The Gloucestershire Wassail (The Wassailing Bowl) - arranged for 20 button anglo

[Kathryn Wheeler]

This gorgeous tune is an instrumental version of a well known wassailing song which has been recorded in several locations in Gloucestershire, our neighbouring county - each having their own variations in tune and words from place to place.  Now that Wassailing, for us, is finally over, I thought I'd post it here!
 

 

 

I've accompanied and sung this at many wassails across Worcestershire.  Wassailing has become extremely popular in recent years - a post-Christmas gathering of people, with much merriment, singing and twinkling lights and often a bonfire. There's usually food and drink. An ideal way to "drive the cold winter away", especially in the seemingly long and dark month of January.  That said, we've attended wassails well into February and some in December!  We joke that wassailing season now takes up a full quarter of the year....

 

A comprehensive collection of versions of this song can be found on the Gloucestershire Christmas website http://www.gloschristmas.com/wassail/gloucestershire-wassail-3/  and a description of what the wassailing tradition is and was can also be found on this site.  This version of the Gloucestershire Wassail (or Waysailing Bowl) is currently the most well known and was first published in this form in the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928. The words were compiled from various sources from the county.

 

This song would have originally been sung (until quite recently) by a group going from house to house - traditionally to the doors of houses of notable people in the local area - carrying a wassailing bowl (a large bowl to collect money or hold drink). The words of the early part of the song (below) bless the good health of the owner's livestock before going on to beg the house to give them hospitality and let them in/give them drink. It does seem like two songs stuck together!

 

However, the song is now sung widely as part of a different type of wassailing - the blessing of apple trees in orchards. Events are usually hosted by farms, community groups or pubs. Morris dancers are often heavily involved. This tradition originally hails from other counties, such as Somerset and Devon.

 

The picture in the video is of Bow Brook Border Morris dancers and friends and neighbours holding a wassail in their local village of Upton Snodsbury, Worcestershire. The large apple tree pictured is illuminated upwards into the branches and the group perform their wassail dance around it. Toast, dipped in cider, is hung in the branches.

 

In north west Worcestershire a custom was recorded of blessing the farm by lighting 12 bonfires and also putting cake on a bull's horns. Whichever way the bull shook its head augured either good or ill for the coming year! 

 

This performance was first aired as part of World Concertina Day 2026 organised by the International Concertina Association.

 

 

Edited February 20 by Kathryn Wheeler

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Wonderful; performance as always; such a big round sound from the 20 buttons.

[Kathryn Wheeler]

On 2/20/2026 at 12:48 PM, SIMON GABRIELOW said:

Wonderful; performance as always; such a big round sound from the 20 buttons.

 

Thankyou - I love that, a "big round sound".  The sound of the instrument is very warm and rich and complex and characterful and has soul.  It's interesting the words people use to describe sounds/timbres - often I use food related ones!

 

I also love that when I play, say, two Gs of the same pitch together I can hear them slightly interacting with each other, to give a different quality (as they have a slightly different character and aren't probably totally and utterly in tune).