The Glossop Guizers' Ancient Pace Egg Play will embark on a world tour of town centre pubs on the Mayday bank holiday - Monday, May 5 - starting from the Globe pub on High Street West at 12 noon.
 

Glossop Guizers are:

 Here's one two three Jolly Boys all in one mind
 We have come a pace egging and we hope you'll prove kind
 And we hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer
 And we'll come no more nigh you until the next year

Pace egg plays are folk plays handed down in an oral tradition and usually performed at Easter by a troupe of travelling actors known as mummers or guizers, who visited great houses - or pubs - collecting money. They were often associated with the tradition of pace egg rolling - racing decorated Easter eggs down a grassy slope.

As Glossop has no known traditional text for a pace egg play, the Glossop Guizers have invented their own ancient custom by creating a local adaptation of other written versions from around Derbyshire and the north west of England. This plagiarism is itself part of the tradition - most of the 3,000 known texts are local versions of a vaguely-recollected original source.

Thanks to Peter Millington of the University of Sheffield, whose scholarly research into traditional drama is available at www.folkplay.info.
 

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