The Richmond Drummer Boy

I first told this tale as the “drummer boy” story in a set of Chsitmas tales performed by the Island Storytellers as part of a two parter “Twelve Days of Christmas” themed event, imagining folk going out on a family Boxing Day walk, and passing a weather beaten interpretation board somewhere along the route. An interpretation board that might actually tell a story about that place.

The tale appears to be this, dating from the end of the 19th century.

A tunnel is discovered leading from Richmond Castle to Easby Abbey, a mile or so apart; the entrance was discovered by soldiers but narrow, rubble from rockfalls; a little drummer boy lowered in and told to follow the tunnel, beating his drum so the soldiers above could follow his progress, and the path of the tunnel. All went well, for a while…out of the castle.. across the marketplace… over the river… as far as Easby woods; and then, the drumming stopped.

The drummer-boy yarn, November 1888

https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000266/18881103/034/0006 Yorkshire Gazette - Saturday 03 November 1888

RICHMOND RIPPLES.

…

Ever since my advent to Richmond I have been vainly seeking for the local “ghost,” “bogie,” or boggard.” What splendid hunting ground for any respectable ghost in want situation here presents itself. Certainly I have heard of the “drummer boy,” but what a pitiful fraction a ghost drummer makes.

This is the drummer-boy yarn:—There is, be it known, a secret underground way from Easby Abbey to the Market Cross. A poor drummer-boy, upon promise of rich reward, entered the mouth ot the passage and toiled along, beating his drum as he went. At first the ran-tan-plan was clearly heard, then less distinctly, till finally the sound lapsed into silence. No search, however vigorous, could find trace either of drummer or drum. Years have since passed, but the little drummer has never once showed himself to mortal view. The rub-a-dub-dub of his little drum is, however, still heard faintly beating by the loving couples who stroll on moonlit nights around peaceful Easby.

Some soldiers barracked at the castle, September 1930

https://britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19300908/146/0005 Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Monday 08 September 1930

HISTORIC EASBY AND RICHMOND.

Interesting Visit Paid by Thoreshy Society.

CASTLE LEGENDS.

…

… [T]he legend of the drummer-boy. Some soldiers barracked at the castle during the Napoleonic wars, determined to discover a secret passage said to lead to Easbv, a mile away. They found the castle end of the passage, and induced a drummer boy to down, with instructions to on drumming, while they followed the sound along the ground outside. The drummer boy led them about half way to Easby and suddenly stopped drumming. He was never seen again. But on moonlight nights—and so forth.

Was it a monster? Was it a rockfall? Some say the sound of the drum beat changed just before it disappeared, as if the boy had entered a large cavern.

And so the tale easily transforms in a “sleeping Arthur” type tale, in which the sleeping King, King Arthur, lies with his soldiers awaiting the time when England needs him most. One of the knights awakes, asks whether England is under attack. No. “Then it is not yet time to awaken King Arthur “ But when we do awake, a drummer should lead us. Will you wait with us? And so he did.

At this point, the tale often turns again, and whilst the sleeping King remains, the protagonist transforms from a frummer boy to a local potter.

In A month in Yorkshire, 1879

https://archive.org/details/monthinyorkshir00whit/page/210/mode/2up? A month in Yorkshire by White, Walter, 1811-1893

Publication date 1879 p211

To linger here while the sun went down, and the shadows darkened behind the walls, and the glory streamed through the blank windows, was a rare enjoyment. It was dusk when I returned to the town, and there I finished with another stroll on the path under the castle, thinking of the ancient legend, and wishing for a peep at the mysterious vault where King Arthur’s warriors lie asleep. Long, long ago, a man, while wandering about the hill, was conducted into an underground vault by a mysterious personage, and there he saw to his amazement a great multitude lying in deep slumber. Ere he recovered, his guide placed in his hands a horn and a sword; he drew the blade half out of the sheath, when lo! every sleeper stirred as if about to awake, and the poor mortal, terror-stricken, loosed his hold, the sword slid back, and the opportunity of release was lost, to recur no more for many a long day. The unlucky wight heard as he crept forth a bitter voice crying:

“Potter, Potter Thompson!

