The History of Morris Dancing around Kingston-upon-Thames from 1502 to the present
There is a story to be told here, of the rise, fall and rise again of morris dancing. The rise supported first by royal patronage, then as time went by, the wealthy church, prosperous merchant guilds and then the towns and villages. There was decline through the protestant reformation and rise again in the 20th century. The sources quoted cover the old Parish of Kingston upon Thames included Hook, Kew, New Malden, Petersham, Richmond (and therefore also Twickenham) and Surbiton. It's worth noting that Morris was not danced continuously in Kingston from 1502 to the present day, and that what few references there are before the 20th century give little evidence but are worthy of mention.
The eariest reference is in John Leland's Colletanea[a] who notes the inclusion of morris dancing in the celebration at Richmond during the proxy marriage of Princess Margaret and James IV King of Scotland on 25 January 1502.
The Account Books of John Heron[b] shows money paid for morris dancing there is a payment on 4 February 1502 to "one Lewes for a mores daunce" that probabaly refers to the Pageant.
The Churchwardens Records of Kingston Parish Church mention Morris in entries from 1507 until 1538 when the records are discontinued [1]. Robin Aitken of Spring Grove Morris Men's excellent investigation is [here].
Hall's Chronicle[2] of 1548 - page 517 describes an entertainment that includes a morris dance.
Morris dancers are depicted in a painting from around 1620 described as
"View of Richmond Palace, with some of the buildings towards Petersham. With Morris dancers" [3].
John Ashton's Social Life in Queen Anne's Reign recorded in Epsom in 1702
A Lac'd Hat or lace-edged hat would have been a hat edged with a brocade or metal lace trim, and could be silk, cotton, silver or gold; a technique call passementerie.
One further 18th century reference is in a commentary on a play The Sad Shepherd by Ben Jonson written by FG Waldron in 1783 [4], that refers to a comment on the nature and use of a bladder on a stick by a fool in the play (page 255 - Additions and Corrections).
Back now to Kingston and its most loved mayor Dr Finny who researched the medieval fairs [5]. He recorded two old Kingstonians who remembered the Pleasure fair (the old Whitsun fair) before it was “abolished as a nuisance” in 1889 [6] . This evidence is thought to refer to around 1870-80 and the "traditional" "jerky dances which the people called 'gigs'" are Morris dances.
Although not Morris Dancing, it is worth noting the last appearance of this indigenous culture when the Jack-in-the-Green makes an appearance in Richmond in 1893 as reported by a letter to The Times:
The plans for the Millenary celebration of the coronation of Edward I in May 1902 included Morris and Maypole Dancing. With the indigenous dancing no longer practiced Mrs Peter Davey visited Knutsford and transplanted their Royal May Day traditions of procession, May Queen, Morris and Maypole Dancing, though the Surrey Comet reports what befell that day,
The dancing never took place and Kingston had to wait another 9 years before Dr Finny took the opportunity of George V's coronation to organise the 1911 Coronation Pageant at which Morris Dancing was revived.
Text at the bottom of Kingston Museum's iconic copy of the Betley Window [8] that reads as follows
The research on the Betley window by the late John Price of St Alban's Morris Men [website].
Though not in Kingston, it is interesting to note that between 1900 and The Great War only two Morris sides are recorded as having been founded. Thaxted Morris Men [website] started in 1911 and danced at their local coronation celebration, and Cambridge Morris Men [website] also started in 1911.
Children continued to be taught Morris Dancing, and during the first National Health Week there was a performance at the Royal County Theatre on Saturday 4th May 1912 with St John's Girls' School and Miss Collins pupils' performing two sets of morris dances and a set of maypole dances [11].
Other Morris activity has been noted, for example from the Oxford University Morris Men's history [website].
Morris stayed as part of the Oxford University Dance Society until 1926 when the Morris separated off to form OUMM. It is by no means certain that a revival of Morris Dancing meant a side of adults dancing. At the Coronation Pageant in Sheffield 1500 children from local schools danced a programme of morris, maypole and country dances in Bramall Lane football ground - the home of Sheffield United FC.A picture that has recently come to light is print from a Magic Lantern slide labeled "Maypole Procession at Kingston-upon-Thames". This is probably from the 1911 Coronation Pageant in Home Park (Hampton Court Park).
In the foreground is a May Queen dressed in white in a white four wheel trap pulled by 10 costumed people and preceded by at least one more person in costume.
In the mid-ground is a four foot high, 50 foot wide stage with a 20 high maypole erected in the middle and two people holding ribbons.
In the background a crowd of perhaps 200 people and a seven foot high, six foot wide stage behind the crowd, on which there is a man and what might be a camera.
Roy Judge looked at Morris from 1800-1880[9]. He found that the title of Morris was given to a number of dance activities and that young girls may-pole dancing had been described as "may-pole and Morris dancing".
It would be nice if I could also find evidence of what we know as Morris, but at least this picture supports the evidence that maypole dancing was taking place in Kingston in the early 1900s. From this point on the Morris revival takes hold in Surrey with independent Morris sides starting up around Kingston. In 1926 East Surrey Morris Men, started 7 miles south-east of Kingston in Sutton, and in the same year Greensleeves Morris Men was founded in Camden Town. Read the story of how East Surrey started [website]. More significantly to Morris in Kingston is The Curfew Morris that was based 10 miles west of Kingston in Chertsey (named after Chertsey's Curfew Bell). It isn't clear when the side was founded but they were sufficiently competent to dance into the Morris Ring at their 14th meeting in Stow-on the-Wold 17th September 1938. It is likely that The Curfew Morris danced in Kingston though there is no evidence of where they performed. There is no information about The Curfew Morris after September 1938 except that Thames Valley Morris Men (TVMM) note that "Curfew Morris last danced in the 1930s."
