Mousehole is preparing to protrude fish heads once more as the village stages Tom Bawcock’s Eve on December 23.
Perhaps many of you will be know the event from the below picture of the Stargazy pie, which is eaten on the day of the event.
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s made up of mixed fish, egg and potato and has protruding fish heads coming out of the pie itself. Meanwhile a lantern procession often takes place through the village too.
Bawcock appears to have been a local fisherman in the sixteenth century. The tale goes that the village was suffering after a stormy winter meant none of the fishing boats had been able to head through the gaps.
It states that the villagers were facing starvation as Christmas approached, relying heavily on fish as their main source of sustenance.
Folk legend goes that Bawcock decided to get into his fishing boat, brave the storms and eventually catch enough fish to feed the whole of Mousehole.
It’s then believed that the whole catch was baked into a pie which contained as many as seven different types of fish. The heads were poked through the pastry to prove and celebrate that there was actually fish inside.
Tom Bawcock’s Eve has been held in the village every year on December 23 since the 1950s, with no record of its existence before. Since then it has been Mousehole’s early (ish) Christmas celebration and The Ship Inn transforms into a festive grotto to make sure everyone gets a taste of Stargazy sustenance.
The original Tom Bawcock's phrasing
A merry plaas you may believe
woz Mowsel pon Tom Bawcock's Eve.
To be theer then oo wudn wesh
To sup o sibm soorts o fesh!
Wen morgee brath ad cleard tha path
Comed lances for a fry,
An then us had a bet o scad
an starry gazee py.
Nex cumd fermaads, braa thustee jaads
As maad ar oozles dry,
An ling an haak, enough to maak
a raunen shark to sy!
A aech wed clunk as ealth wer drunk
En bumpers bremmen y,
An wen up caam Tom Bawcock's naam
We praesed un to tha sky
Amazingly there is also a folk music tradition linked to the Eve, with the words written by Robert Morton Nance in 1927 to a traditional local tune called the 'Wedding March'.
Tom Bawcock’s Eve also inspired Antonia Barber’s children’s book; The Mousehole Cat, which has also seen many local and even some national productions.
Another added bonus for the village is that since 1963 the festival has been lit up by the Mousehole Harbour Lights – one set of the illuminations even represents the pie itself.
Apparently there was an older feast, also held by the fishermen at the end of December which entailed a pie cooked with different fish. This apparently symbolised the diversity of catches they hoped to pull in during the next year.
Where did the name come from though? Well some believe that the surname Bawcock was actually an old-fashioned nickname or someone that was commendable.
The line “Why, how now, my bawcock” even features in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Because of this some infer that because of the name Tom, which (it breaks my heart to type it) is often used as a generic description for a man, the name ‘Tom Bawcock’ could represent anyone that risks their lives to put food on the table.
One thing we do know for sure though - if you miss Tom Bawcock's Eve in 2017 you'll be missing out.