Mummers' plays in the Cotswolds
A fight, a death, a quack doctor and a revival: the mummers' play is a folk drama the Cotswolds still perform every Christmas.
· 4 minute read
A mummers' play is a short rhymed drama performed at Christmas by local men in disguise. There is always a fight, the loser is killed, and a quack Doctor brings him back to life. Each village has its own cast and its own words.
The Marshfield Paper Boys
At Marshfield, on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, the players are the Paper Boys, so called for their costumes covered in strips of paper. Every Boxing Day at 11am, after carols with the Marshfield Band, the Town Crier introduces them in the Market Place, and they perform the play at stops up the High Street. The characters include King William, Saucy Jack, Tenpenny Nit and Old Father Beelzebub. The mummers’ own site gives the next performance as 26 December 2026, a Saturday.
The mummers’ site gives no history of the play, and published accounts disagree on when it lapsed and who revived it, though most place the revival in the early 1930s.
The Campden mummers
Chipping Campden had mummers from at least the 1860s (opens in a new tab). The custom appears to have lapsed between 1900 and 1914 and was revived just after the First World War by men who had played in it before; a BBC broadcast in 1934 made it widely known, and it has been performed regularly since 1946. The players were working men: labourers, gardeners and quarrymen.
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The Gloucester mummers
The Gloucester Mummers' Play was revived in the winter of 1969 by a group drawn mainly from the Gloucester Folk Club. In 2025 The Gloucestershire Morris performed it on Cathedral Green on Boxing Day (opens in a new tab), from noon to 1pm, free. The 2026 performance had not been listed when we checked in October 2026.
Places to stay near Chipping Campden
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The Noel Arms Hotel
Inn · Chipping Campden
A Grade II listed inn with 27 rooms on Chipping Campden's High Street, with a restaurant, parking, accessible rooms and dogs by arrangement.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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Cotswold House Hotel and Spa
Hotel · Chipping Campden
A Grade II listed Regency town house on Chipping Campden's Upper High Street, now a hotel and spa with the Hidcote restaurant.
Hot tubs · Wedding venues
Verified Nov 2026
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The Lygon Arms, Chipping Campden
Inn · Chipping Campden
A coaching inn with ten rooms on Chipping Campden's High Street, with family rooms, bike storage, free parking at the rear and dogs welcome.
Dog-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
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