In the same year that Curfew danced into the Ring, in Kingston the 15th June 1938 Civic Festival included Maypole and other Dancing with Tableaux. The programme has the following:
A dance known only as a Morris Dance; other schools performed country dances.
Many sides suspended their activities at the end of the 1930s due to the Second World War and were then unable to restart once the war was over. East Surrey re-started in 1948 and the log book of Greensleeves has this towards the end of 1940:
Greensleeves did continue though it was six years before they met as a side again, read their side's history [website].
and on 21st September 1957 they hosted the 61st meeting of the Morris Ring in Kingston.
For more information there is the 1957 Ring Meeting's hand-out, and the Morris Ring's report of the Kingston Ring Meeting. The log book of the first 25 years of TVMM with more details about their origins is [website], and a brief summary of their Kingston appearances is here.
Sometime around 1953/4[12] Tony Pegram established Heston Boys Morris at Heston Secondary Modern School. Though a boys side, they danced with the local men's clubs, and along with other events danced at the Albert Hall in 1960, attended the Ring Meeting at Thaxted in June 1966, toured Rye at Whitsun 1970 and were considered one of the best sides in the country. From Heston Boys, Heston Morris Men was set-up in 1977, dancing until 1980, and individuals continued to attend Spring Grove's annual Day of Dance for many years after they stopped dancing as a side. Read more about Heston Morris and Tony Pegram here.
Between 1956 and 1958 Mr Rowbotham set up a morris side in Fortescue House School for Boys in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, and in 1959 Thames Valley MM danced at the school where John Glaister, founder member of Thames Valley MM, worked; TVMM's log book records "where John Glaister teaches the boys morris and sword". The Fighting Cocks Rapper, a mixed gender side, was established at the Fighting Cocks pub in Kingston in the early 1970s, and continued to dance into the 1980s. In the mid to late 1970s Greensleeves moved from North London to Wimbledon 4 miles east of Kingston. ![]() Two years later in 1979 TVMM also helped start Ewell St Mary's Morris Men 6 miles south of Kingston in Ewell Village, and in the mid 80s a side that started as an "antidote to morris dancing", the John Pell Morris Men, had a brief if very entertaining 5 year history.
References:
[a] Leland, Collectanea, iv. 263. Joannis Lelandi Antiquarii De Rebus Britannicis Collectanea [b] Account Books of John Heron, Treasurer of the Chamber [c] John Ashton, Social Life in Queen Anne's Reign, Volume I, 1882, p324
[1] Original manuscript of the Churchwardens' Accounts for Kingston Parish Church, held by Kingston Local History Room and Archives that covers the latter part of the reign of King Henry VII and the greater part of the reign of King Henry VIII, up to the Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries when the Accounts cease. We would also like to acknowledge the help obtained from transcripts of the original manuscripts that were typed out in May 1931 by Miss D.L. Powell who was a local archivist and historian.
[2] Hall's Chronicle: containing the history of England, during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and the succeeding monarchs, to the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are particularly described the manners and customs of those periods.
[3] Vinkenboom. [View of Richmond Palace, with some of the buildings towards Petersham. With Morris dancers.]
Vinkenboom Pinx. Godfrey Sculp. Dedicated to Viscountess Fitz-Williams, who owned the painting from which the print was engraved. Published by S. Hooper, 1774.
Beneath the dedication are three lines describing the ownership and the whereabouts of the painting and continues: 'It was painted by Vinkenboom & most probably done in the beginning of the Reign of Charles the 1st., the Dresses of the figures point to this … … The state of the Buildings, the Dresses of the Morice Dancers, The Coach the Boats &c are portraits curious as matter of Antiquity.
At the centre is a ferry crossing, now the position of the bridge.
Well coloured at a later date.
The painting is now at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, named after the founder, Viscount Fitzwilliam of Meryon. The spelling of the Fitz-Williams in the tile of the print is probably a mistake, and she was married to the founder. [4] The Sad Shepherd: or, A Tale of Robin Hood, a fragment, written by Ben Jonson. with A Continuation, Notes and an Appendix by Francis Godolphin Waldron. London, Printed for J. Nichols, Red-Lion Passage, Fleet Street, and sold by C. Dilly, in the Poultry. 1783.
[5] Finny, W.E.St.L, 'Mediaeval Games and Gaderyngs at Kingston-upon-Thames', in Surrey Archaeological Collections, Vol 44, pp 102-136 (1936)
[6] 'Kingston-upon-Thames: Introduction and borough', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 487-501.
[7] Letter to the Times 6 May 1930
[8] Colonist, Volume XLV, Issue 10437, 17 June 1902, Page 4, a New Zealand news paper [9] Kingston's copy of the Betley Window is installed at Kingston Museum, 2 Fairfield West Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 2NP
[10] "The Old English Morris Dance": Theatrical Morris 1801-1880 by Roy Judge; Folk Music Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3(1997), pp. 311-350
[11] Royal County Theatre poster "National Health Week - 30 March 1912" held at Kingston Museum
[12] EFDSS 1960 New Year Festival included in the Saturday matinee "Morris Dances by Heston Boys" |