#england

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

The Big Society

©Si Barber Moral rights asserted.

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Mummers recreating the legend of St George & the Dragon on St George’s Day, Downham Market, Norfolk. The dragon is played by the town's mayor, Frank Daymond, St George by Councillor David Sharman.

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The cross of St George painted on a the door of a home at 11 Falcon Road,Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, the day before the Brexit Referendum in 2016.

Exodus 12:23 "And when He seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."

Image by Si Barber

Whittlesey Straw Bear, Cambridgeshire. Originally held on the first Monday in January, the event has celebrated the beginning of the agricultural year since the Middle Ages. Farm labourers, unemployed in the winter months would black up their faces to prevent identification and perform dances in the town in return for money or food.

Latterly considered begging and criminalised before making a comeback in the 1980s over the weekend of Epiphanytide, the Straw Bear inevitably involves a number of street fights and the occasional good natured stabbing.

In the 2000s as property prices in Whittlesey rose, aspirational people who wanted to live in Cambridge but couldn't afford city prices came to the town and occupied the new builds. They disapproved of the application of blackface and conspired to make it forbidden. These were the same well intentioned, but naïve people who supported the smoking ban which did so damage to the culture of England, closing pubs like the Bricklayers Arms.

Masjid Ghousia Mosque on the corner of English Street, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

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St Nicholas Tavern, St Nicholas Rd.

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. Amorris dancer with the emblem of the Sutton Hoo helmet on her costume

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. A participant with their face black-up at the Strawbear Festival Whittlesey, Cambs

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. Old Glory Molly dancers at the Strawbear Festival 2017.

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. Old Glory Molly dancers at the Strawbear Festival 2017.

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. Old Glory Molly dancers at the Strawbear Festival 2017.

Image by Si Barber

?Si Barber Moral rights asserted. Old Glory Molly dancers at the Strawbear Festival 2017.