The Adderbury Day of Dance is a time to leave behind winter and to celebrate spring. It provides an occasion for nostalgia as well as looking to the future, but it is principally an opportunity to share in our collective love of laughter, song, music and Morris dancing, whilst meeting friends old and new. Adderbury is undoubtedly a beautiful village and the physical environment is an essential component of the day, but the fact that the village still boasts of three active Morris teams is what sets it apart.

Adderbury Village Morris Men, as tradition demands, assembled at 10.15am outside the library, before processing to the churchyard for the ceremonials that precede the many dances to follow around the village during the course of the day. Donald sang his song about the Day of Dance, Chris Garrett read his usual poem and Bagman David poured the customary pint of Hooky over Charlie Coleman’s grave. For those unfamiliar with these rituals, Charlie was a survivor of the pre-WW1 side, who was able to pass on his memories of the AVMM tradition to some of the young men who were responsible for the formation of the seventies revival side. Later in the day, the side would pay tribute to two other villagers (Janet Blunt and Bryan Sheppard) without whom our unique Morris tradition would not exist.

Our dancing started behind The Bell in Church Lane with a healthy number of dancers and three musicians. It was not difficult to field two or three sets of six for Sweet Jenny Jones, Haste to the Wedding and Washing Day, whilst late comers hurriedly attached bell pads and adjusted baldricks. Later in the day it became more of a challenge to persuade one or two members to put aside beers and ice creams or interrupt conversations, but with well over 20 dancers present for most of the day we were able give everyone a chance to dance as many or as few of our dances as they wished, whilst demonstrating a high standard of performance and a mixture of youth and experience. Particular mention must be made of our two newest recruits, Max and Dimitri, who have worked very hard in practice to reach the required standard and were performing in public for the first time. They and those members of the side who are still at school, Theo, Dylan and Alfie,  danced impressively all day, although there was evidence later in the day that age, fatigue and beer may have adversely affected other spectators and dancers.

For the first time in my memory the side was accompanied by all three AVMM Hobby ‘Osses, all of which were humanely dispatched at the end of each rendition of The Beaux of London City aka “Shooting”. Special mention should be made of Tim Plester: as the only professional actor in the side, his dramatic demise as the jockey of ‘Os, Charlie was suitably theatrical, indeed positively Shakespearean in its pathos. With AVMM performing the full repertoire of their dances and doing so with multiple sets throughout the day, it was a pleasure to be able to share the duties of calling the dances between experienced dancers like Iain W, Chris H, David, Ryan and others. Most of our dances were in one, two or three sets of six, although we had four sets of four for Princess Royal by Rose Cottage. Jockey to the Fair was performed twice as a double jig with two pairs: our invitation dance of Shepherds’ Hey Jig proved popular with young and old and, of course, we concluded our sets outside various village pubs with a raucously sung and vigorously danced Brighton Camp. It was good to dance Postman’s Knock, Happy Man and other favourites of our former Squire and Fool, Bryan, by the tree planted in his honour on Colin Butler Green following his untimely death.

Lunch was kindly provided by Tony at The Coach and we danced outside his pub before and after the meal as well as performing at The Red Lion before all three local teams ended up later in the afternoon outside The Bell.

The Drinking Jig is always popular with spectators and dancers alike and is an occasion for much merriment and more or less helpful advice from the crowd. The kind members of Sharp and Blunt provided a generous and excellent afternoon tea in the Methodist Chapel. After a rapidly consumed chocolate brownie, I was able to drag away enough of our remaining dancers to perform six more dances outside The Bell, which kept the large and well refreshed crowd entertained. We were then joined by our friends from Adderbury Morris and Sharp Blunt, who each performed another dance apiece, before a massed Shepherds Away Jig concluded the Morris activities for another Day of Dance.

Special thanks should be offered to the officers from all three sides who planned and coordinated the day and to members of the Parish Council for all their good work in ensuring that the roads were made safe for dancers and spectators alike whilst allowing for essential access. Thanks also to all our dancers – some of whom had travelled a long way and to our excellent musicians, Donald, Malcolm and Jim.

