Which Oxfordshire town or village claims to be the founding home of Morris Dancing?

gtho4

Headington Quarry By the end of the nineteenth century many teams had disbanded and many morris dancing traditions were lost. If it had not been for the historian Cecil Sharp at the turn of the century, morris dancing would have probably died out completely in this country. On Boxing Day, 1899, Sharp was visiting a friend at Headington Quarry, Oxfordshire, where he first encountered the Headington Morris Men out on one of their traditional days for dancing. He was fascinated by what he saw. He had stumbled up on one of the few remaining morris sides who were still performing. It was this incident that inspired Sharp to research and document what was left of morris dancing in England and it is entirely down to Sharp that some of the dances are known to us today. http://www.w-mids.freeserve.co.uk/morris1.htm Feb 10 04, 12:57 AM

Baloo55th

Saving Morris Dance, that's what Cecil Sharp said he did. Well, he never investigated the Clog Morris of the North West, or Border Morris, so far as I am aware. This is why people think that Cotswold Morris (as Headington tradition) is the only real morris. No way. He didn't believe that traditional dancing could take place in industrial areas and only took note of the dwindling rural dance traditions. Dwindling because of the falling rural population. Those of us involved with Clog Morris get rather annoyed with people that talk of Cotswold as 'real' morris.) Feb 10 04, 6:37 AM

romeomikegolf

It's not Headington. The place I'm refering to has a tradition going back over 400 years and is generally regarded to be one of the homes of the Morris. By the way I was told by Martin Carthy that Dave Swarbrick did more than anyone else to save Border Morris from disappearing completely. Feb 10 04, 12:01 PM

Baloo55th

That's got to be Abbots Bromley if its tradition can be traced that far. Different to most morris - it's one of the odd ones. The horns used are reindeer horns and are dated to the 15th century or earlier. [Feb 10 04 12:06 PM] Baloo55th writes: That's not Oxfordshire - but it predates any of the Cotswold places no matter what they claim. Feb 10 04, 12:05 PM

gtho4

Headington is the founding home of the modern "revival", but as for the next Q, there sems to be more than one: "The place I'm refering to has a tradition going back over 400 years and is generally regarded to be one of the homes of the Morris." There are many sites with a history of Morris Dancing, but this author's research seems to be more extensive than most of the others; without giving credit to any one village. http://www.englishfolkdance.org/cotshist.shtml Feb 10 04, 8:53 PM

romeomikegolf

To put you out of your misery, the place in question is Bampton. There are numerous sites that mention Bampton's tra'dition, but one that actually mentions Bamptons unbroken, apart from two wars, tradition is below. http://www.icknieldwaymorrismen.org.uk/tradition_bampton.html Feb 11 04, 1:01 AM

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