My long-suffering wife dispatched me with to Ironbridge today with my 3 boys.
I got a passport allowing unlimited access to all the Ironbridge museums for the bargain price of £24 through my employer not long ago. We've certainly made full use of the passport since getting it - we've been to Blists Hill a couple of times and Enginuity about 5 times.
Enginuity is brilliant but there's only so many times you can go to the same place and play with the same stuff so we went for a look around the Tile Museum and then went to the Ironbridge for a look round the toll house. That's when we came across these guys:
I've lived no more than 10 minutes away from Ironbridge my whole life and didn't even know there was a morris dancing group in Ironbridge! These lot are called the Iron Men and Severn Gilders. It was really nice to see some traditional English public entertainment - even the obligatory 5 million Japanese tourists that frequent Ironbridge every weekend (ok, there were actually about 10) found it most entertaining.
Here are some pictures and the original 3gp video file which is much better quality than the YouTube version above ...
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2 comments:
I think what they were actually doing is an english folk dance, rather than a morris dance.
morris dancing is usually a male occupation danced with handkerchieves, staves and swords. I was only allowed to participate when there were not enough guys around - and I loved it.
i think the dance you show is one we used to call 'Cleavers' - but that might just be a local name. I do know that while I was watching the video I knew what the coming figures were.
We have a fantastic morris group in Perth WA, who dance the "Sun Up" every Midsummer morning.
it is great to see traditional English dancing again... let's hope it is time for a revival - it is just as good as the much acclaimed Scottish dancing, and I think the Flamborough Sword Dance is much more complex than any Scottish Equivalent.
Thanks Michele. Nice to be noticed. A small correction - the Perth Morris Men dance the sun up on the first of May.
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