Last Updated 6th February 2001
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Meeting at Thaxted 31 May-2 June 1957
The fifty-eighth meeting of the Morris Ring and the twenty-forth annual gathering of Morris Men at Thaxted was held on the week-end May 31st- June 2nd 1957.
About 120 men attended the week-end, representing the following 16 clubs: Bedford, Benfleet Hoymen, Blackhorse Boys, Cambridge, Colchester, East Surry, Greensleves, Ipswich, Jockey Letchworth, London Rodney, Offley, Roding Valley, St. Albans, Standon & Thaxted.
At 8.30 on the Friday evening the Squire & Bagman found the Bolford Street hall deserted and since the buffet supper at the church hall was not yet ready they repaired to The Bull for quiet meditation. They however were soon joined by the Colchester Men in full dancing kit who thus set an excellent example to the rest of the company at the Ale. In due course supper was taken and dancing followed at Bolford Street until 10.15.
On Saturday morning five tours assembled in accordance with the prearranged schedule slightly modified to equalise numbers & equate them with the available transport.
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Tour 1: Cambridge, Offley, Roding Valley & St. Albans to Duton Hill, Little Easton, Great Easton & the environs of Thaxted.
Tour 2: Greensleves, Ipswich & Thaxted to Molehill Green, Hatfield Broad Oak, Hatfield Heath & Bishop’s Stortford.
Tour 3: Colchester & London Rodney to Castle Hedinghasm, Halstead & Braintree.
Tour 4: Benfleet Hoymen, East Surry & Standon to Debden, Newport, Arkesden, Clavering & Saffron Walden.
Tour 5: Bedford, Blackhorse Boys & Jockey to Finchingfield, Great Barfield & Dunmow.
The day was fine and warm, and the only drawback was that the whole of Essex appeared to be enveloped in an enormous swarm of greenfly to the considerable discomfort of both dancers & spectators. Each tour was allocated a Thaxted dancer as guide and, so far as the Bagman knows, all were carried through with out a hitch, though tour 1, aided & abetted by its guide reversed the order of two of its stations & omitted Dunmow Church End altogether – to the bewilderment of some of the spectators but to the advantage of the men. On returning to Thaxted for lunch several members of this party enjoyed
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generous hospitality at the Rose & Crown recently under new management, & in the afternoon shows were given in several new housing estates on the boarders of Thaxted.
All the tours returned to Thaxted for tea at 4.30 after which they assembled in the Swan Yard ready for the processional dances down the hill to the Guildhall, each tour-group forming a separate procession. The usual succession of club team displays interspersed with occasional all-together dances continued for an hour & a half and, men’s energies being far from exhausted, further activity was then to be seen in the bars of several public houses.
The Feast was 8 p.m. and for the first time was held in the Bolford Street Hall. After an excellent meal including hot roast beef the Squire proposed the formal toasts and when these had been dully observed he stood up again to propose the toast of Thaxted. The Thaxted Morris Men could trace their history back to 1910 & this year was the 30th anniversary of the first meeting of Morris clubs in Thaxted – of the first Thaxted Morris week-end. He congratulated the Thaxted club on this fine record & expressed the thanks of all the men present to Fr. Jack & the
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Thaxted dancers for their excellent organisation of the meeting & particularly for the special effort so successfully made this year to enable us all to sit together for the Feast. He also thanked the caterers (Messrs Luff & Clavering) for their excellent meals services. Alec Hunter, replying to the toast, recalled after the first meeting of the clubs at Ardeley, Herts, in 1926 it was intended that a similar meeting should be held the following year at Ashwell, but it was found that Sunday dancing would not be possible there so the meeting came to Thaxted instead where it has remained ever since, interrupted only by the war. He also mentioned that two of the original 1910 Thaxted dancers had taken part in the front of the Guildhall that afternoon. At the early Thaxted week-ends the cooking was done by wives & sweethearts – hence the country dance party on Sunday afternoon which has persisted as a regular & much appreciated feature. Men who had been present at the first Thaxted week-end in 1927 were invited to stand about half-a-dozen did so. Alec thought that perhaps the biggest change was the great increase in the number of musicians.
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He concluded his speech with words of welcome to the men and thanks to Cedric Arnold & Tony Eden for fixing the lights in the street for the late dancing. The Squire made a few necessary announcements, the logs of last year’s meetings at Thaxted and Abingdon were read by the Bagman, & the men rose from table at 9.55 p.m. It should be recorded that a mysterious & entirely unauthorised sheet of paper was handed round during the Feast requesting signatures of those willing to pay 1/6 for copies of a non-existent brochure on the Care & Repair of Bladders said to have been written by the Bagman. There were 30 signatures including a forgery of the Squire’s
By 10 o’clock dancing was under way near the guildhall and at several alehouses, meanwhile the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (by Thaxted dancers) made an effective perambulation of the town. There was the usual extension of licensing hours for the occasion.
After breakfast on Sunday morning a meeting of Club Representatives was held in Alec Hunter’s garden. The church service at 10.45 included the usual processional hymn and afterwards there was dancing in inn yards
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until lunchtime. The Westminster Morris Men during the morning having danced at Epping & Bishop’s Storford on Saturday, staying over night at Stortford. The usual afternoon country-dance party was held in the Swan Yard & a number of Morris teams gave display dances. A most enjoyable & successful week-end concluded with tea in the Church Hall.
[Signed]
Kenworthy Schofield
C#House Mon 22nd 1958
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