Border Morris

Border Morris is a collection of individual local dances from villages along the English side of the Wales–England border in the counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. They are part of the Morris dance tradition.

This was a village dance done in winter for fun and a bit of money. It usually includes three to twelve dancers.

Some of the earliest accounts of a border morris tradition are provided by E.C. Cawte. There is reference to questions about "any disguised persons, as morice dancers, maskers, or mum'ers" to St. Mary's Parish Church in Shrewsbury in 1584 and an amazing account of morris dancers at Hereford races in 1609, describing "two musicians, four whifflers, and twelve dancers, including hobby horse and maid marian, all aged from 96 to 120, with an average age of 103", all from villages within 14 miles of Hereford. The account claimed, "Hereford-shire for a morris-daunce puts downe, not onely all Kent, but verie neare (if one had line enough to measure it) three quarters of Christendome".

Cawte quotes further accounts describing complaints to the local magistrates about disruptive morris dancers in Longdon, disrupting the Sabbath day from 1614 to 1617 and another account of dancers in Much Wenlock in 1652, causing a disturbance in an ale house at Nordley. Later records from Shrewsbury mention payment to the "Bedlam Morris" in 1688 and 1689.

The dance depends on the numbers available, as at Brimfield. The dances collected from a particular place sometimes differ quite markedly between informants, as at White Ladies Aston, reflecting the flexibility from year to year. Sometimes a gang would only have one dance, sometimes two, or as at Malvern and Pershore an indeterminate set of figures.

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