Welsh Journals

The Christmas Sport in Killay by T. Howard Godfrey A few months ago, whilst looking over some old papers of mine, I came across a pink Gowerton Intermediate School folder dating back to 1948. It contained the extended essay which I had been obliged to submit for the old C.W.B. Higher School Certificate in geography. I had chosen 'Gower' as my subject, and had attempted to deal with the geology, economy, hu- man geography and dialect of the peninsula. Most of it was predictably derivative, apart from one section, that on the Christmas Sport in Killay, the text of which I had taken down, word-for-word, from the dictation of my father, Mr. Wilfred Godfrey, on December 20th 1948. What I rediscovered in that folder was a virtually complete record of the play as it was performed in Killay before the First World War. My father, who has been dead now for twenty-five years, had taken part in the play as a boy, and could recall most of the words, as could my grandmother, Mrs. M. Godfrey, whose recollections must have been due to hearing rehearsals or witnessing performances over a number of years. They lived at the time in Ivy Cottage, next-door to the Lower Killay post office, and later given a number as 533 Gower Road. As I recall, my father repeated it somewhat unwillingly, without much expression, and at considerable speed. The tran- script, as I say, has lain among my notes for many years. I offer it here out of a reawakened interest in the play and its origins. It will also serve as a tribute to my father, and as a record of part of our village heritage that would otherwise be lost forever. The Christmas Sport was the usual Gower name for the traditional Mummers' Play. It is recorded in J. D. Davies' West Gower,, where the text of the version performed in Llanmadoc and Cheriton in the middle of the last century is given. He notes that even in the 1870s it was in decline, although there were many still living who remembered its being performed or had themselves taken part in it. There is also mention of a performance at Stouthall sometime in the 1870s, in the diary of Catherine Wood, although no text is recorded. For her the play was a memory of childhood, and she does not appear to have commented on its demise. The Stouthall play had the same four characters as the Llanmadoc Sport, and given the proximity of the villages one can assume that the versions were fairly close. A version acted in Dunvant is mentioned by Mr. John Ormond Thomas in an article in the South Wales Evening Post of December 19443, and twenty or so lines are quoted as illustration. These closely resemble the corresponding