The rains predicted by some earlier in the week never arrived, and the temperature was certainly conducive to dancing. According to Ryan’s calculations, we danced 42 times (two more than in 2022!) and to add to the occasion, the sun was visible throughout the day for which we are truly grateful.

See you all again next year?

John Ekers

AVMM enjoyed a delightful evening at the Adderbury village institute as guests of Sharp and Blunt. With Adderbury Morris also performing, the early part of the evening was a real celebration of the three unique traditions flourishing in our village. The three sides danced in turn, exhibiting a fascinating contrast in dancing styles, costume and repertoire. Perhaps the dance most associated with AVMM is Postman’s Knock and we gave an excellent performance of this dance which was enjoyed by all.

Aficionados of the Folk tradition would have appreciated seeing certain dances being performed in totally different ways: Roast Beef of Old England, Washing Day and Sweet Jenny Jones come to mind. Ryan selected and called our dances with his customary efficiency and diplomacy. On one occasion we did follow S&B’s eight woman Jockey to the Fair with our quite distinct two man double jig using the same tune. However, far from this causing offence, all sides present were keen to enjoy and show their appreciation for the various different interpretations of Cotswold Morris styles on view. AVMM concluded their dancing for the evening with the traditional Brighton Camp, featuring three generations of the Jordan family, emphasising both the family links that have run through the side for so many years as well as the success of our youth policy: with three schoolboys dancing for AVMM last night the future of the side should be more secure.

The final dance of the evening was inevitably Shepherd’s Hey played by an impressive band of musicians including our own Donald, together with about 60 dancers and guests concluding this part of the proceedings. Richard, Ryan and I slipped across the Green to The Coach and Horses for some much needed refreshment to discuss Morris matters, before returning to the Institute for a tasty feast provided by our hosts. Adderbury might be the only village in the country with three such varied and active Morris sides. We are very lucky to be able enjoy them on the Day of Dance and throughout each year as well as the other musical and cultural delights of this fine place. We are very grateful to Beth, Sheena and the rest of Sharp and Blunt for allowing us to share in this delightful celebration.

John Ekers

PS: Wednesday practices will commence again in the Tithe Barn on 22 February. We will start at 7pm to accommodate the school-age members, so should finish around 9pm. Do please bring with you any friends who might like a taster session.

We assembled as usual, outside The Bell at 12.30pm for our traditional post-Christmas celebration of dance but as Nicola and Andy had decided to open a little later in the day, we decamped to The Coach and Horses, where landlord, Tony, was delighted to welcome us.

With musicians Donald and Malcolm setting a brisk tempo, our dancers warmed up rather more quickly than the large crowd of family, friends and interested passers-by who stayed to watch our antics. Over the next hour or so, a group ranging from six to 70 years of age performed 11 of our core dances with barely a false step, despite some members being a little rusty and at least one suffering the effects of over-consumption of Wadworth’s Old Timer (5.8%).

It was good to have two dancers of primary school age, including Dylan’s young brother Rhys who performed his first Shepherd’s Hey dance in public. More importantly for the future of the side is the fact that two of our regular dancers, Theo and Dylan, are still at The Warriner School and they certainly danced as well as anyone yesterday. In particular, they impressed in Postman’s Knock and in Jockey to the Fair, where three pairs of dancers attempt to out caper each other in this demanding double jig. Our traditional audience participation invitation dance, Shepherd’s Hey Jig drew some novices from the crowd as well as more experienced performers to make up a cheery throng of 16 dancers.

As tradition demands, we concluded proceedings with Brighton Camp, featuring whistle player Malcolm as a dancer, before heading home to warm fires and turkey sandwiches.

On reflection, what brings us together on occasions like the post-Christmas dance out is a shared love of music, laughter, dance, song, fellowship and a unique tradition. Long may this continue. Morris On!

A Happy New Year to all our friends.

John Ekers

Seasons greetings one and all! It’s the most wonderful time of the year – when Adderbury Village Morris Men have a chance to dance in St. Mary’s Church as part of the Adderbury Christmas Tree Festival. A beautiful plethora of trees decorated by various clubs and organisations throughout the village (including ours) were on display and were the perfect accompaniment for a spot of afternoon dancing.

