East Yorkshire Folk Tales by Ingrid Barton

Author:Ingrid Barton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750964401
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2015-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

The fire was still burning in my own lifetime, but the inn itself was deteriorating. At some time in the nineties it was closed, the tradition lapsed, the fire went out and – presumably – the Devil escaped. The sad state of the inn today suggests that he rather resented his long imprisonment.

THE FLYING MAN

Pocklington

England was in the grip of flying mania. Suddenly everyone wanted to see man (yes, it always WAS men) attempting to imitate the birds. Don’t get the wrong idea: this was the 1730s and it was not exactly the dawn of human flight; no planes or even balloons yet, only very high church towers. Hardly a tower in the land escaped having a rope tied to its crockets, down which a gallant performer would slide with wobbly grace to the applause of the populace.

‘No amusement was seen but the rope; walls, trees and houses were mounted for the pleasure of flying down; if a straggling scaffold pole could be found, it was reared for the convenience of flying’ (William Hutton, History of Derby).

Men got together to lay bets on the probable survival of a particular performer. Boys abandoned their traditional leapfrog and knuckle-bones to beg, borrow or steal old pieces of rope to tie to local trees. Women shook their heads at the danger and the foolishness of men, though they were all there, staring upwards with their menfolk, their mouths open, when a Flying Man show came to their town. And what dangerous stunts those men invented! In Derby one offered townsfolk wheelbarrow rides from the top of what is now Derby Cathedral. He followed this up with an heroic flying donkey, whose little hooves were somehow fastened to the rope. (The rope broke, but no one, apparently, was killed, not even the donkey which had a soft landing on a spectator.)

This is how the flying was done: a rope was slung between two points, (one usually higher than the other) rather like a zip wire but looser. The performer was connected by straps or a board to iron rings strung on the rope and then, suitably attired in some sort of wings, ‘flew’ down fast from the high point. He would be slowed down (hopefully) by the rise of the rope to the second point where, to general acclamation, he would be safely caught.

It was a horribly dangerous thing to do, given the dubious hemp rope of the time and the often decayed state of church towers – several steeples were severely damaged. The life of the Flying Man was in the hands of whomever controlled the other end of the rope. Tension was vital: too tight and the rope would break; too loose and the Flying Man would hit the ground.

No matter! Crowds paid well, courage brought public esteem and ordinary life was pretty dangerous in any case. If you had a head for heights and the guts to do it you could earn enough money to live like a lord – temporarily.

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