I WAS born and brought up in Orford, and have just taken the post of director of the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield.

With May Day coming up, I have been thinking about May Day customs, such as dancing around a maypole.

A new book on folk customs in Lancashire states that maypole ceremonies died out in the 1860s. This struck me as wrong, because I clearly remember, when I was a child living on Poplars Avenue in the 1960s, that we would make a maypole out of mum's brush handle, decorate it with ribbons, dress up and take it from door to door, where the kind citizens would give us money.

Looking back, I don't know whether this custom died out in the late 60s, or whether I just grew too old to do it! Perhaps Guardian readers have memories of May Day customs which would help me solve this puzzle?

If so, I would be glad to hear from them, either via the letters page or directly. Who knows there could even be streets on which the custom persists, though it would be difficult to decorate and carry round mum's Dyson!

DR JOAN C BEAL,

National Centre for English Cultural Tradition,

University of Sheffield,

9, Shearwood Road,

S10 2TN,

e-mail j.c.beal@sheffield.ac.uk