« Folkestone Bear Barring Register
Custom, Costume & Uninvited Participation
FOLK FILE | STREET / PUBLIC HOUSE / FESTIVAL
| District | Folkestone, Tontine Street and the seafront |
|---|---|
| Contents | Hoodening photographs, programme copies, pub appearances and recordings |
| Bear status | PARTICIPATION DISPUTED |
In about 2006–07, a Hooden Horse returned to Tontine Street. The photograph places it among ordinary shopfronts and pavement traffic, before the area's later redevelopment. Custom was back in the street, with very little distance between the performance and whoever happened to be passing.
The Club Shepway papers keep this appearance alongside other local interventions: seaside parades, temporary gatherings and the return of familiar forms to a changing town. The Horse did not require a new venue. The street was already there.
The 1977 festival papers place the Horse and Bear beside visiting musicians, dancers and seafront processions. Programme covers vary. So does the Bear's account of his position in the running order.
In one procession photograph he is already ahead of the musicians. This establishes his position in the photograph, rather than his authority over the band.
| Setting | Record | Archive file |
|---|---|---|
| Tontine Street | Hoodening returns to the town centre, c. 2006–07. | Street photograph |
| Festival route | Horse, Bear, visiting performers and inconsistent programme copies. | 1977 papers |
| The Mariner's | Trad Folk Night: Bear and Horse performance, photographs and the phone recording. | Mariner's file |
| Public-house microphone | Song requests, heckling and disagreement over the final number. | Karaoke file / Recordings |
| Outside the door | Performance continues after admission has been withdrawn. | Bear Watch |
Later Bear papers treat the return of hoodening as permission for further public appearances. A horse in the street became, in the Bear's account, sufficient grounds for a bear at the microphone. Landlords continued to ask whether he had been booked.
The barring register follows what happened when these interpretations met at a pub door. The recordings preserve what happened when he got inside.
Club Shepway's publication register includes Vernacular Folk, Vernacular Spectacular and the Regional Book of Beasts.
Continue to Folkestone Carnival for the Bear's procession appearances from the 1950s to the 1990s, and their later revival connections. Hooden Horse Trials holds the separate playable game.