Facing the Altar we warmed up with Sweet Jenny Jones and Haste to the Wedding. It was only appropriate to then dance the Bluebells of Scotland, which the church bells ring out every Wednesday. We finished our first half an hour with Stourton Wake, and truly appreciated the amazing acoustics of the Church. It was incredible to hear our sticking, singing and jingling (the last of which is actually pretty seasonally appropriate) echo throughout the church.

A brief coffee break and time to admire all the excellently decorated trees was followed by the Beaux of London City – we promise we were as careful as possible to not damage the floor! Our youngest and most energetic dancer, Dylan, asked that we all wore off those seasonal mince pies with Black Joke. I clearly am a little rusty, as I needed to take a moment to recover, before dancing Lads a’ Buncham and a six man Shepherds’ Hey Jig. Our final dance of the hour was Brighton Camp and with eight dancers we were tight for space in the narrow aisles but we managed it brilliantly.

Thank you to everyone who came to make the afternoon possible, and huge thank you to the team at St. Mary’s Church for not only putting on such a lovely charitable event, but also having us along to entertain the visitors.

Happy Holidays to everyone and we hope to see you all again very soon!

 

On Saturday 12 November, we performed The Story of the Dancer at St Gregory’s church, Tredington, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire. Our performance coincided with a farewell event for the Reverend Stephen Fletcher, formerly vicar of St Mary’s Adderbury and his wife Jean who had been serving in Tredington. Given the farewell to Stephen and Jean and the proximity to Remembrance Sunday, we performed this powerful story to our largest ever audience.

The Story of the Dancer is a fictitious tale based on a factual First World War event – the Christmas truce that took place in December, 1914. The story is dedicated to those who lost their lives in conflict and, in that context, it recalls the fact that many Morris dancers perished and this nearly led to the end of the tradition. The story focuses on how singing briefly stopped a war and united soldiers from both sides in a shared vision of peace. The story is also about a love of Morris dancing and the final part describes the revival of the tradition by a new generation of young dancers in the 1970s.

Our thanks to: Donald who wrote and narrated the story; Donald and Nigel who played for us and to dancers: John, Troy, Chris, Richard, Theo, Dylan, Owen and Luke. We should also like to thank Charlotte for playing ‘The Last Post’ so beautifully, Hannah for her evocative photos and the Rector, the Reverend Canon Richard Cooke who hosted the event.

After finding that there was no Hobby Horse Festival taking place this year, we decided as a group to dance in and around Banbury on Saturday 8th October, and provide the shoppers with some much-needed entertainment. Assembling at the White Horse in Banbury, we made our way down to Banbury Cross to get warm by dancing in the beautiful autumn day sunshine. Entertaining patrons of the nearby café, we started with Sweet Jenny Jones, Haste to the Wedding (which was a bit muddled due to my calling), Constant Billy and Stourton Wake. Making a point to keep things as horse related as possible, we crossed over and posed in front of the Fine Lady statue for photos before heading down through the town with flags waving.

Arriving at the bottom of the High Street near White Lion Walk, we continued to entertain with Postman’s Knock (brilliantly called by John), Hail to the Chief and Bluebells of Scotland, which was sounding particularly clear due to the acoustics created by the tall surrounding buildings. Having noticed quite a crowd was gathering, we decided to perform Shepherd’s Hey followed by the audience being asked to participate in a subsequent Shepherd’s Hey Jig. It was wonderful to see everyone having fun and joining in. I think it’s one of the first times I’ve seen a mother join in whilst carrying her son, but they both still did a splendid job and it was great to see them take part.

