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Folkestone Folklore & Licensing File
File class: LOCAL CUSTOM | Revision: July 2026
JOHN BARLEYCORN RECORDINGS | SHEPWAY BEAR WATCH | SHORNCLIFFE MASCOTRY | 1977 FOLKLORE FESTIVAL | INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FIASCO | THE BEAR GETS MATCH FIT | HOODEN HORSE TRIALS GAME | CCTV SPOTTED BEAR ANTICS | PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD
Traditional live bear baiting was prohibited in the Folkestone area by Shepway District Council in the late 1970s. The prohibition was thought complete.
Later changes to gambling, entertainment and premises licensing produced an absurd loophole: organised and licensed Bear Baiting Karaoke could return, provided that no animal was harmed, the Bear had volunteered to sing, the audience baited him only with heckling and song requests, and all side bets were recorded on the proper form.
The Bear consequently tours Folkestone believing himself to be the booked entertainment. The result is a regular circuit of disputed appearances, temporary forgiveness and renewed barring orders.
By the time the phrase “Bear Baiting” appears in later archive material, it no longer seems to describe one clear performance. It had become a loose local shorthand for the Bear’s unstable public appearances: part cabaret turn, part pub incident, part folklore revival and part audience provocation.
| Approx. date | Event |
|---|---|
| Late 1970s | Shepway District Council adopts the Live Bear Baiting and Associated Public-House Disturbances By-law. |
| 1980s–90s | Practice survives only in pub songs, disputed Hooden Horse trial cards and poor-quality home video. |
| Early 2000s | Licensing language distinguishes a live animal contest from a costumed karaoke performer who has misunderstood a booking. |
| Recent years | Organised Bear Baiting Karaoke returns under entertainment, gaming and noise restrictions. |
| Present file | The Bear is barred from most participating venues. |
| No. | Licensing condition |
|---|---|
| 1 | No live animal is involved. The Bear is the designated act. |
| 2 | Baiting is limited to heckling, karaoke selection and theatrical disappointment. |
| 3 | No violence, threat or actual cruelty is permitted. |
| 4 | Widecombe Fair may not be selected twice without written consent. |
| 5 | One encore means one encore. The Bear disputes this provision. |
| 6 | Barrels, pumps, microphones and gaming machines remain the property of the venue. |
| 7 | The landlord retains an absolute right to bar, forgive and re-bar the Bear. |
OPEN THE CCTV SPOTTED BEAR ANTICS FILE
By this stage, the Bear was no longer reliably appearing as a booked act. Instead, he begins to surface in CCTV material: outside pubs, club doors, arcades and service alleys, usually refusing to leave, trying to re-enter, or becoming involved in minor absurd incidents.
These recordings are less performance documentation than community evidence. Taken together, they form the “CCTV Spotted Bear Antics” file: a loose record of barring, baiting and public decline.
The clips sit between folklore, nuisance, performance residue and local legend. They help connect Bear Baiting, pub barring and the later nightlife decline files.
| Community upload | Incident note |
|---|---|
| Keg Incident, Back Alley — CAM 03. Approx. date: undated community upload. Venue/location: pub rear service yard, location not securely identified. Community-uploaded clip from a rear alley. The keg appears to have been removed without permission. The Bear's explanation is not retained. |
|
| Street Shove, Tontine Street. Approx. date: undated street upload. Venue/location: Tontine Street, outside B&B Project Space. Community-uploaded street footage from the B&B Project Space frontage. The incident belongs to the Tontine Street public-nuisance strand, not the Priz nightclub file. The chalk marks and coin collection connect it to the later Shepway Bear Watch street-operations file. |
|
| Dome Arcade After Hours. Approx. date: Rotunda after-hours copy. Venue/location: arcade doorway / seafront frontage. Still and clip showing doorway loitering after the machines have closed. Staff notes describe no booking, no token and no useful explanation. |
|
| Attempted Re-entry, The Priz. Approx. date: late nightlife phase. Venue/location: the Priz / Marine Pavilion nightclub strand. Clip associated with an attempted return to the Priz. Door staff remain calm; the Bear treats the refusal as a scheduling error. |
The Folkestone trials use a hooded wooden horse and retain several features associated with the wider Kentish hoodening custom. The trial cards are catalogued separately from customary-performance material, although some copies place their public-house route beside International Folklore Festival listings.
The Hooden Horse party visits public houses and tests ceremonial entrants. The Bear repeatedly mistakes the trial for an audition, challenges the Horse to share top billing and is barred before adjudication.
A second batch of programme covers and parade photographs places the Bear and Hooden Horse within the 1977 Folkestone International Folklore Festival. The Bear’s prominence varies by copy, from uncredited procession figure to the phrase “including the Bear.”
OPEN THE 1977 FESTIVAL FILE
OPEN THE INTERNATIONAL
FOLKLORE FIASCO FILE
The Bear is absent from most early photographs and conspicuously present in several later copies. Negatives have not survived. Some prints show retouching around the doorway, barrels or lower left corner; whether this was corrective or evidential remains disputed.
A later batch establishes the portable ring and black Horse staff in a pub, on the harbour and beside shuttered rear premises. Three moving-image copies show the same apparatus at a Folk Karaoke Battle. See the John Barleycorn recording register.
