The modern Lustleigh May Queen ceremony is centred on Town Orchard, but its origins lie on Wreyland Down at Long Tor Farm. Between 1905 and 1940 the May Queen was crowned on a granite boulder above Wreyland, the site chosen and the ceremony revived by Cecil Torr. The rock carries the carved names of the May Queens from 1905 to 1940, providing a straightforward record of the pre‑war sequence.
The ceremony lapsed after the start of the Second World War, the last pre‑war crowning taking place in 1940. It was not until 1954 that the event was restarted, this time in Town Orchard. The new location offered a central, flat and accessible space close to the church and village centre, with a large elongated boulder suitable for use as a throne. Contemporary reports note that granite was blasted out to create a level area for Maypole dancing, indicating a deliberate reshaping of the ground to suit the revived festival.
The Town Orchard boulder, known as the May Day Rock, was used from 1954 and, like the Long Tor stone, had the names of the May Queens inscribed upon it. The sequence from 1954 to 2000 is recorded on this rock, continuing the practice of carving each Queen’s name and date. In 2000 a new granite throne was commissioned for the Millennium event. Designed by local resident Doug Cooper and cut from granite from Blackenstone Quarry, it was carved by Warren Pappas and inscribed “MM”. The throne sits on the boulder and is used for the crowning, while the carved names on the rock preserve the continuity of the list.
The carved names on the Long Tor and Town Orchard rocks provide a simple chronological record of the Lustleigh May Queens. Early examples include Mabel Bunclarke (1905), Olive Chudley (1906), Muriel Brimblecombe (1913), Winnifred Horrell (1930), and later Queens such as Barbara Weeks (1935), Veronica Yeoman (1936), Edna Dray (1939), Janet Horrell (1957), Iona Jones (1960) and others. The stones were cleaned in recent years to make the inscriptions more legible, confirming the sequence from 1905 to 1940 on Long Tor and from 1954 onwards in Town Orchard.
The ceremony itself follows a consistent pattern. A floral canopy is made in the morning, and in the afternoon the May Queen is escorted under the canopy in procession around the village. The crown of fresh flowers is carried alongside. The procession halts at the church steps for a blessing and songs, then moves to Town Orchard where the Queen is crowned on the granite throne set on the May Day Rock. The carved names on the boulder are updated to include each new Queen, maintaining an unbroken record except for the wartime gap and the recent interruption caused by Covid in 2020 and 2021.
In 2022, to account for the missed years, three May Queens were crowned in a single ceremony, ensuring that the carved sequence on the throne and rock remained continuous. The stones at Long Tor and Town Orchard, with their inscribed names, are therefore not decorative curiosities but working records of the Lustleigh May Queen tradition from 1905 to the present.
