, which, although sometimes of poor quality, demonstrate the history and variety of hooden horses as material culture in their performance contexts. The many appendixes include sheet music for popular songs in the tradition, timelines and maps of the tradition in practice, photographic documentation of hooden horse heads and associated props, and biographical and contact information for living performers and groups organized by location.
While Frampton’s work doesn’t provide a strong theoretical framework, his research is useful in that it provides a sense of the scope and history of the rarely studied practice of hoodening, with substantial direct quotations from his informants. Frampton uses a different color ink for his block quotes from both Percy Maylam’s informants and his own, giving readers ample primary source material to incorporate into related studies. Frampton rarely analyzes the photographs or block quotes, sometimes ending chapters and chapter sections without unpacking their content or incorporating them into a clear argument. I wouldn’t recommend this work for teaching, but in terms of research, Frampton offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive starting point for any scholar interested in the practice of hoodening in England. Additionally, Frampton’s research documents the adoption and repurposing of local and international calendar customs to suit the needs and interests of various individual performers and communities over time, providing contact information for anyone wishing to connect with those communities themselves. The detailed descriptions of the hooden horse heads and their use provide a template for readers interested in reviving a version of the tradition. Interestingly, this work describes the influence of blackface minstrelsy in the practice of hoodening, providing accounts of blacking up with burnt cork and singing songs inspired by the Christie Minstrels. In addition to documenting in detail the varied practices of hoodening, Frampton’s data sheds light on the roles of kinship, gender, race, class, material culture, and regional identity in English towns in the twentieth century.
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[Review length: 618 words • Review posted on October 31, 2019]