We moved on to the Band Stand, which had sort of become part of the regular route we take throughout town, and briefly danced Lads a Buncham (nearly losing my hat in the process), and Black Joke called superbly by our Treasurer Troy. It was very kind of people to stop and allow the team and our own Hobby Horses – Charlie and Percy – to cross the road. Although perhaps as they are black and white, they were mistaken for a Zebra crossing…

Our penultimate stop was the Marketplace just at the bottom of Parson’s Street, and we thoroughly enjoyed singing and dancing for the crowds. We danced the Roast Beef of Old England (sadly we had no Vegetarian option which meant our Bagman David was unable to take part based on his culinary inclination), Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket, Washing Day and Princess Royal with eight dancers. Noticing the large flocks of pigeons circling the market, we decided it was time to do the stores a favour, and scare them off with our Shooting dance, the Beaux of London City. Following a moment’s break, we then danced Happy Man, after which we assembled six able and willing dancers to perform Jockey to the Fair with three pairs. Before moving on we concluded with a brilliantly danced Brighton Camp for ten dancers. Prior to settling down for a very well-deserved lunch, outside the Olde Reindeer we danced Sweet Jenny Jones and Shepherd’s Hey just one last time and provided an end to a very pleasant morning excursion.

A special thank you to Taryn who had come expecting the Hobby Horse Festival, but followed us all morning taking photos and listening to the tales of our two horses. Speaking of which, the two hobby horses are actually named after two members of the side. Charlie is named after Charlie Coleman, the last surviving member of the 1908 side after having fought in World War One, and the person to hand down the tradition to the new side formed in the mid-1970s. Percy is named after another member of the side from 1908, Percy Pargeter, who sadly didn’t make it back from the war and his brother Ronald was also killed in the fighting. Their names are inscribed in Pozieres cemetery and on the Thiepval Monument. We love bringing the horses out for people to see, and they make a brilliant addition to our side.

Banbury has been one of my favourite dance outs over the past few years, and I am happy that we had such a good team of dancers out with us to make it possible. Thank you to all dancers and supporters who attended, especially our youngest dancers Owen, Luke and Alfie who were putting the older dancers to shame even after two hours! Thank you as well to your mums who followed us throughout the morning and cheered us all on! You all did a phenomenal job of showing off what we do to the people of Banbury town centre, as reflected in Hannah’s fantastic photographs. It’s been great to dance out with everyone once again, and we’ll hope to see you again soon.

Squire Ryan

The Great Rollright Autumn Fair is hosted each year by the Friends of Great Rollright School. It is the main annual fund raising event for the school and this year the event began with a reflection and thanksgiving led by the vicar and council officials for the life of Queen Elizabeth II. The AVMM side all wore black arm ties and prior to dancing, our Treasurer Troy Daniels added our tribute to HM the Queen.

The event had many stalls and attractions for children and there were several hundred people in the field where we danced two sets, including Shepherd’s Hey with audience participation. The lady dancing opposite Richard danced every step perfectly – she said she’d learnt the dance as a university student many years before!

We were thrilled that our former Squire, David Reed and his wife Chris were able to join us for his final public dance out with us prior to moving to Wales. David has been a constant source of encouragement to all of us and has patiently helped to teach a number of us to dance over the past few years. He is a mine of information too about all things Morris-related and we shall miss him.

We should like to thank the Friends of Great Rollright School and in particular, Charlotte and Chris for inviting us to dance and for their hospitality; our friendly audience and Hannah Ekers for taking some lovely photos.

A glorious Saturday was the perfect setting for our first dance out in almost 6 weeks. Wroxton Fete had invited us to entertain it’s visitors over the course of lunchtime in ideal weather conditions. We started with Sweet Jenny Jones and Haste to the Wedding, in which it was clear to see that the break in dancing events had certainly not diminished our quality as everyone danced brilliantly. Following on from that we shot some birds out of the sky with the Beaux of London City followed by Hail to the Chief and Lads a’Buncham to finish our first set.

After wandering around the fete to take in the sunshine (or running to find water and shade), we returned for a second set. We started with the Bluebells of Scotland and went on to perform Stourton Wake, Washing Day and Shepherds Hey both as a set and with the audience. We concluded with Postman’s Knock and Brighton Camp whilst singing and sticking for the whole fete to hear!

It was so much fun and great to see everyone dancing, singing and enjoying the good weather. Thanks to everyone who came, with a special well done to our youngest dancer Luke who did brilliantly throughout the afternoon. In a few years he’ll be tall enough to not have to stretch to during the overhead portion of Lads a’Buncham!! Thank you to the organisers for inviting us, to Hannah for the lovely photos and Donald for playing loudly and clearly over the noise of the fete and keeping us in time during Brighton Camp!

