Last Updated 3rd March 2001
[p249 - Souvenir brochure Bedford Ring Meeting]
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The 80th meeting of the Morris Ring was held at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, Bedford, from Friday the 8th September to Sunday 10th September, 1961, at the invitation of the Bedford Morris Men, whose second Ring Meeting it was. The 135 men attending the meeting ate and slept at Lanchester Hall in the College; the individual study bedrooms and the catering being of the highest standard.
Men came from these clubs: - Bedford, Burton, Colchester, East Suffolk, East Surrey, Greensleeves, Headington Quarry, Ipswich, Jockey, King’s College, Letchwoth, Longstraw, Monkseaton, Newcastle, Northampton, North Downs, Offley, Rumford, St. Albans, Standon, Thaxted, Uttoxeter, Westminster, Whitchurch; (25 clubs) finding their way by R.A.C. signs showing "BEDFORD MORRIS RING."
Dancers that came in the early evening sat down in the Dining Hall to a fine dinner before going to a film show in the Lanchester Lounge. The Bedford club had provided a number of films from which choice could be made; and with a little calling out and arguing the audience settled for the film on Bampton (silent, but the watching men dubbed it with the necessary
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music;) then Royal Earsdon; the High Spen; and finally the Beaux film of "Morris Monday." This show was greatly enjoyed, even by those late-comers who clanged and stumbled their way over the metal floor ash-trays to provide more entertainment for the viewers.
Following this show the men walked or drove some distance in the small township that is the College, to the Social Hall of Mitchell Hall; where Ale could be brought until 11 p.m., and dancing went on till a little later then that. The Jockey Men danced the Ilmington, Old Woman Tossed Up; and all the men Bledington Trunkles, Sherborne Cuckoo’s Nest, Orange in Bloom, Queens Delight, Laudnum Bunches, Swaggering Boney, Dearest Dicky, Brighton Camp, and some others. The big majority of the men had changed into Morris attire, for this Ale, which showed some fine dancing.
Saturday provided the sunshine and the Bedford Men the well chosen sites, to make this days dancing as full and satisfying as any Morris Man, new to Ring meetings or well seasoned could wish. The day began by the usual drifting in of men to breakfast, inevitable when the programme says "Breakfast 8.00-9.00 a.m."; - but the
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last drifter came at 9.15. He had his breakfast and it is recorded that at this meal, as at all others the catering Manager’s staff of young waitresses were deft, swift, and equal to the occasions, including a dropped plate and the fresh approach of some Morris men.
In the entrance lobby the Bedford Squire gave final instructions to his tour leaders; the tours assembled before Lanchester Hall; and the programme carrying the words "Practice Period" in deference to a recent Squirearchical encyclical, most tours settled to it at once, on the grass and tarmac, so that the mixed sides departed in some confidence. The tours taken as in the programme inserted here, were timed to bring men into Bedford from 2.30 p.m. onwards; so that dancing could be seen in three places before the show began on Castle Mound at 3.15 p.m. By careful planning the eight tours, moving on and off the Mound, kept dancing going there until 5 p.m. This Mound display must be one of the Memorable Sights of the Ring’s history. The large almost circular space enclosed by a wall of green foliage, and the sun beating in, had a large crowd to watch the men; this summer-clad crowd,
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mostly seated on the turf, watched the moving colour of the Morris, the dances done being: - Colchester, Trunkles Bledington and Ring o’ Bells; St Albans, Rose Tree and Constant Billy Adderbury; Jockey, Banks of the Dee, and Ilmington Cuckoo’s Nest, North Skelton sword; Northampton, Beaux of London City; Uttoxeter, Lads a’ Bunchum; Rumford, Glorishears; Greensleeves, Swaggering Boney, and Newcastle, Swaggering Boney; Burton-on-Trent, Fieldtown Leapfrog; Bedford, Young Collins Bledington, and Cuckoo’s Nest Sherborne; North Downs Black Joke Adderbury; Offley, William and Nancy; the men dancing altogether, Getting Upstairs, Bobbing Joe, Jockey, Brighton Camp, and How D’You Do Sir? – the great show finishing with Bonny Green Garters.
Each tour having one or two sites to dance at on their way back to Cranfield, careful planning, again, ensured that these were almost all at inns; which was good for Morris men and Maltsters, undoubtedly, but not so good for the Bag; some men feeling, possibly, that the main effort of the day had been made already in Getting Upstairs to the Castle Mound. Tour 3, however had to go to the Wavendon Fete and Gymkhana, where it performed some-
[254 - Bedford Ring Meeting feast menu interleaved]
what sandwiched between the attractions of steamroller - haywain rides, and greyhound racing with a sack hare and genuine bookies. Both Tours 3 and 4 thought highly of the Bedford men’s publicity methods at the sight of a number of A.A. signs "To The Show" – but these, it was discovered, referred to the Tetley Tea Bag Sports Festival. Tour 4, at the Newport Pagnell Dolphin, by chance met Leonard Bardwell, former member of both Greensleeves and East Surrey; and he at 75 years of age, expressed his delight at seeing his old clubs by dancing "None So Pretty."
