The continuing tradition of Morris Dancing in Abingdon is very old. There are four 'Cotswold Morris' traditions able to claim a continuing history of dance, passed on by word of mouth, since before the folk dance and song revivals of the last century. Arguably, ours is the oldest of those surviving - in 1560, the accounts of Abingdon's parish church stated: For two dossin of Morres belles 1s. For two dozen (24) Morris bells, one shilling (5 pence: about US$0.08 at 2008 prices!). Some individuals have suggested that the form of Morris Dancing referred to in the 1560 record had little to do with the Morris Dance as we now know it. Probably no one will ever fully understand the process by which the upper-class morris dancing fashion, which seems to have made its way up the Thames Valley in the early sixteenth century, metamorphosed into a vigorous vernacular culture. What is more certain is that records of morris dancing associated with Abingdon exist from the eighteenth century, and that there were strong oral traditions reported in the first half of the nineteenth century suggesting that the dancing had existed before 1700. Our Morris doesn't live in isolation as just a set of dances. Morris dancing survives in Abingdon as part of a unique group of interrelated customs involving the Election of the Mayor of Ock Street. On the Saturday nearest the nineteenth of June, people who live or work in Ock Street exercise their right to freely elect their own Mayor. The current Mayor, Roger Cox, and his family are closely connected with Ock Street. Charles Cox, a carpenter, was Mayor of Ock street in 1894. There are many records of dancing in the nineteenth century, and despite short lapses in performance, our Morris survived most of the upheavals of the twentieth century, and continues into what is possibly its sixth century. The physical artefacts associated with our Morris are also significant. The Ock Street Horns are reputedly the horns of an ox roasted in the town in 1700 which were won in combat with the men of The Vineyard, the opposite end of town. The Horns are carried on a carved wooden mask which is certainly of some antiquity, and we never perform without them. Alongside the Horns, we have The Mace, a turned apple-wood chalice with silver decoration, said to have been made from a club used in the fight. This is carried by the Mayor of Ock Street as one of his symbols of office, along with a sword. Demonstrating that Morris is a living tradition in Abingdon, the Morris side has added two new dances to its repertoire in recent years (bringing it up to 15 dances - click here for the full list ). The first acknowledges the 450th anniversary of Abingdon's charter in 1556. Called Queen Mary's Favour, this is a circle dance to the tune of "Country Garden". More recently, a reinvention of a lost dance mentioned in the local press in the nineteenth century, "How d'ye do Sir" was devised by the side to honour the 80th birthday of Leslie Argyle, an ex Mayor of Ock Street. It was performed on his birthday outside Trinity Church. The pictures show a moment during the first performance of the dance, and the side lining up to congratulate Les afterwards (Chris Gale, the hornbearer for the occasion, has been told how slack he looked).
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