If thou had either drawn
The sword or blown that horn,
Thou’d been the luckiest man
That ever was born.”

In The Enchanting North, 1908

https://archive.org/details/enchantingnorth01fletgoog/page/n70/mode/2up The Enchanting North by Joseph Smith Fletcher

Publication date 1908 p40-1

For many a long year ago a Richmond wight, who rejoiced in the name of Thompson, and gained a living by making pots, was wandering about the purlieus of the castle one day when he suddenly came upon an opening which to his mind seemed to descend into the very bowels of the earth. Nothing daunted, he followed it, and emerged at last into a vault, where he found a great king and his knights fast bound in slumber. Hanging on the wall of the vault near to his hand was a horn and also a sword — Potter Thompson, possibly feeling that the sword was the most useful thing to lay hold of under these mysterious circumstances, did so lay hold of it, and half withdrew it from its scabbard. Whereupon arose a stirring and a murmuring amongst the sleeping company of king and knights, seeing and hearing which Thompson incontinently fled by the way he had come, and doubtless never stayed until he saw daylight But as he fled a voice cried behind him that if he had only drawn the sword or blown the horn he would have been the most fortunate man that ever lived. All of which is a mere sidelight on the legend — which some folk do in all honesty believe to be no legend but a truth — that King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table lie asleep beneath Richmond Castle, waiting until their services shall be needed for the salvation of Christendom.

This provides us with an opportunity for an alternative telling, which starts with potter Thompson, but then reveals the actual story, of the little drummer boy.

In the town of Richmond, in North Yorkshire, it is said there was once a potter, potter Thomson. He was walking around the castle one day when he spotted an opening that he had never spotted before. Knowing of the legend of a tunnel connecting the Castle with nearby Easby Abbey, a tunnel that perhaps led to a treasure trove of gold, the potter sparked a flint to make a light, and pushed his way through the opening. A tunnel opened up, heading down towards the Abbey. He followed it for some way, them stubled into a large underground cavern wqith the sleeping bodies of armoured soldiers in a deep sleep, surrounding a regal figure at their centre. Beside the King, a horn, and a mighty sword in scabbard at his side.

The potter reached for the sword, and started to draw it. At which point, the slumbering knights around him started to stir.

In his terror, the potter pushed the sword back, and rushed back out of the cavern, back up the tunnel, following the way he had come in. Behind him, a voice echoed in the cavern: “”Potter, Potter Thompson! If you had either drawn the sword, or blown the hunting hron, you’d have been the luckiest man, that ever would have been born.”

The potter fled out of the tunnel, and made his way back hoeme. And when he did eventually pass by that part of the castle again, there was no sign of the opening.

So much, so legend, but the truth behind the tale is strange, and echoes of it can still be heard today.

In the early part of the 19th century, some soldiers were excavating around the sides of the castle whn they found a sink-hole leading to what seemed to be a tunnel. They too had heard the story of a secret passage connecting the Castle with the Abbey, and perhaps they too through may be some fortune at the end of it. So they called a young drummer boy to them, and lowered him down. They told him to follow the tunnel, beating his drum as he did so, so the soldiers above could follow his progress. All went well, for a while..the soldiers above following the drum beat from below, the muffled rat-a-tat sound leading them away from the castle, across the marketplace, then out across a field towards the river, and Easby woods. But then, the drumming stopped….

The soldiers themselves were too large to try to follow the drummer boy - the hole had been barely big enough to get the drum through, and despite their calling, there was no response from the boy.

Whether he too met with Arthur’s knights, stayed with them to lead them out in the time of our need, or met some other end, we may never know. But what is certain that if you go to Richmond, and set of to walk to Easby Abbey, you see a board near the spot where the drum beat stopped. And if you stop there, and wait, and listen very carefully, you may occasionally hear the beat of his drumming still.