Percy Maylam's The Kent Hooden Horse

Percy Maylam’s 1909 study records the hooden horse, a distinctive East Kent Christmas custom involving a carved horse’s head, attendants and seasonal visits. Maylam gathered evidence from documents, correspondence and his own observations of the tradition during its final traditional phase, when surviving performances were already becoming scarce.

This centenary edition places his work alongside a biographical essay by his great-nephew, Richard Maylam, and additional unpublished photographs. It also includes Maylam’s essay on gavelkind, the Kentish inheritance custom abolished by Act of Parliament shortly before the First World War. Contributions by Mick Lynn and Geoff Doel provide further context for the preservation, revival and continuing study of hoodening in Kent.