Name: Penryn Mock Mayor 2024
Start: 2024-09-28T16:30:00+01:00
Location: The Thirsty Scholar, Penryn

NOW’S THE TIME TO STAND FOR ELECTION
Penryn Mock Mayor Elections Saturday 28th September 2024 in The Thirsty Scholar, Penryn assemble at 4.30pm. then heading to the Seven Stars. Election at 6pm in the Temperance Hall before heading on down through the Town to the Bowling Club and Barrell times could change slightly)
Speeches and ceremony in accordance with tradition the present (real) mayor will be imprisoned.
The new Mock Mayor will ‘progress’ around the streets and pubs of Penryn to music and frivolity and ‘test the ale’.
Dress disgracefully for the occasion
MOCK MAYOR OF PENRYN
In September or October, when the Hazel Nuts are ripe, the festival of ‘Nutting Day’ is kept.
Penzance ‘Golowen’ 24th June, Summer Solstice/St. John’s Day.
The ‘Rabble of the town’ go into the country to gather nuts returning in the evening with boughs of hazel in their hands shouting and making a great noise
In the meantime, the ‘journeymen tailors’ (journee – a day) proceed to Mylor and elect one of their number ‘Mayor of Mylor’ taking care to select the wittiest. Seated on a chair shaded with green boughs he is borne on the shoulders of four strong men.
The ‘Mock Mayor’ proceeds from his ‘good town of Mylor’ to his ‘ancient borough of Penryn’. The procession is led by ‘stout fellows’ armed with cudgels which they ‘do not fail to use’ should their path be obstructed.
Plus ‘Torch Bearers’ and Town Sergeants’ clad in official gowns and cocked hats, each carrying a ‘monstrous cabbage’ on his shoulder in instead of a mace. The rear is bought up by the rabble of ‘nutters’.
About mid day a band meets them and plays them into Penryn where they are received by the entire population.
The procession proceeds to the Town Hall were the ‘Mock Mayor’ delivers a speech about his intended ‘improvements’ to the town. This is generally an excellent sarcastic version of the current Parliamentary candidate.
The procession then precedes to every public house i.e. the ‘council chamber’, where the Mayor and his council are liberally supplied with liquor and devote the night to drinking.
At night the streets are filled with people bearing torches, throwing ‘fire balls’ and discharging rockets. And huge bonfires are lit on ‘the green’ and ‘old wall’.