Week 278: Jack in the Green

May Day fell on Friday this year, and what better way is there to celebrate workers than by not doing any work? It was hot and sunny, so I slathered on some sun cream, put on a hat, and went down to Deptford to catch the Jack in the Green procession. I bumped into a few people I knew, and chatted as I followed the troupe for the first hour. The Jack in the Green If you’re wondering about the huge (mock) cleavers, that’s the Deptford Gut Girls, who celebrate the women who worked in the Foreign Meat Market in Deptford in the late 19th century: One of the most unpleasant jobs was cleaning cattle and sheep intestines, which were used for making sausage skins (and, according to a later source, condoms). Originally men’s work, in about 1891 they went on strike for more pay: management responded by assigning the work to women. The wages were still much higher than most working class women and ten times higher than ‘going into service, which is what they were eventually forced to do. Drummers…