Custom · St Nicholas-at-Wade · Famous
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A wooden head, a snapping jaw, and Christmas in Kent.
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Performances follow the published December schedule (2026 dates 17–23 Dec, including St Nicholas Village Hall on 21 Dec). Check before you go.
Snap, snap. At Christmas in East Kent, a wooden horse with a clacking jaw comes knocking, and Mollie sweeps you aside.
Hoodening is an East Kent Christmas custom in which a wooden horse's head on a pole, worn by a man hidden under a sacking cloth, goes from house to house. Its hinged jaw snaps and gnashes. With it come a Waggoner, a Rider who tries to mount the horse, and Mollie, a man dressed as a woman who sweeps with a broom. Farm workers once performed it on Christmas Eve for money. The folklorist Percy Maylam recorded the custom in 1909. Today teams still tour Thanet villages in December, and St Nicholas-at-Wade has one of the best-known revived troupes.