There are few occasions more quintessentially English than a traditional village fete and amongst the vital components of such events: tea and cake stalls, bouncy castles, Punch and Judy shows, vintage car displays, ice cream sellers, silver band concerts, tombolas and artisan craft stalls, many would also regard a Morris dancing demonstration as a prerequisite for such occasions.

Thus it was that a small band of AVMM dancers and musicians found themselves performing for the third year in a row in the lovely village of Tingewick. Ryan, our exemplary Squire, led the side through a set of dances for the large crowd interspersed between sets by the Great Horwood Silver Band. That the threatening clouds failed to release their contents over our dancers was a mixed blessing, as we were decidedly hot and sticky by the end of our set. As usual, one of the highlights was our audience participation number during which I danced opposite Freya. As it was her birthday, I felt there could have been fewer more unusual presents than to introduce her to the joys of dancing Shepherds’ Hey. She seemed to enjoy herself enormously.

As soon as Brighton Camp brought another afternoon’s dancing to a close, we headed to the tea tent to enjoy the fantastic cakes provided for us as part of our fee. Musician Donald, who loves a photo opportunity, busied himself in juxtaposing our members amongst various quirky objects scattered around the field. Thus we ended up with a photo of our team alongside a vintage Morris car (Geddit?), the Punch and Judy stall with Raf sporting a string of sausages and a number of portraits of enormous cakes being consumed by the hungrier members of the sides. All very silly and rather lovely.

My thanks to all those who made themselves available so that we could once again field a full side of dancers and musicians. A member of another side recently complimented us on the frequency of our dance outs and our presence on social media, all this would not be possible without the wonderful people that make up the mighty Adderbury Village Morris.

We now have a fortnight’s rest before the Christopher Rawlings Primary School Fete on Saturday 4th July. We start dancing at 1pm. See you then.

John

Our huge thanks to Jessica Wood (Jess) and all involved in organising the annual Fringford Beer & Cider Festival. It is a privilege to dance at this wonderful event every year, thank you for inviting us again!

Fringford in the 19th Century is associated with Flora Thompson’s ‘Lark rise to Candleford’ trilogy. She largely bases Candleford Green on her childhood memories of Fringford, where she worked in the village post office from 1891-1897. Our thanks as always to our musicians and dancers and in particular to Ksyusha, our fantastic young jockey for hobby horse ‘Percy’. Ksyusha was wearing her Adderbury Village Morris outfit for the first time at the Fringford event.

On Sunday the 31st of May we attended the Kirtlington Morris Lamb Ale along with other sides from far and wide. Kirtlington have a long-standing tradition with their Lamb Ale, and we were so grateful to be attending again. The day started with a procession through the village to the Church where an uplifting and folk inspired service took place. Hymns, songs and even dancing filled the Church and echoed outside into the Churchyard.  Afterwards, we linked up with more members of our side, and began assembling with more arriving teams to form a larger procession through the village. Dancing to Speed the Plough, we made our way through the village as our band of musicians played for cheering crowds and spectators. We ended by dancing into the Primary School as you may have seen from some of the previously posted videos! Soucha and Dimitri did an excellent job of performing our horses, Percy and Charlie, who very much enjoyed leading our team. 

We watched Kirtlington Morris begin the day with dancing some of their routines, and then all sides split into different areas of the village to provide further entertainment. We started with Summertown and Stroud Morris at the Dashwood Arms – Stroud featured a brilliantly dressed Squire as a sheep dog, with another member dressed as a sheep which fit perfectly into the Lamb Ale! Summertown danced elegantly with a member holding a beautifully made banner showing Summertown’s name – something we could only aspire to match with our flag! We headed to the village hall and danced with our fellow side from Adderbury, Sharp & Blunt, and Mason’s Apron. Onlookers were keen to join us, so we danced a communal Shepherd’s Hey with the audience, members of Sharp & Blunt and Mason’s Apron. Everyone did a great job and it was a good opportunity to get everyone involved in our tradition.

We headed over to the Oxford Arms to link with another fellow Adderbury side, Adderbury Morris Men, and Berkshire Bedlam. Berkshire put on a brilliant display of energetic capering, double stepping, and exchanging sticks in tight movements. Requests from our side to try that were swiftly met with a “no” from me – I like to keep a hold of my own stick for the duration of a dance! Our final venue for the day was the primary school, where we danced with Shakespeare Morris and Kirtlington Morris before the other sides joined us. Shakespeare sported their own impressive Hobby Horse which made us very pleased to see our Percy and Charlie weren’t the only horses attending. Hopefully we can see Shakespeare’s horse again at our own Hobby Horse event in October.

Whilst other members had a well-deserved lunch break, John and I danced a Jockey to the Fair jig which the Kirtlington MC commented was one of the fastest they’d seen. We don’t like to hang around when it comes to dancing and even a harder jig like Jockey is no different! Each of the sides performed one final dance, and of course for us it was all up for Brighton Camp. It was brilliant to see all teams come together for a final dance to round off a brilliant day of Morris in Kirtlington. Adderbury Morris Men invited everyone to join a mass Shepherd’s Away with a multitude of sides participating, which out team of course couldn’t pass up. 

We should like to thank Kirtlington Morris for a brilliant and well organised day to celebrate the Morris – a tradition which brings people together from all over, and is a wonderful thing to share in our own unique ways. Thank you to our dancers and musicians who took the time to attend and travel all over the village – you all did excellently. 

Finally thank you to everyone who submitted photos and videos – it took Richard almost 2 hours to upload them all to our FB page where there have been thousands of views. We love having photos and videos of our team. Thank you for the continued support, and we’ll see you at our next event!

Squire Ryan