Stroud Wassail

The Stroud Wassail is a free town wassail held at the Museum in the Park in Stratford Park, Stroud, on a Saturday in February. In 2026 it ran on Saturday 21 February from 11.30am to 3pm. The 2027 date had not been announced by October 2026, so the date shown here, Saturday 20 February 2027, follows the 2026 pattern and is to be confirmed; the museum lists the wassail on its calendar when it is set.

What happens

It is a town wassail rather than an orchard one: a day of morris sides, singing and music, and the wassail songs and toasts, the old midwinter customs for bringing people together and wishing for a good harvest. Children are invited to come dressed as their favourite animal and join the beast dance. Most of it happens outdoors in the park, weather permitting, with more music in the pavilion in the walled garden. Entry is free; the museum welcomes donations, and drinks and snacks are on sale.

Dress for a cold afternoon outdoors, with boots for wet grass. It suits families and anyone who likes folk music and dance, and the museum, which is free, is open for warming up.

Getting there and parking

Stratford Park is on Stratford Road on the north-west side of Stroud, which the museum puts at a 15 to 20 minute walk from the town centre; Stroud station has direct trains to London Paddington about every hour. By bus, the museum suggests the Stagecoach 67 from Merrywalks to Tesco, across the road. The museum's postcode is GL5 4AF, and it says parking in the main Stratford Park car park is free, with accessible bays outside the museum. The guide to Stroud covers the town's car parks and its Saturday farmers' market, a short walk away in the centre.

Where wassailing comes from

Wassailing comes in two kinds. Orchard wassailing, with toast in the branches and cider on the roots, survived in Herefordshire and Somerset; the Gloucestershire tradition was mostly house visiting, with groups going from farm to farm with a decorated bowl, singing for money and drink. William Husk wrote in 1868 that the carol had been sent to the antiquary John Brand some seventy years before, when wassailers still sang it in Gloucestershire, and versions of the Gloucestershire Wassail carol were printed from 1838. Stroud's town wassail is a modern revival. The longer story, and other wassails near the Cotswolds, is in our article on wassailing.