Meeting 311 of the Morris Ring

Taunton Deane, (and most of Dartington), were expected to attend, but were unable to reach the venue for reasons detailed later.

Dedication: Some seven years before this event, the then Squire of Stafford Morris Men, Roger Entwistle wrote a memorandum to the club proposing that in 2007 they should run a national Ring meeting, to celebrate the golden jubilee of the current incarnation of the side. This was agreed and the proposal submitted to the Morris Ring. It was accepted and preliminary plans were made. Sadly, as a result of a sudden and aggressive form of cancer, Roger died shortly afterwards. Stafford Morris Men dedicate this event to his memory.

Decide on a location, a date, a tour programme, catering and transport arrangements, accommodation, invite sides to attend, print posters and brochures, make a vast number of detailed plans, and hope for good weather. That is the essence of the activity that produces a successful Ring Meeting.

Stafford did all that, but, (five years ago), managed to choose a date when the weather was NOT as hoped for. Indeed, it proved to be the most disastrous weekend of rain, tempest and flood that central England has experienced in living memory.

This could have scuppered the event without the amazing determination and fortitude of all participants. The organisers had to make many changes at the last minute to accommodate the weather, and the bulk of the sides attending had to accept a variety of compromises to their comfort and composure. However, in the end the 311th Ring meeting was deemed a success, even it it was hardly as planned.

The plan for the Friday evening was for men to arrive, (mainly between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.), have a meal of hot pot, a drink and a chat before repairing to local hostelries for dancing, singing and a drop more drink. For some men, who came from the north and the east, that is just what happened, and apart from an automatic gate, that had a mind of its own, the evening passed to plan.

However, by 10 p.m. only some 40% of the expected men had arrived. Those from the southern counties had experienced severe traffic problems, brought about by heavy rain and flooding. Journeys that were expected to take Three hours took Nine hours. Many men arrived in various states of exhaustion and distress, needing assistance with food, drink unpacking etc. that they would not normally require.

Those intending to camp outdoors realised that the conditions were severe and most opted to stay within the school, making the space rather full, thus causing some sides to be given less than desirable accommodation. Most were very coöperative and accepted this as an inevitable consequence of the extreme weather conditions.

The most severe disruption to travel occurred on the routes from the south-west, with Trigg, Dartington, Chalice, and Taunton Deane, all bringing major contingents from that direction. Copious mobile phone messages were relayed to reception, where the plans were changed by the minute. The reception desk looked like an air traffic control log with continual time and geographical updates, based on messages such as:

" two chalice members have reached M5 Junction 9 and have seen the Trigg minibus in the traffic"; "some Winchester Men have passed Newbury, but are almost stationary near Oxford."; " two Dartington cars are trying to get to Cheltenham to stop overnight"; "a Whitchurch Man expects to be there by 1 a.m."; "Local radio says the M50 and M5 southbound are closed"; "Trigg have just done 23 miles in 8 hours and are now ploughing through floods at Strensham services, (which is submerged)" - and so on through the night.

It was evident that reception had to be manned all night and that food and drink would have to be provided when men arrived. This was duly organised. The steady trickle of men; with horror stories of cars washed away; who had not eaten for 12 hours; who had been been travelling for 16 hours, etc, continued from 1a.m. to 5 a.m. All were very grateful that Stafford were able to deal with this situation.

Trigg had been concerned that they may run through their song repertoire, which apparently covers two days without repeats!

We thought that previous Ring Squire Bob Cross, who arrived at about 5 a.m., had taken the formality of the occasion a bit far by arriving dressed for a wedding. His explanation was that he had left a wedding some 11 hours earlier, expecting to be in T-shirt and jeans three hours later - the best laid plans ----- !

We heard that Taunton Deane had finally had to abandon their valiant attempt to reach the meeting when the flooding became impassable. One of the Stafford tour guides found himself marooned in a small village near Evesham, begging food from the natives, so he had no chance of fulfilling his tour duties.

