The first time I performed
the
Morris in Harthill was in 1974 with the (now defunct) Escafeld Morris
men from Sheffield. In that year the recently revived village carnival
was held on the cricket field and Escafield were invited to give a
display. My wife and I had moved to Harthill a couple of years earlier
and, keen to get involved in the village community, I helped to
form the Carnival Society. As well as planning the carnival itself, the
Society also ran a year-round programme of social events including
Edwardian evenings in the style of 'The Good Old Days'.
It was towards the end of one of those very happy evenings when a
slightly swaying gentleman by the name of Dan asked:
"Can tha teach us a couple of morris dances to show at next do?"
"Find me about eight willing men and we'll give it a go," replied I,
thinking that in the sober light of day all would be forgotten.
Days passed without seeing Dan again as we lived at opposite ends of
the village and he did his drinking in the Beehive, whilst I did mine
at the Blue Bell. One day however, there was a 'tap tap' on my
shoulder. It was Dan:
"I've got thi eight men. When shall we start?"
Well b****r me! Would you believe it? What I hadn't realised in
underestimating Dan was that he was part of a group of youngish fellas
from his end of the village who did their weekly bondage (sorry I mean
bonding) in the Beehive snooker room. They had obviously decided that
to put on 'an entertainment' in the form of a spoof Morris would be a
good laugh! Whilst I've never been comfortable with this 'Generation
Game' attitude towards our oldest living tradition, I decided to go
along with it all the same. In any case I had a longer term agenda in
mind; a proper Morris side for the village!
So, in the early Spring of 1976, a group began to meet in the old
church schoolroom on Thursday evenings at around 7.30pm. From memory
there was: Dan Turner, John Gunbby, Brian Shutt, Terry Travis, Dave
Lowe, Russel Parker, Keith Simmonite, Howard Poucher and myself (Derrek
Leigh).
I'd taped a few tunes for us to practice to and Howard was trying to
learn them on his fiddle. I'd decided on four dances to attempt for the
Carnival Society's forthcoming event. These were: 'Lads a Bunchum'
(Adderbury), 'Bean Setting' (Hedington), 'Young Collins' (Bledington)
and 'Shepherd's Hey' (Adderbury). In the event we didn't learn
'Shepherd's Hey' as we were struggling with the others and decided to
stick to three.
For costume we really decided to 'ham it up'; homemade smocks, straw
hats, wellingtons with loose straw spilling out of the tops. Well
no-one was going to take us seriously dressed like that were they? Add
to that the fact that our dance competence was anything but
secure...not to mention Howard's violin playing...was it all a disaster
in the making?
Our
first 'gig' at Harthill Miner's Welfare Institute, Easter 1976.
Left to right: John Gunby, Russ Parker, Dan Turner, Terry Travis, Keith
Simmonite, Derrek Leigh.
Founder members not on photo: Howard Poucher, Brian Shutt, David Lowe.
Actually, no. Just the opposite in fact. Despite us being a bag of
nerves, our show went down a storm and we emerged from the experience
on a 'high' - which was to sow the seeds of things to come.
In the aftermath we decided to keep meeting and practicing and not to
let things drop. We identified Boxing Day as the next time on which to
launch a display on an unsuspecting public!
Throughout all of this I was still very involved with Escafeld Morris
Men and in the late summer I had organised a Saturday day's tour with
guest teams. This culminated in a gathering that evening at Woodhouse,
by the old stocks and cross. Escafeld invited the men from Harthill to
come along. Whilst still very 'green' we were able to join in a few of
the dances with the other sides and also do our own solo spot. The
Harthill men got on particularly well with the Mansfield Morris and the
evening ended with a very enjoyable sing over a few pints in the
George. This was the start of a camaraderie between the two sides,
which was to last until Mansfield's demise some years later.
Above
left:
Outside
the Blue Bell on Boxing Day 1976. Note the surgery in the
background (now replaced with a modern building).
