Our annual October celebration in memory of the Hobby Horse Festival has come around again! A team of eight dancers and two musicians danced in and around Banbury over the course of Saturday lunchtime providing entertainment to shoppers. We assembled at the White Horse before heading down to the Fine Lady statue, near to Banbury Cross. Having recited the Fine Lady poem, we started with ‘Sweet Jenny Jones’ and ‘Haste to the Wedding’. A crowd started to gather, so we decided to get everyone joining in with a ‘Shepherds’ Hey’ jig. We had a member of the public for all eight members of the team and we had great fun getting everyone to join in with our tradition.

Making our way to the foot of White Lion Walk, we discovered the best outdoor acoustics in Banbury: ‘Bluebells of Scotland’, ‘Shooting’ and ‘Black Joke’ echoed around the foot of the High Street and must have made for some very interesting background listening for the patrons of the ‘Good Game’ café. Our troupe passed through into the Market Place and brought a smile to the café and food market customers. In fact, I felt that we’d really warmed-up as we danced ‘Lads a Bunchum’, ‘Roast Beef of Old England’, ‘Stourton Wake’ and ‘Old Woman Tossed-up in a Blanket’. David led ‘Constant Billy’ to give me a much needed break, and we concluded with everyone dancing ‘Princess Royal’ and ‘Brighton Camp’. After wandering up Parsons Street we made our last stop outside the Reindeer, and ordered drinks before dancing three more dances – including ‘Postman’s Knock’ a tribute to the passing postman we invited to join our group photo outside the White Horse.

Thank you to Donald and Malcolm for playing so well, and to all our dancers. It’s great dancing in my home town and it’s a joy to visit so many different parts of the town to provide some fun and entertainment.

Ryan

Whilst the tradition of Adderbury Morris dancing is well understood by many of our followers and readers of these news items, I had not until now appreciated the origin and ethos of ‘Apple Day’ itself. Although comparatively recent in its conception, Apple Day has been a staple of local events on Britain for a good 30 years and more. I read with interest the Wikipedia entry: ‘Apple Day was initiated by Common Ground on 21 October 1990 at an event in Covent Garden, London, and has been celebrated in each subsequent year. By 2000 the day was celebrated in more than 600 events around the United Kingdom. Common Ground describe the day as a way of celebrating and demonstrating that variety and richness matter to a locality and that it is possible to effect change in your place. Common Ground has used the apple as a symbol of the physical, cultural and genetic diversity we should not let slip away. In linking particular apples with their place of origin, they hope that orchards will be recognized and conserved for their contribution to local distinctiveness, including the rich diversity of wild life they support.”

With eight dancers, including our talented hurdy-gurdy player mixing roles, we entertained the good people of Sibford as they enjoyed their apple day at the Village Hall.

The sun occasionally shone and the apples kept getting squished into delicious apple juice as we danced. Nicky, our Apple Day contact writes: Thank you all so much for you fantastic dancing, singing and beautiful playing (we loved the unusual instrumentals also so nice to have singing included in your performance). It was also lovely to see your very competent young members!

It has been a good year for apples, and it has been a good year for our treasured Morris side. We will be rounding a wonderful year of teamwork and joy with the hobbyhorse event in Banbury this Saturday, then on the 29th November, we’ll be dancing during the afternoon at the Adderbury Bell Winter Beer Festival finally, we are dancing between 12.30-1.15pm on Saturday 6th December at St Mary’s Adderbury Christmas Tree Festival in Adderbury.

David