At The Barrier pays tribute to York’s Ebor Morris Men who celebrated their Golden Jubilee on Wednesday 1st May 2024.
It was an auspicious moment. At precisely 7:30PM on Wednesday 1st May, 2024, York’s Ebor Morris Men marched (well, sort of; ‘shambled’ may be a more accurate description) onto the tarmac car park of The Lord Collingwood Inn, Upper Poppleton, North Yorkshire to begin their evening’s performance. Auspicious? Yes, that’s the right word, because 50 years earlier, to the day – nay – to the minute, this same Ebor Morris had marched onto this very same car park, nestled between the venerable Inn and the even more venerable All Saints’ Church, to give its debut performance. This was a Golden Jubilee celebration!
Throughout their 50 years of existence, Ebor Morris Men have stuck to their basic principles. Predominantly, they perform Cotswold Morris dances, with a couple of romps from the Staffordshire City of Lichfield thrown in for good measure. But perhaps the highlight of most Ebor appearances is the side’s definitive version of the Escrick Longsword Dance, a dance that originated just down the A19 from York in the village of Escrick and which was passed on to the team back in 1978 by Bert Young, an Escrick native, born in 1899 who had performed the dance during his schooldays and who was present in the village when the folklorist Cecil Sharp visited and witnessed the dance.
Ebor Morris Men have a particular rule regarding membership: Once you’ve joined, you can never leave. Relocation, parenthood, injury, retirement – even death – aren’t accepted as excuses. Once you’re in, you’re in – and that’s that. It’s like Hotel California, but with bells, hankies and sticks.
And so it was that a host of members, current and lapsed, active and inactive, musical and tone deaf, assembled in Poppleton this week to celebrate this magnificent milestone.
York is, in many ways, the perfect city to sustain an enduring morris side. Throughout the life of the Ebor team, the local university has provided an ongoing influx of members, many of whom take their newly-acquired morris skills with them when they leave the city to join or start a team in their next place of residence. Furthermore, York’s vibrant folk scene continues to offer a fertile source of morris wannabes; indeed, the first seeds of Ebor Morris Men were planted in the late, lamented Bay Horse Folk Club, just outside the city centre. And, of course, there are the members of the local public who’ve had their interest piqued after seeing the Ebor men perform on summer Saturdays in the city’s squares or, even more typically, outside one or other of the area’s splendid hostelries. Unlike many other Morris sides, Ebor have seldom struggled to fill their ranks, and the current core membership comprises some 20 dancers, ranging in age between 23 and 80.
It’s one of those older dancers who can justifiably claim to be the team’s mainstay; its fulcrum. John Lundie was there on Day 1 and he still regularly turns out with the side, albeit now in the role of musician (he plays melodeon) rather than in the No.1 position in the team’s sets that he occupied with huge distinction for so many years. On 1st May, John was joined by two other of the team’s founder members, Steve Fuller (who has, since his departure from York, been the driving force behind Grimsby Morris Men) and Tim Binns – who has performed a similarly inspiring role with the Wath-upon-Dearne Morris side.
Such is the attraction of the Ebor scene, that a surprisingly high proportion of the regular dancers have put in unstinting service for over 40 of the group’s 50-year existence. Names like John Harper, Dave Mooring, Pete Moore, Paul Sanderson, Kevin ‘Pikey’ Holland and Pete Halkon were on the roster when I joined the side back in 1984, and they’re all still at it today. Even ‘Johnny-come-lately’ whippersnappers like Tony Fenech, Gareth Coles and Pete Walker can boast forty years of unbroken service apiece; serial killers get shorter sentences. If, like in sport, caps were awarded for each appearance, these guys would long ago have been driven from their homes by the accumulation of ill-fitting headgear.
I’d long been considering joining a Morris side when I stumbled upon the aforementioned Messrs. Lundie and Mooring in a York pub one Saturday evening in 1984. After I expressed my interest, my recruitment interview consisted of two questions: “Do you drink?” and “Do you like curry?” Affirmative answers to both questions secured my membership and I was up and running – although I later realised that negative answers would have produced the same result as expert coaching in both skills was readily available. Aptitude and musical ability were, apparently, distant secondary concerns. It was an encounter that changed my life. As well as learning to Morris dance, I gained a deep understanding of our cultural heritage, I was enticed to pick up and learn to play melodeon and, most importantly, I acquired so many solid friendships that will last my lifetime.
The Adventures of The Ebor Morris Men over the past 50 years is a story that would take up far more space than I have available here but, for a taster, highlights include:
- Numerous television and radio appearances;
- Glorious weekends away at dance events in Alford (Lincolnshire), Lumley Fee (Cumbria), Seahouses (Northumberland), Blackheath and many other places;
- Unsociable activities – disrupting a Society of Engineers’ dinner in York’s Royal Station Hotel and abetting the destruction of an antique chandelier on the North York Moors are two of the more memorable examples;
- An annual cricket tournament v Grimsby Morris Men during which, win or lose, the Ebor team will have polished off the barrel of beer that was the match prize, whilst the match was still underway;
- Allowing a fellow camper’s dog to mop up the leftover remnants of a ceremonial curry, then facing the displeasure of the dog’s owners as it enjoyed the inevitable intestinal effects;
- Impromptu music sessions in pubs, halls and public spaces – including street corners, railway stations and on every conceivable form of public transport. A personal favourite was when the commuters on the 1715 train from Liverpool Street to Chingford joined in with the Trumpton theme;
- The Ptomanian Hornpipe, in which John Harper was hoisted upside down to tap dance on the ceiling of whichever establishment was hosting our revelry. Lots of pubs up and down the country still bear the scars…
And, perhaps most memorably:
- Participation in the Bundesvolkstanztreffen International Folk Dance Festival in Münster, Germany, in July 1990 – a truly wonderful event.
Oh – and whilst we’re talking about highlights, there has of course been the dancing – slotted in amongst all those grain, hops and spice-inspired high jinks…
But those examples merely scrape the surface and, in truth, don’t get anywhere close to describing the fun, the exhilaration and the lasting pride to be gained from joining the morris movement and, dare I say it, from being an Ebor Morris Man.
My own interest in the Morris was sparked when I heard Morris On, an album curated in 1971 by ex-Fairport Convention bassist Ashley Hutchings that collected several of the best-known Morris dance tunes and placed them in a folk-rock setting. Morris On was the first of a string of albums that exposed the music of the Morris to a wider and new audience around that time – others include John Kirpatrick’s Plain Capers, The Albion Country Band’s Battle of the Field and Hutchings’ sequels – Son of Morris On, the Compleat Dancing Master and Rattlebone And Ploughjack, not to mention his later offerings such as Grandson of Morris On (2002), Great Grandson of Morris On (2004) and The Mother of All Morris (2007). All are well worth a listen and, who knows, they might stimulate the same interest in you that they did in me all those years ago.
Ebor Morris continued their Golden Jubilee celebrations with a trip to Seahouses, Northumberland on 10-12 May, where they will be performing in and around that delightful coastal village and, if you’re planning to be in York on Saturday 15th June, you’re certain to come across a Morris dance, as Ebor and several guest teams will be participating in Ebor’s Day of Dance, a Morris dance spectacular with performances throughout the day around the city centre. Why not pop along to have a look? And, despite what I’ve said about Ebor Morris Men being comfortably off for members, new dancers are always welcome – even if they’ve never tried Morris dancing before. If you’re interested, visit Ebor’s website (see below).
Get into the Morris Mood! Watch Ebor Morris Men perform their dance, Boys of the Bunch, in King’s Square, York, here:
Ebor Morris Men online: Official website / Facebook / YouTube
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