The feast at 7.30 in Lanchester Hall, had as its guests the Mayor of Bedford, Alderman H. Randall, the Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr. Palmer, and the Caterer of the College. The Bagman read the Morris Grace, and the men ate the magnificent meal whose foreign description is in the Menu card attached here. At 8.50 came the Loyal Toast; at 8.52 a spoken toast to Cecil Sharp, and the men could smoke. At 9 p.m. Donald Cassels proposed the health of the Ring; wondering what use was the Ring anyway, and if Bedford could not have run this meeting entirely independently of the Ring; it was worthwhile pursuing this thought
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occasionally. He did not think that they could have run it so; the need for an address list alone showed that. The Ring served clubs in greater things then that, however; whilst clubs would decide for themselves exactly how they would do dances, how to dress, what function to have, the Ring could give informed opinion to help in preserving traditions; and the recent Squire’s circular was an instance of the whole body of the Morris helping its unit parts – the Morris clubs. He then cast his mind back to when he knew the Squire as something of a infant Morris prodigy in Herts.; and thanked him, for all the men, for the work he did and for the way he ran the Morris displays. The health was drunk; and Nibs rose to say thank you for the men’s appreciation.
Fred Hamer then proposed the Borough and County of Bedford. These had been of great service to the Ring, both in 1950 and now; the Bedford Men wore the Borough Arms, had been given the use of the town’s display windows on the Embankment, allowed to dance on the Mound, and the town's officers had given help in organising the meeting. Associating the police with official bodies he was thanking, he desired the men to drink to the Health. His Worship
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giving thanks for himself, his Sergeant, and the Superintendent, for the invitation to this function, spoke of the position of a Corporation in a rapidly changing world; while it had to heed ratepayer’s views, it had to give thought to cultural matters. Old customs were worth preserving; and the Town of Bedford was glad to have done something to help the Morris.
The squire of the Morris Ring, proposing the health of the Bedford Morris Men, drew attention to the strong young representation in that clubs ranks, after the 30 years of its existence. This meeting was extremely well organized, with just the right proportions of dancing and leisure. The Squire of Bedford M.M., replying, was proud of the success of the meeting, the more so as the Bagman, Peter Rollason, had moved to another town during the summer, with a consequent reorganisation of the whole of the preparatory work. He referred to the curious disappearance of the clubs staff at Hugh Hamer’s wedding, and its reappearance a little later with a letter, signed S. Belfield, stating that the Jockey men on holiday in Torquay had seen the staff for sale in a shop window, and had rushed in and bought it at great expense.
The Squire of the Ring then read the text
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of a telegram to Will Kimber, who was 89 the day before, and Will’s reply, thanking the men for their kind thought. The Bagman then read the Log of Whitley Bay. The Bedford Squire gave out notices, and the Feast ended at 10 0’clock. The men moved to the main hall of Mitchell Hall for the rest of the evening and part of the night. Almost immediately the Colchester men and one Bedford man were detailed to go to the scene of the Friday’s Ale to entertain a large number of people of the Caravan Club who were encamped on that part of the airfield. This little show lasted some twenty minutes, to a most enthusiastic audience; and declining the rather apologetically offered orangeade, the Colchester men and the Bedford man returned to the main hall; where there being about 8 men dancing and a roaring from a near by room, the Colchester men and the one Bedford man joined the roaring, which was Morris men singing in a bar. When the bar closed at 11.30 all the men had to join those who had drifted back to the dancing; which went on till midnight with a Saturday Night Bucknell that went on and on until the Squire took a firm measure to stop it. David Buston sang John Barleycorn; Bill Astley the Shepherd’s Song; Kenneth Loveless, Frog in the Spring. There were 50 men listening to these.
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Bill Worder continued with the Lobster Song, and a ballad of Lady Chatterley; David returned with the Barley Mow; and, tired of sitting, the men did the Gallant Hussar; then Banbury Bill; then Bledington Leapfrog; then Getting Upstairs; and the Quaker, after which, danced at Bedford, there is never no more dancing that day, by 4 sides, 4 musicians, and 6 men watching, at 12.45 a.m.
On the Sunday morning, after breakfast attended by men who showed no signs of the night before, the dancers drove to Bedford; parked vehicles in the Market Place; then walked up to St. Paul’s Church to form into procession. This danced its way, Winster Processional, up the High Street, over two sets of traffic lights, at one of which the Superintendent himself held up traffic against the green, to St. Peter de Merton. Here in a well-filled church the Morris men sitting in the north aisle, (the older Colchester men, to their gratification, being in a pew labelled YOUTH) 8 men carried staffs behind the Squire to the altar. The lessons were read by Kenneth Loveless; and the Vicar, welcoming the Morris men, preached from Acts 15 v.3 "and they caused great joy unto all the brethren."
The staffs were returned to the clubs, and the men came out to reform the procession and
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to dance to the Market Square; where the usual massed dances were done and club displays given to a friendly crowd. Bonny Green ended, the men went to nearby public houses before returning to Cranfield and the last meal of the meeting; served again by the deft damsels, who were stood to and drank to by all the appreciative men during the course of the luncheon.
The Bedford Men then took glasses of beer to easy chairs in the Lanchester Lounge; where they were thanked, bidden farewell, and left alone to their glory.
For a week before the meeting, two museum display windows on the Embankment, and a Gas Company’s window in the High Street, contained a selection of Morris objects from those on show in Birmingham, with further material lent by the E.F.D.S.S. This material with posters, brochures, and programmes, and illuminated at night, gave most powerful advance publicity to the meeting.
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