Left
to right: Keith Simmonite, Brian Shutt, Dave Lowe, ?, Terry
Travis, Howard Poucher.
Above
right:
Derrek
Leigh performing 'Lumps Of Plum Pudding', a Bledington jig.
On-looking
admirers are Dave Lowe (left) and Terry Travis.
With the nights pulling in during the Autumn of 1976, we decided to
move our practices from the church schoolroom to the chapel schoolroom,
which was slightly bigger. For music we 'battled on' with a combination
of Howard's fiddle and a tape recorder. Afterwards we retired to the
pubs - some to the Bell, others the Beehive. We started to speculate as
to where all the practice was leading. Some wanted to get more into the
serious side of the Morris whilst others were content for us to remain
as a light-hearted village entertainment.
Outside
the Blue Bell, Boxing Day 1976.
John
Gunby (front left), Derrek Leigh (back left), Terry Travis (front
right), Brian Shutt (back right).
By Christmas we were starting to get to grips with the basics of
stepping, the hand movements and the figures. So we met outside the
Bell on Boxing Day, still in smocks but now with bowler hats decorated
with a yellow ribbon, black knee breeches, black shoes, white stockings
and yellow handkerchieves. At that time the Carnival Society held a
fancy dress pram push round the village which started and ended at the
Bell. It was agreed with the Society that the Morris Men would dance
before the pram push set off. For music we had 'bribed' Graham Moor of
Lord Conyers Morris to come along and play for us. He came with another
musician called Jan and both did us proud in our hour of need. I can't
remember the dances we performed then, but it was probably a repeat of
our first show. I do remember the solo jig I danced however - it was
'Lumps of Plum Pudding' (Bledington) - chosen appropriately by its
title for Boxing Day. Incidentally, Graham has always insisted he never
got his 'ten bob' for playing and he has never let me forget it!
It's worth mentioning here that round this time - 1976 - it was the
Blue Bell that was the focus for many of the Society's activities. It
held its meetings there in a side room (now knocked through into an
enlarged tap room) and was well supported by landlady Lily Froggatt and
her family. A couple of years earlier the Society had embarked on a
series of fund-raising activities in order to pay for the summer
carnival events. One was the Boxing Day pram push when Lil would come
out with a warming stirrup cup. This was a silver bowl of punch, which
was distributed to the participants and audience alike. It was
certainly good stuff!
Another fund raiser was the revival of 'T'owd Tup'. This was originally
a traditional Christmas custom of the mining community in Harthill, but
was last done in the village in the early 1950's. It was revived in
1974 by a group of Carnival Society members who toured the Tup round
the area's hostelries. For a couple of years the Tup concluded its
perambulations at the Bell on Christmas Eve with performances in the
crowded tap room, lounge and finally the 'snug' which was the society's
H.Q.
We sang a few carols which included three I had introduced from the
local Sheffield collection. These were 'Sweet Chiming Bells',
'Christmas Tree' and 'We Singers Make Bold'. This last carol was also
printed on the Society's song sheets for the torchlight carol
processions which walked through the village - usually led by members
of the Killamarsh silver band. You will read later how the Harthill
Morris eventually became involved with the local carols.
When Lil Froggatt retired from the Blue Bell and a new landlord took
over, the morris men who used to drink there started to join the others
at the Beehive after practices, where Rex & Betty Allsop were mine
hosts. This has remained the 'home' of Harthill Morris ever since, even
though there has been several changes of licensees in both pubs over
this time. In 'our' room at the Beehive you can see a collection of our
famous (and infamous) photographs hung next to the bar.
Early in the new year of 1977, the mood of the side was generally
changing towards that of wanting to learn more about the Morris and its
customs. Unfortunately one or two didn't like idea and had 'dropped
out'. On the other hand I was still heavily committed to Escafeld
Morris, the club that had given me so many magical morris moments. I
could foresee a time when I would have to choose between the two I
clearly hoped the Harthill men would 'grasp the nettle' and develop the
tradition in the village seriously and properly.
