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Maypoles
were once a common sight in Wiltshire's villages - now
there are hardly any.
They
haven't always been popular - following an Act of Parliament
in 1644, many were removed, since their association
with pagan fertility rights was deemed by the Puritans
as amoral and somewhat heathen.
One
of the largest poles was a feature in the village of
Ansty, in south Wiltshire.
Over
the generations, hundreds of children danced around
the 70-foot pole on May Day but following the storms
of 1993, the pole came crashing to the ground.
The
replacement poll is no match for the height of the original
Ansty Pole, after the original was deemed to be too
high to be safe!
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