To celebrate our 50th anniversary, Dartington Morris Men hosted a Day of Morris Dancing in Dartmouth on Saturday 8 September 2018.
We invited a number of our friends to join us for the day, from local Morris sides and a few from further away. In total fourteen sides were represented.
On display was a mixture of Cotswold, North West Clog, Border Morris and North Skelton Longsword.
Many photos and videos were taken on the day and some can be seen on the DMM Flickr gallery and also in this Flickr collection by Alan Pritchard. There's also a collection of videos by Mad Jacks Morris on Youtube showing many of the show dances at the bandstand
Our guests sides were:
- Charlbury Finstock Morris (Oxfordshire)
- Green Willow Clog (S Devon)
- Grimspound Border Morris (S Devon)
- Heather & Gorse Clog Morris (S Devon)
- King John's Morris Men (Hampshire)
- Letchworth Morris Men (Herts)
- Lodestone Border Morris (S Devon)
- Martlets Sword & Morris Men (West Sussex)
- Newton Bushell (S Devon)
- Plymouth Morris (S Devon)
- Raddon Hill Clog (S Devon)
- Sidmouth Steppers (E Devon)
- Wessex Morris Men (W Dorset)
joined - of course - by Dartington Morris Men.
We start at about 10:15 at the following locations in the town, with teams performing together in groups of three:
- Royal Avenue Gardens
- Marketplace
- Bayard's Cove
- South Embankment
The performances continued at each location as follows:
- 10:15 - 11:15
- 11:30 - 12:30
- (12:30 - 14:00 lunch break)
- 14:15 - 15:15
- 15:30 - 16:15
- 16:30: mass display in Royal Avenue Gardens
Our centre was be the bandstand at Royal Avenue Gardens, where different sides will perform throughout the day. Drinks and snacks were served from the tea hut next to the bandstand throughout the day, for performers and audience alike, and proved to be a welcome sanctuary to recover some energy!
We finished up together at Royal Avenue Gardens at 4:30pm with each individual side performing a show dance, concluding with a mass "Tinner's Rabbit" border dance and a mass "Rose Tree, Bampton" Cotswold dance, followed by Dartington Morris Men performing "My Pretty Little Highland Mary", a Filkins dance. We concluded the day with a mass "Bonny Green Garters" dance from the Bampton tradition.
We thank all of our lovely guest sides for their great performances and friendship, and to the people of Dartmouth and visitors alike for appreciating our dancing.