History

What Is Morris Dancing?

The name "Morris" refers to many forms of traditional dance and drama in Britain and falls into several distinct groups:-

Cotswold Morris - the traditional dance of the South Midlands in which six men performed to the accompaniment of a musician often with a fool and hobby horse or other animal totem. Each village had it's own dances and style of dancing although many of the tunes were widespread. Cotswold Morris sides usually dress in white and wear bells on shin pads and can be seen dancing with sticks or handkerchiefs.

Northwest Morris - the style of dance from the North west of England from Cheshire to Westmorland. It is often performed in clogs by large numbers of dancers accompanied by a band. The dancers carry sticks, slings or garlands.

Border Morris - From the border counties of Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester. The dancers number six or eight and wear rag costumes. Many sides blacken their faces.

Rapper Sword - Dance performed with a double handled flexible metal strip known as a Rapper. The dance is basically 5 men accompanied by a "Tommy" or a "Betty" or both. They perform circling or intertwining figures without breaking the circle they have formed, except at the climax of the dance when the swords are interlocked to form the "lock" which is held aloft. There are Rapper teams throughout Northumbria, Tyneside, North Yorkshire and many of these were associated with the coal pits.

The History Of Oakworth Village Morris Men

In the summer of 1981, a group of seven Oakworth based friends, loosely associated with Oakworth Methodist Church, volunteered to take part in a "Candlelight Cabaret" along with other church groups in order to help raise funds for a proposed extension to the Sunday School. They decided that they would perform some "Morris" dances as their contribution. They recalled that a concertina player for the Huddersfield based White Rose Morris men lived in Oakworth and therefore he was approached to see if he would teach the group one or two dances.

With the help of a couple of his White Rose colleagues and several weeks' intensive rehearsal, two Cotswold dances were learned and performed at the "Candlelight Cabaret". Thus the seeds were sown?. Following a Friday night excursion to a local pub the idea of attempting Morris Dancing on a serious basis was floated and Oakworth Village Morris Men were born.

The group decided to incorporate the word "village" in order to help promote Oakworth's separate identity, which was quickly becoming submerged by the urban sprawl of Keighley and Bradford. They therefore adopted as their badge of membership the insignia of the former Oakworth Local Board, the famous golden fleece suspended from the white rose of Yorkshire.

The group enlisted further assistance from the White Rose Morris Men in order to improve their technique and repertoire. Without doubt, Cliff Barstow, President of the White Rose Morris Men and a dancer for over thirty years, who later became Oakworth's Honorary Foreman (Dance Teacher), invaluably has developed the group from a bunch of men "having a Laugh" to a functioning club dedicated to furthering the English tradition of Morris dancing.

In 1983, having concentrated on learning Cotswold Morris dances primarily from the villages of Headington and Adderbury in Oxfordshire, the club embarked on a sustained period of tuition in the Lichfield (Staffordshire) tradition of dancing and were well known specialists in that tradition. Unfortunately due to reduced numbers Oakworth have not danced Lichfield for a number of years.

In June 1984, Oakworth "danced in" to the Morris Ring (a National Federation) in Thaxted (Essex) on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Morris Ring.

The club is now well established as part of the fabric of the local community and can often be seen 'between dances' at the Fleece Inn at Haworth. As with other organisations the club requires further members in order to continue performing it's extensive repertoire to the widest possible audience. If you are interested in taking part in one of England's finest traditions please contact any of the club's officials or attend the club's regular practice night on Mondays at Oakworth Methodist Church from 8p.m. onwards.

The club have several regular annual performances - Easter Monday in Haworth, a memorial Dales tour in April, Dancing at Dawn on 1st May at Cowling Pinnacle, and a major Weekend Of Dance in September involving Morris teams from across the country touring the Yorkshire Dales and Keighley area. See our Events page for more details on up and coming performances.

Oakworth Village Morris Men celebrated their 25th Anniversary in September 2006. The club organised a Silver Jubilee Weekend of Dance, inviting all Morris Teams who had previously attended Oakworth's Weekend of Dance over the past years. See our Picture Gallery page for photo's of the event.