Shutdown on Lundy is the first three weeks in January. This is a time when we have no visitors and we work a standard Monday-Friday week, cleaning and repairing. Its Mid Winter so we try to get together for some social activities. So considering there are three apple trees in the Millcombe allotment, I suggested a Wassail! This was a first for Lundy shutdown.]
What is a Wassail?
Wassailing is an old midwinter tradition popular in the West Country. Communities gather to bless apple trees. They share cider and wish for a healthy harvest in the year ahead. Wassailing is an old custom, rooted in the West Country.
The word wassail comes from the Old English waes hael — “be well.” At its heart, the practice is simple. It involves gathering together, making noise, sharing drink, and offering goodwill to the land. This sounded like a great excuse for some merriment during the shutdown on Lundy.
In true wassail style, we organized a procession. It started from Millcombe house and went down to the allotment at the bottom of the drive. Wassails are not quiet affairs. The procession was noisy, with pans being enthusiastically banged and metal ringing against metal. This loud commotion is meant to frighten off malevolent demons or “bad spirits” that are lurking in the valley. The noise is also intended to rouse the trees from their winter sleep to prepare them for the spring.
Blessing the Apple Trees
Inside the allotment a fire was already burning and three apple trees stood waiting. Slices of toast were dipped generously into cider and then hung carefully from the branches. These were offerings for the robins. They were also symbolic gestures of sharing. They acknowledged that the harvest is never just ours alone. Together we read aloud a blessing. The trees were then doused with cider from a wassail bowl, the liquid soaking into the earth around their roots.
There was cake too. It was a rich apple cake baked by the Lundy Chef. We sang the Gloucestershire Wassail, its familiar rhythm carrying easily into the night, helped along by cups of mulled cider. This was no ordinary mulled cider either. It was warmed with a splash of mead made and donated. by Pete Taylor of Nidhoggr Mead.
Once the three apple trees had been blessed, the formal part of the wassail gently dissolved into music and merriment. The Lundy Head Chef (Teresa) and the Lundy Warden (Simon) filled the allotment with music. This lively “hullabaloo.” contributed to the blessing of the orchard which encourages fertility of the fruit.
It was great to bring a Devon tradition to a granite rock in the Bristol Channel. Next time you walk up Millcombe Drive take a look over the wall at Lundy’s three apple trees.
