Ouse Washes Molly

Tom Hickathrift

Tom Hickathrift was a fenland giant who lived in the Marshland area between King’s Lynn and Wisbech. He was an historical figure and lived the last part of his days at Hickathrift Hall near Tilney All Saints and is buried in the churchyard of that village. Many stories are told about Tom but our dance is based upon the best known. When Tom was quite young he had a job hauling a cart of beer barrels from King’s Lynn to Wisbech. Being amazingly strong he did not need a horse. In those days there was an evil ogre who lived in a God forsaken area called The Smeeth, half way between the two towns. As this ogre was fond of eating passers by the road took a long detour around The Smeeth. One hot summer’s day Tom was pulling the cart and he reached the spot where the road branched off to avoid the ogre’s lair. Tom was feeling tired and decided to cut down the journey by taking the track straight through the Smeeth. As he started along the path he saw the awful evidence of the Ogre’s presence, skulls of foolhardy folk hanging from every tree. Tom kept going.

Eventually the Ogre appeared, with a huge club and shield in his hand and Tom saw that he needed something to defend himself. Quick as a fenland Skoda driver he turned the cart over, the barrels rolling down the track and delaying his foe. Tom ripped a wheel off the cart for a shield and tore off the axle to use as a club. The battle was terrible, rivalling the single handed combat between Rama and Ravanna in intensity and the sound of the mighty blows they both struck echoed across the marshes. In the end, of course, our hero was victorious, and with one last mighty blow removed the head of the ogre. He put the axle and wheel back on the cart, placed the ogres head on a barrel and continued on his journey. All the population of the fair town of Wisbech turned out to welcome him and thereafter his name spread far and wide, until, eventually he became the King’s personal hero and the most wealthy man ever to have come from the fen. He took as his heraldic emblem a circle with a line over it, symbolising the axle and wheel that he had used to death the ogre. These symbols can be seen on his gravestone and were the original motivation for our dance. We decided to try to construct a dance based around lines and circles.

For a number of years we danced it to a tune which we can’t remember now, but the musicians hated playing it and were always looking for an alternative. Eventually they settled on the Beatles song, “With A Little Help From The Fens”, which has given the dance a definite new lease of life. We now perform it with a chorus line, with amazing choreographed movements and superb voices. Poor old Tom has almost been forgotten but he still lies there in his ten foot grave, in which the locals say he had to be folded in half to get in.

While we were making up these dances we filled out our programme with stylised versions of some of the traditional dances. These included (and still include) Cross Hand Polka, College Hornpipe and Bird’s A Building. These dances are basically very simple and so, of course, call for lots of control and precision to make them effective. Another dance that served the same purpose was actually made up at a workshop we hosted many years ago run by the Seven Champions. We chose the most straightforward version of The Plough Dance, and it can still be a very effective dance, especially when danced around a plough. The most common thing that we dance around is a strange implement used for emptying septic tanks.