Sweeps Festival, Rochester

Today I went to Rochester – a great little town – to watch the Sweeps Festival.  This spring festival recreates the fun and laughter enjoyed by chimney sweeps on their traditional holiday – 1 May (Mayday), and began 400 years ago.  It was the only day of the year they could leave the sooty chimneys behind and have some fun and laughter drinking ale and being merry.  The Jack in the Green used to awaken at dawn on Blue Bell Hill in Chatham and lead the Morris Dancers through the city.  Today the festivities celebrate the arrival of spring with street dancing, folk music, drinking ale and cake stands and stalls.   Don’t let the green trees fool you though, it was 6 degrees!

Chimney Sweepers with sooty faces and feathers!

Street performers

Traditional dancing

Playing accordion and banjo

Performers with Jack in the Green behind

Performers with a beak mask made of wicker

These guys played fantastic music, had
 a really earthy, thunderous beat

Scary!  

The Morris Dancers' fool

Sweeps with Jack in the Green (yes, there's a
 person in there!)

Beautiful bread stall

Amazing cakes

And a few shots of historic Rochester.  Rochester is where Charles Dickens spent the later years of his life, and many of the buildings feature in his novels, notably The Pickwick Papers, and Great Expectations.  Each year there is a Dickens Festival in the town centre.

The High Street

The High Street

Rochester Castle (dates back to
 Norman times)

Rochester Cathedral is a Norman church and dates back to 604.  The bishopric is the second oldest in England after Canterbury.

Rochester Cathedral

Down in the crypt

The crypt

BBQ near the old city gate