Shout, Lads, Shout: Fiery Festivities in Wensleydale

Every year, on the Saturday closest to the 24th August, the village of West Witton gather to carry an effigy down the main road, chanting all the way, before stopping to set fire to it. This Pagan-inspired ritual is called the Burning of the Bartle, and is part of Witton Feast. The effigy is supposed to represent a sheep thief, though other theories have him as a statue of St Bartholomew, a holy man, or a pig farming giant.

A local man, Andrew Blackburn, remembers seeing the Burning of the Bartle for the first time at the age of eight. ‘It was very exciting and not all scary’, he says. Even before this, he and all his friends knew the chant off by heart, in a similar way to a nursery rhyme: ‘On Penhill Crags he tore his rags / Hunters Thorn he blew his horn / Capplebank Stee happened a misfortune and brak his knee / Grasgill Beck he brak his neck / Waddams End he couldn’t fend / Grasgill End we’ll mek his end / Shout, lads, shout!’

The Burning of the Bartle brings the whole village together as young and old alike crowd around to watch the flames, play instruments and sing traditional songs. All are welcome to join in the fun. The event takes place every year in the village of West Witton, which is near Leyburn in North Yorkshire.

Picture of Burning Bartle taken from halikeld.f9.co.uk.