Wassailing on Horfield Common

On Saturday evening you might have come past Horfield Common and seen a very strange sight! Friends of Horfield Common and The Ardagh Community Trust were holding their very first Wassail in the orchard. (In case you didn’t know, the word wassail comes for the Anglo-Saxon shout, ‘waes hael’, meaning ‘be well’ or ‘be in good health’) 
 
We started in the Ardagh café where mulled cider was available to give us good spirit. We practised the song: Here we come a-Wassailing with Rog on his melodeon and then, using torches and making a loud noise by banging pans with a spoon, lids together or whatever noise producing thing that was to hand, we processed to the orchard. Our Wassailing song was sung, loud shouts went up and the trees were each given a sprinkle of cider. Pieces of toast were hung by old and young alike on the branches of the trees, the idea being that birds will take pieces of the Wassailed toast, be well fed and then hang about in the tree, ridding it of harmful insects during the coming year. 
 
The procession moved to wassail beside more orchard trees on the Ardagh site and then finally to the oldest Apple Tree where some members of Stepford Singers choir sang a wassail called The Old Apple Tree to more noise and cheers, cider sprinkling and toast on the branch.
 
If all of that hasn’t encouraged our trees into growing well in 2026 we’ll just have to try a bit harder next year! Many thanks to all who made the evening a success.