Like thousands of other people I decided that I would go to hear the May being greeted at Magdalen Tower at 6am on May 1st.
Afterwards, in Radcliff Square, Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris were performing.
This coming Saturday will be Mr Hemmings Day of Dance when 6 invited sides will join with the Mr Hemmings side in dancing at various venues, in Abingdon, starting at the Market Place. Approximate Schedule:
11am : Market Place
11:30 : Black Swan
12:00 : Punchbowl
1:45: Market Place
2:30pm : Brewery Tap
3:15pm : White Horse
4pm : British Legion
Morris Dancing is first recorded in Abingdon in 1560. A record in St Helens Church has the chamberlain buying “two dossin of Morres belles“.
This is my rather shaky video of the singing at Magdalen Tower. There were barriers preventing people jumping off the bridge. One freelance photographer bemoaned to me the lack of photo opportunities these days.
Morris dancers, the ‘Horns of Plenty’ brass band, a Samba group, Scottish country dances, the ‘Green Band’ and a man dressed as a tree – just how many photo opportunities does your ‘freelance photographer’ want?!
Thankyou, Backstreeter.
Mister Hemmings Day of Dance this Saturday (7th May) starts at 11am on the Market Place.
Approximate Schedule:
11am : Market Place
11:30 : Black Swan
12:00 : Punchbowl
1:45: Market Place
2:30pm : Brewery Tap
3:15pm : White Horse
4pm : British Legion
Visiting Sides:
Adderbury
Asnah
Summertown
I thought that in 1978 Mr. Hemmings’ dancers broke away from the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers and that the 1560 reference to the council buying “two dossin of Morres belles“ was for them.
In the middle of this page
https://www.abingdonblog.co.uk/?paged=3
Duncan Drummond is holding the ‘Ock Street Horns’, dated 1700, and which apparently celebrate a local misunderstanding in that year.