The Best Attractions In Adderbury

Male Morris dancers in Windsor, England

Morris dancers in Peascod street, Windsor, England, 6th October 2012.

Dundee Scottish Festival Highlights

The Dundee Scottish Festival September 10, 2011 was dedicated to Christopher J.Scott, who was killed in Afghanistan on September 3, 2011. This video is just some of the highlights from the festival.

King’s Lynn May Garlands

The King’s Morris revived the tradition of the King’s Lynn May Garland in 1983. The garland is always presented on the true May Day, the first of May, not on the May bank holiday. The garland procession starts at twelve noon from the Saturday Market Place, and goes around the town for a couple of hours. There are also displays of morris dancing.

The Aldbrough Plough Lads Dance by Rackaback Morris

Rackaback Morris from Kingston Upon Hull dance the traditional Plough Lads dance from Aldbrough, just South of Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire and about ten miles from Kingston Upon Hull.
The video was taken at the 2015 Yorkshire Coast Weekend of Dance in Scarborough in the North Riding.
The Plough Lads (sometimes Poor Lads) dances were associated with Plough Monday when the ploughs were blessed and the world was prepared for a return to work after Christmas.
Some areas, especially Lincolnshire, had a tradition of mummers plays. There was always the suggestion that the dancers or mummers should be treated by the richer villagers and in some areas there was mischief heaped upon the tight fisted.
Few dances survived the 1940's but details of the tunes and movements of the Aldbrough dance were researched by folk historian Paul Davenport from primary sources and, although no film of the dance is known to exist, this version is believed to be reasonably true to the original.
The idea of the musician dancing is not surprising if you have felt the breath of the Arctic Tundra coming in from the North Sea. There is also the suggestion that at times the dancers may have carried flags on their sticks or clacked bones for sound effect.
Lack of written or visual sources mean it is sometimes difficult to know with traditional activities if their form remained static through their history or if it was subject to constant evolution and/or fusion with other contemporary activities.