A month after I arrived in England in 2011, I joined a morris dancing side. Actually, it was 2 years ago tomorrow when I met them all, at a storytelling event. Based in Marsden, Colne Valley where I lived for 10 months, they meet at the local Parochial Hall, behind St Bartholomew’s Church.
Colne
Valley is the home of the Industrial Revolution and the Luddites. The entire valley is
dotted with old Victorian satanic mills, their chimneys still sticking up along
the canal. Folklore is still strong here, folk songs are still sung and created
today, and there is a deep respect for the past.
The morris side are called the Thieving Magpie. It’s a Border Morris team. The
side, while I was there, were the greatest bunch of people I have ever met.
Imagine a group of people who NEVER get sick of each other, have fights or
disagreements, and are like a family that miss each other if they don’t see
each other for two weeks. Yes. That is the Thieving Magpies.
Our leader or ‘squire’ – Angela - is a wonderfully kind woman, who
lives with folklore and customs of England everyday. It’s pretty much her job
to organise them. She's a mother to the side, generous and easy going. She was one of my best friends in the village, sometimes I would see her everyday out and about. I got used to going out and running into people I knew. Village life is the best, even better when you run into Ange.
We wear black tatter jackets, blacken our faces - a
tradition to disguise oneself - and wear lot of bells.
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| The Grey Tezza |
One of the members – Terry Armitage, wrote a blog piece on
each dance out we attended while I was there. He’s just published a book about
it, and I’ve just received a copy. While I already have these blog pieces saved
on my computer, it’s good to have them in book form, complete with photos. The
book is called ‘A Murder of Magpies’ by The Grey Tezza (he has nicknames for us
all, including himself).
My old livejournal
blog has retained all the morris dancing blog posts of Terry’s, and some of
mine, with photos, so you may as well visit that page. It would save me from re-posting
all those posts on this blog. Besides, when the event was months ago, and the
content of the blog pieces seem like a lot of personal jokes, it would be hard
for an outsider to care much for what is said.
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| Terry dancing with Lynda |
I miss my morris side. They were the best people ever, I
miss dancing the dances. I am in a morris team here in Australia, but it isn’t the
same – the dances are different for one thing, it’s mostly Cotswold and I’m just
not a Cotswold kind of girl.
I’m a Border Morris girl. Always was, always will be.
Morris Dancing is English Folk Dancing, for those who don’t
know. There are teams all over the world, mostly in English speaking countries.
Even America has morris dancing. As much as America has been independent from
the United Kingdom for 237 years, it still revels in the festivals Britain has given
to the world.
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| Thieving Magpie mascot made by me |
As a Thieving Magpie, I got to do many things – I made a magpie
mascot from papier mache – like a Roman Standard, it graced our public dance
outs. I re-designed the front banner of the Littleborough Rushcart Festival,
and helped build the large cuckoo
that was used in our village fayre.
I can never forget what I experienced while spending that
year in the UK. I saw and did things I always dreamed of. The good thing is, I’m
a lifetime member of the Magpies, and can go back to enjoy everything and more again
in future if I chose to.
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| At Whitworth Rushcart festival, September 2012 |
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| The Littleborough Rushcart with re-designed banner sewn by me, with our mascot on the top, which I also made. I did the coat of arms in the middle,and the tatter jacket on the man. |
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