Maypole Socket

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Maypole Socket

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As much as the Maypole Socket was a functional location that upheld the Maypole every May Day, it also serves as an emblem of the Protestant Reformation’s effect on public spectacle and tradition. In existence at least by 1477, the Maypole Socket was destroyed in 1549 as an idol due to its innate association with Paganism. Stow describes the destruction of the Maypole:
[F]or in the after noone of that present Sunday, the neighbours and Tenants to the sayde Bridge, ouer whose doores the saide Shaft had laine, after they had dined to make themselues strong, gathered more helpe, and with great labour raysing the Shaft from the hooks, whereupon it had rested two and thirtie yeares, they sawed it in peeces, euerie man taking for his share so much as had laine ouer his doore and stall, the length of his house, and they of the Alley diuided amongest them so much as had layne ouer their Alley gate. Thus was this Idoll Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] mangled, and after burned. (Stow i. 144)

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