Morris and Folk Music

I am a member of no less than three Morris sides - in descending order of date of joining and of level of my involvement -

Ilmington Morris Men

The Traditional Ilmington Morris Men reformed in the village of Ilmington over twenty years ago. I have been with them since 1990 and used to run their Web Page.

Faithful City Morris Men

The Worcester side, which I joined when I moved to Kidderminster in 1973. They meet at 'The Talbot' at Knightwick (just off the A44 some seven miles west of Worcester) on Wednesdays and dance Cotswold (including Ilmington) and Worcestershire (Welsh Border) dances, some Lichfield, and North-Eastern Rapper Sword.

They are easily recognised in Black top hats and breeches, and a blue tabard bearing on the front three black pears (cries of "Oh! What a lovely pear") and a tree and river badge of Worcester on the back.

There is a web page for them, wherein you may even find a reference to yours truly.

Thames Valley Morris Men

Thames Valley are based at Claygate, near Kingston in Surrey. I joined them in 1971 when I lived in Ruislip, and they are the sort of club that you can never leave! I still dance with them most August Bank Holiday weekends on their regular Cotswold tour, based on the 'King's Head' at Withington. Martin Kiff has set up a very comprehensive set of web pages for TVMM.

Other Morris sides

I actually started Morris with 'The University Morris Men in London', a student side in London University who practised at Imperial College on Saturday mornings between 1962 and 1964, started by Hugh Rippon and a Hammersmith man named Roger Dellor. I then danced (and learned to play) with Hammersmith Morris Men from 1964 to about 1970 - the John Kirkpatrick/Hugh Rippon years of Hammersmith.

I also have known for a long time both the Taunton Dene men and Trigg Morris men (at Bodmin).

Music

I play Anglo Concertina for the Morris and in a small occasional Ceilidh Band called 'Ragtime Annie' run by my wife, Ann, who plays Piano Accordion, clarinet, and English Concertina. I now use a couple of modern Colin Dipper Anglos tuned in C/G and G/D for both the band and for Morris. I also sometimes get out a large Wheatstone baritone single-action English Concertina. Ann uses two 48-key Wheatstones, one an eight-sided Aeola model and one a metal-ended six-sided instument, a 72-base piano accordion and a modern French C clarinet.

I also have, but cannot play, a Lachenal McCann Duet 61-key Concertina, tuned (and this is the strange bit) in B flat (ie. a tone lower than a normal Duet). It carries the number 2000 in a small metal inlay, so was probably a show instrument somewhere. I tried to sell this, once, and left it the concertina shop in Oundle, Northants for about three years, but no joy. If anybody is interested ...

We now are members of the International Concertina Association and play Concertina band music at the meetings on the first Saturday afternoon of each month at the Newhampton Inn in Wolverhampton, and also at some other Concertina Band meetings. In the earlier years of the last century there were many concertina bands, mostly in the North, who largely played the Brass Band repertoire on a range of Concertinas from Sopranino to enormous Contrabass.

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Last Updated 31st July 2007.