IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Church Street, DONCASTER, DN9 2HY

Vast quantities of alcohol are consumed in Haxey every 6th January as the ancient ritual of the Haxey Hood takes place. Four pubs vie for possession of the Hood - here the Loco, about an hour before the fool's speech and about three hours before 'the sway'.

Main street through the village, with the Duke William pub on the left.

As viewed near the church looking east

Public house in Haxey.

This is one of the pubs involved in the Haxey Hood game. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haxey_Hood for wikipedia information.

Batsford's Lincolnshire says: "Haxey is in many ways typical of the Isle of Axholme. It is a large and somewhat straggling settlement. brick-built with a few earlier houses interspersed with the predominant Victorian, and with its outlying hamlets of Graiselound and Westwoodside. From below. the eyes follow the strip pattern of the fields up to a skyline dominated by the church and the water tower. The churches of Axholme include several large and splendid buildings, and Haxey, mainly fifteenth-century Perpendicular but with some earlier bits, is one of the best." The Shell Guide to Lincolnshire describes Haxey: " A decayed little town of red houses. The street climbs a low hill on which stands a large and dignified church - all Perpendicular with a western tower with eight pinnacles. The nave is part Norman and part Early English." This house in Church Street has gone to town with its flowers to brighten up the road.

Held aloft after the fool's speech http://www.wheewall.com/hood/

The Old Vicarage was built in 1846 at a cost of £1,400 and originally contained ten bedrooms and its facilities included "a one-seated privy for the servants and a double-seated one for the family". As well as stables and a coach house, there was a cow-house, poultry shed and two pig sties. The garden at the front was described as a "pleasure ground" on the architect's plans. Before this building, there were two previous vicarages, probably on the same site. There is documentary evidence of a vicarage existing in the early 1600s and that this was replaced by one known to have been built in 1713. The new vicarage was built to the west in 1987 and the former vicarage seen here was sold and converted into Nicholas House Nursing Home.