The May Queens of Lustleigh

The May Day celebrations are the biggest event of the year for the village, with a carnival procession, maypole dancing, and crowning of the May Queen. The May Day tradition had lapsed until 1905, when Cecil Torr revived it. The celebrations have since been held on the first Saturday in May. Initially the 'crowning' took place on a hillside above Wreyland. The granite boulder where the ceremony took place has inscribed upon it the names of all the May Queens up to the beginning of the Second World War when the event was suspended.

In 1954, the celebrations were again revived and moved to the Town Orchard where the May Queen's throne was erected on a rock. Like its predecessor this rock, known as the May Day Rock, has the names of all the May Queens inscribed on it from 1954 to the present. In May 2000 a new throne was unveiled at the May Day celebrations. The throne was cut from granite from the nearby Blackingstone Quarry. It was designed by Doug Cooper and carved by Warren Pappas; on it is inscribed 'MM'.

You can see a Film of the ceremony Click Film

Today was a beautiful day after the rain and we walked from Bovey Tracey to Lustleigh and return, following the River Bovey which was swollen and in spate. Arriving at the lovely thatched village of Lustleigh was like arriving at a little corner of heaven.

Evacuees to Lustleigh in the Second World War said it was a place of 'orrible ' ills and ellish ' ush'