The woollen trade, as we have seen[191], gave occupation to a very large number of Shearmen. These belonged to the more unskilled class of labourers, the work they performed being simply that of preparing the wool for the later stages of manufacture. They were precisely the class to fail to appreciate the religious changes, and such as would be likely to resort to the physical force argument on any occasion. It was also to such men that the revelry of Christmastide, Maytime, and the like were most precious. Their life was a hard and colourless one, and they would for this reason cling desperately to the old occasions of merriment. The festival which appears to have been particularly odious to the Puritans was that of May Day, when, Stow[192] tells us, it was the custom for the citizens "of all estates" to have their "Mayings," and to "fetch in Maypoles, with divers warlike shows, with good archers, morris dancers, and other devices for pastime all the day long; and toward the evening they had stage plays, and bonfires in the streets." To the youth of the town it was a sufficiently harmless summer holiday. To the precise it was plainly and purely a heathen survival. At Shrewsbury they were early in active antagonism to it. In 1583 there occurred "soom contrav'sie about the settinge upp of maye poales and bonfyers mackinge and erection of treese before the sherman's haule and other places[193]," though apparently without immediate effect, for two years later appears another entry "Pd. for cutting down the tree, and the journeymen to spend xv{d}.[194]"