Packet photos of the Hal an Tow at Helston Flora Day 2024

Filled with whistles, instruments and singing, it is a noisy affair designed to drive out evil spirits from winter and welcome back summer.

And while Helston’s day of celebrations is now often associated largely with the Flora Dance tune and dancing, the Hal an Tow is in fact the oldest and most traditional part of Flora Day, having taken place for hundreds of years.

In the nineteenth century the Hal an Tow was abandoned, but was revived again in 1930.

Some version of the song goes back to the 1600s, since the chorus was written down at that time, but the full verses were not recorded until the 1840s and have been sung in other towns in Cornwall also.

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In Helston the day starts at 8.30am at St Johns Bridge, where the first of a number of performances takes place, depicting a number of Helston and Cornish legends – including St Michael defeating the devil, St George killing the dragon and arrival of St Piran to Cornwall.

The route follows a route through the town, with the song performed many more times, including at the Grylls Monument at the bottom of town, at Number 1 Cross Street – one of the oldest buildings in the town – Penrose Hill, Meneage Street, Trengrouse Road and the Guildhall.

For the last near 30 years it has been organised by Gillian Geer, who encourages anyone to take part, young and old – the only requirement being to be physically fit enough for the long walk around the town.

See below for more Packet photos of the Hal an Tow at Helston Flora Day 2024 and in our gallery at the top of the page. 

*Due to the camera memory card corrupting, we have been unable to access 2,500 images taken on the day, meaning our coverage of the Hal an Tow is smaller than usual. For this we apologise.