The Background…
For those who think morris dancing a quaint survival it is a remarkable fact that there is probably more morris danced today than at any time in its past history! On a Saturday in late April residents and visitors alike are able to watch exponents of North Oxfordshire’s own contribution to ‘World Dance’ performing round the village. It is a great spectacle but why in Adderbury?
A Little History
Cotswold morris dancing is a traditional or ‘roots’ dance form which belongs especially to the Midland counties of England. Nobody is quite sure when and where it started but there is no evidence at all to link it with pagan customs or fertility rituals!
Researchers used to believe that it began in Spain in the 12th century as a performance to celebrate the liberation of Spain from Moslem occupation, but there is no evidence for this.
The church was not slow to see the fund raising potential of the spectacle of Morris dancing and many parishes kept their own sets of costumes in church to be brought out for the annual Whitsun Ale celebrations.
By the start of the 17th. century Morris dancing was in decline, a process hastened by the rantings of puritan sects who condemned it because of the associated rowdy behaviour and drunkenness.
Morris dancing migrated to the rural communities where there were few people to record it. Because of the social conditions prevalent at the time dancers were usually male although there are records of female dancers participating too.
During the mid-nineteenth century many villages had their own team of morris dancers performing a programme of dances unique to their community, but by the end of the nineteenth century most village morris dancing had stopped. The early twentieth century saw a number of people collecting the dances and trying to revive the dances, but the carnage of the First World War put an end to much of that effort. The tradition was maintained in a few market towns and information about other dances was recorded by early students of folk-lore.
In the years after the second world war, people got hold of the idea that morris dancing was a survival of some kind of pagan fertility ritual and only danced by men. History reveals no evidence for this at all and the flowering of morris dancing in the second half of the twentieth century has seen new teams formed some for men, some for women and some mixed.
Morris around Banbury
There are several reports of Morris dancing in Banbury from years gone by. Puritans in the seventeenth century complained about Morris dancers and their ungodly ways. (Be warned some people still do!) Towards the end of the eighteenth century local teams were recorded at Ayhno, Bicester, Brackley, Croughton, Kings Sutton, Middleton Cheney. During the nineteenth century sides were known to be active in Adderbury, Badby, Bloxham, Brackley, Bucknell, Deddington and Kings Sutton.
Teams regularly used to dance at Banbury Fair and the well known Banbury eccentric, William ‘Old Mettle’ Castle was fool for the Adderbury team in the nineteenth century, but the team had stopped dancing by the 1880’s.
In Adderbury the dances were recorded from the last surviving member of the nineteenth century team, William Walton, by Janet Blunt of West Adderbury and later by Cecil Sharp. Sharp included his notation of the Adderbury dances in the books he published and they became a staple of the revival teams from the nineteen twenties onwards.
The Revival
In 1975 the dances came back to Adderbury when the tradition was revived by Tim Radford and Brian Sheppard, who recruited a team, some of whom are still dancing today.
The revival team has now been dancing for half a century. Most of the dancers only dance Adderbury and most of them learnt from a single source. The team is also noted for the ‘Adderbury Big Band’ sound with a large pool of experienced musicians. We are particularly pleased to have a set of second generation dancers and musicians who return every April and hope that the third generation will also put in an appearance in our Golden Jubilee Year.
As one of the events marking the millennium a set of kit and the following photographic record were buried in a time capsule within the fabric of St. Mary’s Church Adderbury.
These days, we do not do as much as many teams. Our annual calendar begins with the Day of Dance in late April, followed by May Day in Oxford, Kirtlington Lamb Ale, Bloxham Steam Fair and Cropredy Fringe. In the Autumn we do a day in Stratford-upon Avon and Banbury Canal Day. The last commitment of the year is the Christmas Tree Festival in St Mary’s Church, Adderbury. Occasionally we take paid bookings and do one or two local fêtes together with the odd pub tour with other teams.