The Mock Mayor takes place during the Polperro Festival on the 3rd Saturday in June. It was revived in 1996 based on description by the Couch family. It is improvised from year to year and details should be checked in the Polperro Festival Programme if you plan to visit.[i]
The procession involves the Mock Mayor sitting on an improvised throne on a cart that is pushed and accompanied by the Merry Men and a Green Man. The mayor dressed in mock finery and the merry men in fishing smocks and black hats decorated with Cornish flags. At 2pm The Mayor from the previous year is processed down from the top of the Polperro to what is described as the village green—an open area in the centre.
Here the new mayor is introduced having been selected by the organisers secretly beforehand. The mayor makes a speech usually guaranteeing fine weather and free beer and the party then proceeds to visit each pub in the village. On entering the premises, the party ceremonially test and approve the beer give, out free money especially printed for the occasion and then proceed to the next venue.
By approximately 4pm the tour is complete, and the party proceed to the outer harbour where the mayor is thrown into the sea.
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Quotes from the Histories of Polperro by the Couch family:
Jonathon Couch, An Historical Account of the Village of Polperro in Cornwall and Its Neighbourhood 1815, (Truro, Lake, unidentified date 1815? )
“In days gone by, Polperro held its festival on the 10th July to celebrate its Patron Saint, St Peter; this was known as ‘Peter’s-tide’.On the eve of the festival a bonfire was built on the beach and amid much cheering from the assembled throng the men and boys would dance around it, waiting for the fire to burn low enough for them to leap through. A very dangerous thing to do! This was the Solstice fire, originally held on mid-summers night, but changed when the calendar was altered in 1751.
For the next few days a fair took place, followed by the mayor-choosing; which was never any great honour for the person chosen as he was generally some half-wit or drunk. Clothed in some mock finery, he then chose his companions who wheeled him from pub to pub in a cart decked out in greenery. At each pub, as he judged the ale, he would make a fine speech promising full employment, better wages, free beer and all the good things in life. He was then taken to the harbour to ‘meet the tide’.
To bring this tradition up to date, the mayor is now a well-known local character of village life, rather than the inebriate of old!”
Couch, Jonathan, and Thomas Q. Couch. The History of Polperro, a Fishing Town on the South Coast of Cornwall; Being a Description of the Place, Its People, Their Manners, Customs, Modes of Industry, &C. (Truro: Lake, 1871).
“On the eve of the fair is the prefatory ceremony of a bonfire. The young fishermen go from house to house and beg money to defray expenses. At night -fall a large pile of faggots and tar-barrels is built on the beach, and amid cheers of a congregated crowd, the pile is lighted. Men and boys dance merrily around it, till the fire burns low enough, then they venturously leap through the flames.”
“The next day the fair begins; Stalls, laden with fairings, sweetmeats and toys, line the lower part of Lansallos street, near the strand. There are besides, strolling thespians; fellows who draw unwary youths into games of hazard; ballad singers; penny-peep men, who show and describe to wondering boys the most horrid scenes of the latest murder; jugglers and tumblers to display their skill.”
“The second day is much livelier than the first, and has for it’s great event a wrestling match on the strand, or perhaps a boat race.”
On the third day we have the mayor-choosing, never a valid ceremony, but a broad burlesque. The person chosen to this post of mimic dignity is generally some half-witted or drunken fellow who, tricked out in tinsel finery is wheeled through the town, stopping at each inn. He then demands a quart of the landlord’s ale, which is gauged with mock ceremony. His attendants often made some facetious end to the pageant by wheeling the mayor with some impetus into the tide.”
[i] These notes provide a broad outline of the custom as observed 2005 -2010. The Polperro Festival provides information updates via their Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/polperro.festival/