Warburton Souling Play home The Parish of Warburton The Play's History The Revival The Post Revival Period Back to the Souling 2022 page Go to the Gallery for 2022 Where to find us in 2022		An interpretation, from our perspective, of how each evening was received.

Another relatively quiet night where we started at the Swan with Two Nicks in Little Bollington to a nice cosy performances in the front room, and were rewarded with very generous donations from one table. And a reminder that all our cash will be forwarded to The Trafford Branch of the MS Society.

From here we went to Ye Olde No3 on the Lymm road where we again had a sufficient audience to make it a pleasant performance. This was then followed by a very quiet Wheatsheaf in Agden where we'd missed the bulk of the evening meal patrons. We were then into Dunham and the Rope and Anchor where the same problem applied.

Last was the Vine, always a few in here with there usually being quite a few locals in at the end of the evening. It was very well received by those there and we were really humbled by one guy who relies on his phone for everything so was completely cashless. He duly went to his van outside and collected all the loose change he could find that was lying around and presented this to us. A really nice gesture to finish the evening.

Third Night - 3rd November 2022

Our third night was spent in Urmston where we started at the Church Inn performing just before the scheduled start of their own entertainment so we had a good sized audience form the start. Next was the Brewchimp, now a regular for us where it was well received again. We'll be performing in their new pub, the Brewchimp in Lymm on Saturday. From here it was to a new pub to us, the Barking Dog where it was well received from an attentive audience. Back to a regular now and the Steamhouse in the old station buildings. As has been the case ever since we started going there is was Open-mic night so we slotted in between two of the acts there. Last it was to another now regular venue the Prairie Schooner Taphouse where again we were well received.

Fourth Night - 4th November 2022

This tour was based round Altrincham, however we started as we have for last 10-20 years at the Greyhound in Ashley. This was one of the regular pubs going back to when the play was revived although we did miss it out for a few years in the 1980's. It was nice to have people in the audience who have seen us before, and some who'd come to see us there, and who were once again very appreciative. Unfortunately after we performed we made very unwelcome by the young bar lad. We can only hope that he'll start to understand the interaction between a pub, its community and its traditions as he gets older, especially as we've been performing at the pub since we revived the play in 1978. We therefore decided to move on straight away and went to the Orange Tree in Altrincham and what a difference to the welcome from the bar staff there. The Licensee came out to meet us and after we performed to the delight of everyone he bought us all a drink. What more could we ask for after the Greyhound.

We then moved onto the Market Tavern next door where again the welcome was superb - as it always is there. Down the road to the Malt Shovels and a somewhat quieter performance with fewer people in than we've seen in the past. Ordinarily we would finish at Costello's, however that was closed for refurbishment this year so we had instead set up the Roebuck as our last venue for the night, and what a good choice it was. We've not performed there for a few years so it's time it became a regular venue again - a good replacement for the Greyhound!

The Last Night - 5th November 2022
Our 'night' of Souling is really a full day. We meet at the Saracens Head at lunchtime and after being suitable fed and watered we then head to perform the play at the Warburton Autumn Fair in St. Werburgh's Church at 2:00pm. It's always a splendid environment to perform the play in and so nice to do it for the local community. 

From here we went to Dunham Cider Barn - just for something different. The weather was not that good during the afternoon so there weren't as many people visiting the farm as normal. Still it was a nice environment to perform outside, but undercover, to those there. We were made really welcome so this could turn into a more regular venue.

The rest of the day was spent in Lymm, after a quite 'breather' in the Star Inn in Statham that is! So the first of those Lymm Venues was the Heritage Centre where our original horse's head is on display. Then it was to the Brewery Tap - a 15 second walk away! Always nice to perform here and always well received. A minutes walk next to the Spread Eagle and a nice reception again where quite a few people had come to see us. A longer walk followed - all of two to three minutes to the Bull's Head where we had a bit of jovial banter to help us along. The last one in Lymm was the Brewchimp, related to the Brewchimp in Urmston that we did on Thursday night. A bit more banter from one table - that was until Beelzebub chose one of their drinks as his 'prop'. Down in one it was to the joyous rapture of those watching :-).

So that was it. A taxi from here back to the Saracen's Head for the last performance of the year. A bit quieter this year with us not actively promoting a music session afterwards with us really just getting back into things following Covid and being slightly short on 'players' this year. Nevertheless a nice finish to the season. So now all we have to do is to wait until next year to do it all again.