This is a good day for dancing!” exclaimed our Squire as we assembled outside the Tithe Barn by The Bell in Adderbury at noon on a grey but warm Bank Holiday Monday. And indeed it was. We were soon into our stride, with once again two sets of six men presenting many of the regular dances to a large and enthusiastic audience gathered around us. Probably because we were making such a noise dancing outside his house, we were joined for a while by our esteemed Adderbury friend Chris Leslie on the fiddle. We all had such fun that we found it hard to leave the spot just down the road from the Bell Inn. However as planned we then proceeded up to the Coach and Horses for another one hour set where we repeated some but also covered several of the dances we had not already done. Again the audience was very appreciative and seemed interested by the historic and cultural background that we gave them by way of introductions to the dances.

Having lost track of time in all the joy and merriment, we then headed over to Aynho and danced for a while outside the Cartwright Hotel to a smaller but no less enthusiastic audience. During the afternoon, our audience participation version of Shepherds’ Hey dance was particularly well received  with good numbers of volunteers keen to experience the delights of the Adderbury Village Morris tradition. During four hours of dancing we ran through pretty much the entirety of the AVMM repertoire with 15 dancers and three musicians, not to mention Charlie and Percy, our horses. We were very pleased that our ex-Squire and honorary Foreman Dorset Dave Reed was able to join us for a few dances later in the afternoon. Then it was back to Chez Ekers for tea on the lawn, where Mrs Squire had prepared a delicious and wonderful spread of cakes and sandwiches which we devoured with great enthusiasm and then we ruined the Squire’s lawn by rounding such a merry gathering off with a few of our favourite dances from the day. Tea, Hooky beers and soft drinks were available to slake the thirsts of the weary dancers and Dave Reed made a lovely speech congratulating the current side on the quality of its dancing. A very jolly day was had by all!

One of our supporters told me at the end as we were talking “When you guys dance, it is the look of joy on all of your faces that is so infectious, and the audience notices this and absolutely loves it.” Praise indeed!

Our thanks to Hannah for her lovely photos and to Jackie Ekers for hosting afternoon tea and more. We look forward to returning to Adderbury on the 18th September to dance around the village once again.

David Snell, Bagman

If you look on the OS map, the lost village of Whitchurch-On-Stour is a mere hump of raised ground next to a beautiful old church in the middle of nowhere, by the banks of the river. Being so remote, my expectations for the scale of this event were not great, but to my pleasant surprise the people from all around flocked to make this fete a great success, with the customary splat the rat, bric-a-brac, tea and cakes and other staple village fete fare.

We Morris men (two sets of six once again) seemed to be the main entertainment and were given free rein in the middle of the paddock. We must have danced continually for around an hour and a half! Some of our number had travelled a long way to get there, and all of us were rather hot and tired by the end. As were so close to the River Stour we had to include Stourton Wake in our set as well as most of the rest of our regular dances. The audience was very appreciative, and many of the locals cheerfully joined in with our audience participation version of Sheperd’s Hey. Involving the crowd has always proved a good way of promoting new membership: the young people dancing opposite me enjoyed it so much and said that they would have been interested in joining our side had they not lived in Bristol.

The clouds occasionally parted and the sun shone down. It was a beautiful afternoon with good dancing. New recruits, Owen, Matt and Chris are all making great progress. It was also good to welcome back Tommy, who had travelled from Weymouth via Essex to dance with AVMM once again.

We were also pleased to meet up with our old friend the Rev. Stephen Fletcher, former vicar of Adderbury and now plying his trade in the wilds of Warwickshire. As we drove away from the venue, we saw families from the neighbouring villages wandering wearily home down the quiet country lanes, the children’s faces covered in melted ice cream and the parents carrying all kinds of cakes, books and unusable items from the bric-a-brac store.

Our thanks to the Fete organising committee and all those who watched and appreciated our dancing.

David Snell, Bagman

Adderbury Village Morris Men were the star guests once again at this popular event held on Saturday 7 August. After last year’s Fete was cancelled because of the pandemic, the organiser, Chris May, was particularly keen to draw in a large crowd to raise money for local good causes. For the first time at Wroxton we were able to field two sets of six for the majority of our traditional dances. We danced continuously for two hours with just short breaks to take on water and to form a guard of honour for a young bridal couple walking through the village following their wedding. It turned out that the bride was a teacher at Christopher Rawlings School in Adderbury, which was particularly fortuitous.

Following our traditional starting dances of Sweet Jenny Jones and Haste to the Wedding, we demonstrated Shepherd’s Hey dance to the crowd and then invited audience participation for a modified version of the same dance. Judging by the number of young volunteers who put themselves forward, this could be a very useful recruiting tool when we resume visiting local schools to demonstrate our tradition.

We were lucky that the forecast showers hardly touched Wroxton and so we were able to dance without interruption, entertaining the crowd with most of the dances in our repertoire. Lads A Bunchum, Brighton Camp, Black Joke, Postman’s Knock, Happy Man and the very impressive double jigs, Shepherds’ and Jockey to the Fair were all performed to a very high standard. It is clear that the extra al fresco practices arranged  since the end of lockdown have paid off. A very experienced former dancer of the Longborough tradition who was watching, was keen to compliment all the side and was surprised both by the youth of some of our dancers and the fact that some of our members have only danced in public on a handful of occasions. I’m delighted with the way the current side is dancing and look forward to another successful and enjoyable afternoon next Saturday 14 August when we will be dancing in Warwickshire at 2.30pm, postcode CV37 8PD – come and join us!

Our thanks to Chris May and the Wroxton Village Fete organising committee and to Hannah Ekers for capturing AVMM in action!

Squire John Ekers