We had fresh impetus when 'new' men including Neil Fretwell and Ian
Vernon joined us. This meant that membership was no longer 100%
Harthill men, but the club became much stronger as a result. A
particular boost at that time was when Pat Johnson, an accordian
musician from Wales came to join us. I won't try to recall the names of
all the men who started to come along at around this time for
fear of leaving someone out and thus causing offence.
Our next 'gig' was to be the All Hallows church fete. This was to be
the last one in the grounds of the old rectory before the church
commissioners sold it off. The rector at the time was Canon 'Charlie'
Richardson who was always a source of encouragement to us in our early
escapades. We had decided on a proper costume by this time and had
'ditched' the smocks. We had agreed on bowler hats for head ware and
had put out an appeal for these. We had an excellent response from
villagers who searched their 'top shelves' and produced the goods. In
many cases these donations of bowlers were a legacy from pre-second
world war times when they were worn for Sunday best. They must have had
smaller heads then, because unfortunately many didn't fit our men! They
came in useful a few years later when a short-lived boys side was
formed. (They'll be in their thirties now, many with kids of their own
- oh dear!).
I still have my donated bowler, which originally belonged to Major
Wall. We wore our new costumes for the first time when we danced on the
rectory lawn - except the bell pads hadn't been made by then and the
tabard hadn't been printed with our new motif. The costume worn by us
today is virtually the same as that first worn in 1977, except that the
original motif by Ray Atkin was replaced later with a design by Pete
Furnell. This in turn has recently been amended slightly.
All Hallows Queen's Silver Jubilee garden
fete, 1977. Held in the grounds of the old rectory (now privately
owned).
Left to right: Dan Turner,
Brian Shutt, Derrek Leigh, John Gunby. N.B. Our costume was still
unfinished - no logos on the tabards and no bell pads.
Some will recall that 1977 was the year of the Queen's silver jubilee
and Don Conacher went around filming aspects of Harthill village life.
One clip shows us dancing in our incomplete attire on the old rectory
lawns. Our hair was darker and longer then!
During the summer of 1977, we ventured out of our practice room at the
chapel on about three occasions to perform outside a couple of pubs
each night. I think we also went to a primary school fete at Thorpe
Salvin. Our repertoire was still very small, but confidence was growing
and by then we had a complete costume. The 'buzz' was evident. In the
autumn we held our first A.G.M. and officers were elected. I became the
club's first squire. Harthill Morris was official.
We had agreed that we would make a big effort to develop the Morris by
improving our standards of dance, by learning some of the songs often
sung at Morris gatherings and to try to recruit additional members. We
also had a longer term aim of applying for membership of the Morris
Ring.
By Christmas 1977, the club's momentum was gathering. Pressure of work
and other commitments meant that, sadly, I would soon be leaving my
friends in the Escafeld side. By this time however, I could see that my
future in the Morris was in the yellow and black of Harthill.
After the final Thursday practice of the year, I held a squire's party
at our house and we emptied a nine gallon firkin of Tetley's bitter,
supplied by Rex, the landlord at the Beehive. A few of our non-Morris
friends from the pub joined us including the local G.P. Derek
Mcloughlin. He was also leader of the local choral society. I got him
on the piano and together we attempted to 'feel our way' into one or
two of the local carols which some of us had already sung elsewhere in
the village in previous years. This led Derek to take on the task of
informally teaching the local carols at the Beehive. Though not
exclusively part of the Harthill Morris, our members have given strong
support to the singing over the years. This now appears to have grown
into a custom in its own right.
I hope this account summarises how the Harthill Morris came to be and I
trust it recalls the first 20 months or so reasonably accurately.
Future accounts (from 1978 onwards) could well include; our early
feasts, joining the Morris Ring, the Royal visits and much more. I look
forward to someone else writing them!
Wassail
Derrek Leigh (May 2005)
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