Squire Ryan

We don’t often pay tribute to our spectators and our supporters on this website so let me change that. They are the people that matter the most. It is with sadness that we announce the death of one of our long-time supporters, John Bush, from Stratford upon Avon. 

John was usually seated outside the Bell on the Day of Dance taking in the ambience of the day, the beer and enjoying the dancing of all the Adderbury sides. He loved watching our drinking jig and all the antics that accompany it.

John was also an obsessive follower of Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson – a man of great taste then and many years ago, he was a member of Shakespeare Morris. 

I was honoured to be asked to sing the Adderbury Village Morris version of The Happy Man at John’s cremation. The cremation was conducted by our good friend,  Rev Stephen Fletcher (once of Adderbury) and also a good friend to John.

Donations to Shakespeare Hospice.

Donald McCombie 

After eight years of running a hub of Morris Dancing in the village of Adderbury, the resident landlord and landlady Chris and Sandra are sadly retiring from The Bell Inn. We thought it was only fair to make a song and dance of it, so decided to gather on Friday evening to wish them all the best. In typical Morris fashion, after a week of fair weather it was a cloudy and blustery evening outside the Bell. Undeterred, our team and loyal supporters had come out to help wish farewell to Chris and Sandra. We started with the usual Sweet Jenny Jones and Haste to the Wedding (Flasher), followed by the Beaux of London City (Shooting), in which our youngest member Luke performed brilliantly – even better than I did at some points!

From one of our newest members to one of the longest serving – it’s at this point that I need to make special mention of Former Squire David Reed, known affectionately as ‘Dorset Dave’ and his wife Chris who had made the effort to join us. After taking the decision to move to Wales to be closer to family, this may be one of the final times we get to see them. As a token of our appreciation for everything that Dave has done for the team over the years, we presented a photobook which included memories of his time with us. There’ll be a much more in-depth thank you at a later stage, but this gift hopefully goes some way to showing how much we’ve appreciated the knowledge and wisdom passed down over the years.

After Stourton Wake, I nipped into the pub for some refreshments and I could hear the Postman’s Knock being called outside by Troy. Having fetched a refreshing lemonade, it was three pairs for Jockey to the Fair and me praying the bubbly lemonade would stay down! Of course, being a professional, all was well and John, Dylan, Troy, Owen, David and I put on a good performance despite the sloped nature of the road. At this point we invited Chris to take a quick break outside the pub to listen to our serenade of ‘Come Landlord fill the Flowing Bowl’. A song which we only pull out for very special occasions! We did offer to sing inside the pub, but for some reason Chris didn’t want a load of rowdy Morris Men with large sticks in his establishment…

We danced Constant Billy as per the request of our Bagman David (who had squeezed in a dance-out and a theatre trip in one evening), and it was at this point we decided to bring in the children watching and do our obligatory Shepherd’s Hey Jig. I could definitely see a lot of prospective future members for the side which is always encouraging. We began winding down with the Bluebells of Scotland, Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket, Lads a Buncham and Hail to the Chief, and then dragged Chris away from his bar once again to dance Brighton Camp with the signed stick which we presented to him. I would say that Morris men were impacting his usual business focus, but I’m sure we made up for any distractions with our own drink orders. The coats were coming on, the clouds had rolled in and at that point it was time to draw things to a close.

Thank you to everyone who came, Donald for the music and Hannah and Dorset Dave for the photos. Really though, this thank you section needs to be for Chris and Sandra who have done so much for all Morris sides in the past eight years of running the Bell. Thank you for the pints of Hooky, lemonade, Coke and water, a place to relax post practice and the setting for our AGMs. You’ve been contributing to the side long before I even knew it existed and you truly will be missed by the team in a way that words cannot fully express. We wish you both all the best for the future, and hope to still see you around and about in the village soon. Perhaps with some free time on your hands Chris, you may consider taking up a hobby. I hear dancing is good for your physical and mental health…

Squire Ryan