My Community: wassailing in South Oxfordshire

Villagers from Brightwell-cum-Sotwell come out to wassail as a community

What brings your community together

What makes a community or indeed your community special? One reason could be that it makes us feel part of something.

A community brings together people who share similar experiences, values, spaces or identity. It is about belonging, sharing and discovery, regardless of where and what that community is.

Your community could be in and around where you live or work. It could be a community of professionals or academics or it could be the colleagues in your department. Increasingly these communities no longer have to be geographically local as we become evermore connected through our digital world.

We are encouraging Guardian staff to talk about and share experiences of their communities. What they look like, how they get involved, funny and unusual traditions and what makes them proud to be part of these communities.

My community

I live in a South Oxfordshire village called Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. Most famous for Mount Vernon, the home and workplace of Dr Edward Bach (Bach Remedies) and Charlie Brooker who grew up in the village and was the star attraction at the opening of our community shop.

I am not sure how many villagers read the Guardian. I am reliably informed that the Telegraph is superior to the Guardian when it comes to lighting an open wood fire.

I feel very lucky to live where I do because of the community that I am part of. There are many dedicated people in the village who keep it alive and connected.

There was a short period of time when there was no shop or pub. You saw a lot less people on the streets and there was little opportunity to connect or feel part of a community. No chance meetings or a simple good morning.

Our 16th century pub has been back for a while and we have a community village shop, as well as a multitude of sports and groups , a website, our great primary school and pre-school. We also have a Community Led Parish P lan to ensure that we protect the village’s identity but also to move with the times.

A village community is clearly more than just households, buildings and gardens. So one way that we maintain our rural community identity is to reconnect with one of our ancient traditions called wassailing. I think a comment from a friend of mine sums it up well:

You couldn’t make it up

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell village community wassailling in 2016 - Filmed and edited by John Williams village resident

Wassailing is a traditional ceremony to ‘awaken’ apple trees and ensure a good harvest for the following autumn. It is a centuries old folk tradition in the cider-producing and orchard-rich counties of the west and south of England. It is usually held on twelfth night, whereupon troupes of wassailing villagers process from orchard to orchard.

Wassailling in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell brings people together connecting us to a place and moment in time. Friends and neighbours come out into the dark winter orchards to sing and dance for no other reason than for the fun of it and to feel as though they belong to their community.