Harry Paye Day 2023

A local festival on Poole Quay

Photos by Andy Ross, 2023-06-17
 

Harry Paye was a pirate based in Poole around the year 1400. He led raiding parties to France and Spain.
The costumes on parade here bear no resemblance to his probable appearance.
 

Harry Paye is evidently a charismatic figure for the local bikers, who come out in force for the occasion.
They do so too on any other occasion when they can enjoy convivial drinks together.
 

Here the bikers on their assembled Harley Davidson motorcycles stand ready to enact their ceremonial tour of the quay
and Old Town circuit. The flags (most of them) represent England, Dorset, and Poole Pirates.
 

Toward the end of the circuit, they pass the Quay public house, where hordes of tourists and locals gather to witness
the curious ceremony. Other such ceremonies involving small boats take place in the harbour on this day too.
 

Among the bikes is a strange contraption, here nosing slowly into view. One may guess it forms
a sort of central juggernaut for the whole parade in honour of this historic local outlaw hero.
 

And here is the central juggernaut, with the local godhead doubly represented by a skeleton
and a suitably grizzled local old boy in a fanciful pirate costume of his own devising.