Our Charney Bassett correspondent has found an interesting snippet from the Longworth Parish Magazine for February 1910.
William Kimber teaching Morris in Hanney and Longworth.
So, it looks like that not only was there a womens’ side in Hanney and a side in Longworth, but that they received instruction from none other than the famous William Kimber.
I’m guessing from the piece that these were both sides set up during the folk revival of the early 20th century. Further information welcome!
Our first dance out of June saw us at the Six Bells, Warborough, with North West Clog side Old Speckled Hen.
It was a fine summer evening, and the old thatched inn and the cricket match in progress on the adjoining field felt like a Tourist Board Merrie England picture.
Constant Billy at the Six Bells, Warborough
Cricket on the green
Back from the hurly-burly of the Chippenham Folk Festival, our excursion on May 29th was to The Chequers, Charney Bassett.
At the Chequers, Charney Bassett.
Those cars are uncomfortably close.
We were dancing by ourselves that night. Or so we thought. Emily and Omri had other ideas, and after doing Shepherd’s Hey with us decided to have a go at Shave the Donkey.
Impressively good for a first attempt!
After dancing, in for a session. And our kind hosts presented us with a mountainous quantity of rather fine food. More than we could finish. But we’re very grateful.
The weather forecast for our visit to the Chippenham Folk Festival on May 24th had not been good, and for once the weather delivered on the Met Office’s promise. We got rained on.
We kicked off at the Rose and Crown. It wasn’t particularly dry outside, so we danced inside. Dorset Buttons Rapper were sensibly of the same mind.
Dorset Buttons Rapper sensibly opt for the inside option at the Rose and Crown.
The low beams gave our esteemed Squire a little cause for concern.
Banbury Bill at the Rose and Crown, Chippenham. Pete is troubled by the low beam.
Some others didn’t notice the problem.
Banbury Bill in the Rose and Crown, Chippenham. Barbara is not troubled by the low beam.
Next stop was the lower end of the High Street, with Cornwalls’ very own Wreckers Border Morris. We got away with a light soaking for our first dance, but for the second dance had to resort to the infamous Sidesteps with Umbrellas.
Cry Havoc’s Brolly Sidesteps. Dancing in the rain at the Chippenham Folk Festival.
The Parade down the High Street was threatened with rain that thankfully didn’t materialise. And by the time we turned up for our last spot with Ditchling Morris and Winchester the sun had positively started shining.
Ditchling Morris at Chippenham.
The sun shines on the Winchester Morris Men at Chippenham.
After a busy Saturday at Levellers’ Day in Burford, we were back out again the following Monday 19th at the Prince of Wales in Shippon as guests of Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris. It was another sunny evening, but got a little cool later on.
Havoc dancing Sidesteps at the Prince of Wales, Shippon
Mr Hemmings at The Prince of Wales Shippon
Abingdon hankies to the fore.
Somebody looks curious.
We also got to enjoy the remnants from the beer festival the Prince of Wales held over the weekend!
One of the staples of the Cry Havoc year is leading the parade at Levellers’ Day. This year Levellers’ Day was on a sunny Saturday May 17th.
The parade usually starts outside the church, passes through back streets and then down the hill on the main road, stopping the traffic. The closure this year of the usual venue, Wessex Hall, meant that this year we had to dance up the hill to the recreation ground by the A40. Once there, we danced in turns with the Vale Islanders.
Dancing Banbury Bill at the Recreation Ground
Afterwards we retreated back down the hill to Burford High Street and the Cotswold Arms and enjoyed a little outdoor music session.
An outside session at the Cotswold Arms
Micks sings!
A beautiful early summer evening on May 15th at the Railway Inn, Culham, with our old friends at Towersey Morris.
The Railway Inn is appropriately named. As you can see, it’s right next door to Culham Station. Here we are getting the evening underway with Sidesteps.
Starting the evening at the Railway Inn, Culham
Towersey Morris at the Railway Inn
Cry Havoc was originally formed by a Towersey dancer, and we share a lot of repertoire. Here’s two sets from Havoc and one from Towersey dancing Constant Billy.
Cry Havoc and Towersey Morris with a massed Constant Billy at the Railway Inn, Culham.
Finishing Constant Billy with Towersey Morris at the Railway Inn, Culham
What the photos don’t show is the stiff competition from a passing freight train about one minute into the dance.
For the rail buffs, I think this was 672J early in its journey from Didcot to Mossend Euroterminal in Lanarkshire.
Thusrsday May 8th saw us dancing at the Cock Inn, Combe, with Wychwayz Border Morris.
It’s fair to say that we weren’t at our most organised, and managed to turn up with any sticks! Wychwayz generously lent us their for a couple of dances – Young Collins with shorter sticks than normal is unexpectedly tricky – but we spent most of the evening waving hankies instead, and also tried Constant Billy with clapping rather than sticks. This works surprisingly well, and Acting Squire Jim is very grateful to our friends at Foxwelp Morris for the idea!
The music session after dancing was unusual. The Cock Inn provides nothing less than a white grand piano for its visitors, and on our evening there was a local gentleman playing. He not only joined in with us:
but also treated us to a little ragtime!
Havoc’s May Day outing was an evening event at The Punter on Osney Island. On arrival, things didn’t look good for an evening’s dancing.
We improvised, doing a few dances in a confined space inside the pub. Constant Billy was tricky enough, but we really felt the lack of room doing our audience participation dance, Sherherd’s Hey. This is usually done in a large circle. This evening was more a highly squashed oval.
Luckily the rain lifted enough to allow a couple of outside dances, before we called a halt to dancing for the evening and retreated back into The Punter for a long session of music and songs, accompanied by various other folky types still going from the morning.
Here we are doing ‘Vandals’ in the gloaming.
The weather was kind to us as we took part in the Saturday happenings of Oxford Folk Weekend.
We started in Gloucester Green in the middle of the festival Village Fete.
Dancing Banbury Bill at the Oxford Folk Weekend 2014
Old Speckled Hen at Oxford Folk Weekend 2014
We then moved on to Oxford Castle.
Gwerinwyr Gwent Welsh folk dance from Newport
After a little lunch, we joined a motley assortment of other sides outside The Bear in Alfred Street.
Dancing Highland Mary at Oxford Folk Weekend 2014
We then had a bit of a break before out last engagement of the day – running the festival Family Morris Dance Workshop. We think we did rather well – after a mere 40 minutes we had adults and children together doing most of Constant Billy! After that, a little show and tell about our musical instruments, and then we finished off with everybody joining in a Shepherd’s Hey.
Cry Havoc running the Family Morris Dance Workshop at Oxford Folk Weekend 2014
A Grand Day Out.