The Gower Mummers Play, Sketty & Killay Tues 30th December

Last night was our final tour for 2025 of the Gower Mummers Play. We visited The Vivian at Sketty, where we were bought ale by a young guy who really enjoyed our play, and was keen for us to keep the old tradition alive. So good to get positive feedback like that. Means a lot! We moved on to the Village Inn at Killay where we encountered Chris (new guy who has joined our side) and his family. They enjoyed the play too, as more ale was bought by Chris’ dad, Mark! 

The last pub, The Railway, presents a snug area for the Valiant Knight & King George to enact their sword fight, but it has the benefit of comfy carpet for the valiant Knight to ‘die’ upon!

We ended the 2025 Mummers Tour, singing a few songs with Nige singing I’ll Drink One, and Paul singing a Welsh sea shanty Hob a Derri Dando, with local singer Hermione Wild joining us singing The Wild Rover and playing her fiddle along with Sian, Di, and Keith. 

Sweyns Ey Morris always collect for charity when performing the old Gower Mummers Play, & the Crwmpyn John Play which we performed at the beginning of our tour season. This year we have collected a total of £546 for Maggies Swansea Cancer Charity so we would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to all the landlords/ladies who allowed us to perform in their pubs, and to all their customers who donated money to our collecting buckets.

Now we can put our feet up, enjoy a beer or a glass of wine before our next outing at the Gower Wassail on Sat 10th January, being held at the Gower Heritage Centre at Parkmill.

The cast for the Play: Narrator Nigel Haworth, Old Father Xmas Alistair Dixon, Beelzebub Di Clark, Valiant Knight Alex Heney, King George Paul Tarrant, Ten Pound Doctor Keith Lascelles.

Here are some photos of last night’s tour, taken by Andrea.

The Gower Christmas Sport, Gower Tues 23rd December

Well that’s it for now, we can put our feet up, temporarily, and enjoy Christmas! Last night we visited five pubs in southern Gower, performing the old Gower Mummers Play also known as the Christmas Sport. We started at the Beaufort at Kittle before moving on to the Valley Hotel and Joiners Arms nearby. The Gower Inn followed and the King Arthur provided a great crowded, cosy place to conclude the tour. 

Highlight of the evening had to be where the Valiant Knight was just about to enter the crowded bar of the King Arthur and realised he had left his sword in the car park outside! This left the Narrator and Mother Christmas having to fill in an awkward silence with some comic banter! Valiant Knight was more than a little breathless when he swiftly returned, sword in hand and King George had no trouble dispatching him, but then again he had been doing that all evening with consummate ease!

Our performances concluded with our Mummers Song and Christmas tunes expertly played by Sian Musgrave and Keith.

We would like to thank all the landlords/ladies for allowing us to perform this old Gower Christmas custom in their pubs. Believe it or not, the Gower Mummers Play has been performed for nearly 200 years with several Gower villages having their own version of it.

We also thank all the people who generously donated the sum of £274 to our charity buckets. All the money we collect, when performing the Play, is donated to Maggies Swansea Cancer Charity.

The Cast: The Narrator Nigel Haworth, Old Mother Christmas Alison Haworth, Valiant Knight Geoff Wildman, King George Paul Tarrant, Ten Pound Doctor, Keith Lascelles

The photos were taken by Sian.

​The Gower Mummers Play or The Christmas Sport, Mumbles Thurs 18th December

The first tour this year of The Gower Mummers Play, or Christmas Sport as it was known, kicked off in a fairly quiet Mumbles on a rainy evening with us visiting The Waterloo Stores, The Victoria, and Harry’s Bar aka Mumbales. We were to visit The George but couldn’t perform there this year.

The Play followed its usual form with a procession of random folk like The Narrator, Father Christmas and Belzebub, calling a Valiant Soldier in to make boast that he would fight King George, whereupon King George enters and the two have a mock sword fight resulting in the demise of Valiant Soldier, who then is miraculously revived by a Doctor who is clearly qualified in the field of medicine by virtue of him being travelled far and wide and wearing a top hat! The hat was passed around and we sang a song with our skilled musicians, Sian, Keith & Di playing a mix of festive tunes to everyone’s delight and conclude events at each pub we performed in.

We collected for Maggies Swansea Cancer Charity £90.26 which we hope to add to when we next parade the Mummers Play on Tues 23rd around the south Gower area. We all had good fun performing the play and thank all the Landlord’s/Ladies for letting us perform and to all their customers contributing to our collecting buckets.

The Cast: Narrator Ken Bond, Father Christmas Di Clark, Beelzebub Alex Heney, Valiant Soldier Geoff Wildman, King George Paul Tarrant, The Doctor Nigel Howarth.

Below are a selection of pics superbly taken by Sian, Rebecca and Claire of the evening’s performance.

Crwmpyn John Mummers Play Tour

We visited pubs in the Swansea Valley on Thursday night 11th December, performing the Crwmpyn John play which was traditionally performed in Ynysmeudwy and Ystalyfera from the start of the C20th. Local children used to venture into the pubs frequented by local coal miners working at Tarreni Colliery and others, performed the play and received pennies for their acting. They would do this from Halloween to Bonfire Night. The play was performed traditionally, by local children until the early 1960s, and then the good people of the Valley Folk Club in Pontardawe carried on the performance from the 70s until the 1980s but they shifted performance to the run in to Christmas. We have been performing the play since the early 1990s, therefore keeping this old tradition very much alive.

We visited The Millers, Ynystawe, The Butchers, Alltwen, The Chameleon, Ystradgynlais, and the Wern Fawr in Ystalyfera. We were warmly welcomed in all the pubs and audiences enjoyed the antics of Crwmpyn John, King John, Robin Hood, Dr Brown and Jingle In! We collected a total of £86 for Maggies Cancer Charity.
Sian Musgrave and Keith played Christmassy tunes at the end of each performance. Zepur Agop, Erin & Sian took photos and Geoff Wildman provided moral support throughout the evening! Di Clark joined us for our last performance at the Wern Fawr to play music.

The Cast: Crwmpyn John Nigel Haworth, King John Paul Tarrant, Robin Hood Alex Heney, Doctor Brown Keith Lascelles, Jingle In Erin Rickard.
Big Thanks to the Landlords & Ladies, and all who watched and contributed to our buckets!