After this unpromising start and continuous rain in Brewood, it was great to have a hearty and 'queue free' breakfast, prepared by caterers, who had themselves struggled through local floods at 6 a.m.

By 8.45 tour 2B was heading for the nearby Shropshire Union Canal, to board their Vintage Working Narrow Boat; by 9.00 the group en route to Newport were ready to board their bus and the group, which was to set the scene for the local Church and School fête, were walking to the venue, albeit before the event started! Another group bound for Lapley on the "Misdemeanours Tour" were aboard a Minibus hoping it could get through the floods.

With a mixture of transport arrangements and 'figure-eight' tours, dancing took place in Brewood, Lapley, Boscobel House, Newport Town Centre, Blist's Hill Victorian Town, Stafford Town Centre, Moseley Old Hall and Newport Agricultural Show. Many of these locations were revisited by other groups in the afternoon. Groups combined at three lunch/dance spots:- RAF Cosford, where the new "Cold War Exhibition" had recently opened, The "Last Inn" at Church Aston and Church Eaton. Here, a dance and a drink at the Royal Oak, was followed by a walk down the village to see what remained of the "Scarecrow trail" from the earlier village festival, then an excellent meal prepared by Carol Edwards and village helpers at the Victorian 'Village Institute'. The "Scarecrow Morris" side on the Stafford webmaster's roof, caused Trigg to do a dance by the house in their honour.

The "Misdemeanours" groups also had the chance to visit Lapley church, where in 1655 the Puritan Vicar. John Jackson, had the local Morris dancers, (male and female), arrested and taken to the Stafford Assizes for the "Misdemeanour of Morris Dancing". An intriguing link with Morris dancers, (including the fool, the musician and the 'man-woman'), of 350 years ago!

All the tours ended at a pubs: "The Bell" at Tong, (where Dickens was inspired to write "Little Nell"); The Bridge at Brewood, which adjoins the canal, (where Tour 2D disembarked). This group were by now accompanied by the Ring Officers and the Stafford Squire, Peter Stephens, who was also Stafford's first Squire in 1957. Other groups finished at the Bell at Stretton, the village that was home to the second set of 1655 dancers and at the original "Royal Oak Inn" adjacent to the Royal Oak Tree, where Charles II hid. Some members of this tour also managed to fit in a nearby Beer Festival as well.

All the tours were spoilt by the weather as far as dancing spots and lack of audiences were concerned. Fortunately, most men dance for their own pleasure as much as for their public, so they generally managed to enjoy themselves despite the climate.

The main event on the Saturday evening was the Feast, held in the large sports hall of St Dominic's School, which was the centre for the Ring Meeting. It was an excellent, waitress served meal, with free Beers and Ciders served by Stafford Men, which the Squire of the Ring said: "Set new standards for the food at feasts." This was followed by the traditional format of toasts, speeches, songs and instrumentals, (including Terry Carter's room silencing meander, playing the Hurdy-gurdy). Various presentations were made including gifts of watches for John Colbert, Peter Copley and Alan Dandy, the principle organisers of the Ring Meeting and "Stafford Knots" to Maxwell Haynes of Stafford, who gained his junior Silver Knots some years ago, but now qualifies for the Gold Knots. Perhaps the entertainment went on too long in view of the many teams present and the poor acoustics, but the standards were as high as usual.

All the men present were told to keep the souvenir plates issued to commemorate this event. Large hand made commemorative plates were given to guests including: Clive, the Vicar of Brewood; Rob, the Boatman, who had taken four groups along the "Shroppie" on their tours; Bevan, the Town Crier of Penkridge, who helped at Lapley and opened proceedings at the Feast, and the school's representative.

The scene then moved in two directions, the singers and some dancers to various local pubs and the bulk of the dancers to the school hall for an evening of dancing and music. Gordon Taylor, (who was appointed lead musician for the event), played for Max to dance in with the jig "I'll go and enlist for a sailor", (Sherborne). Later, Terry Carter played for Max's grandfather. Jack Brown to demonstrated his new Lichfield Jig. This is a rather more conventional jig than "All the Winds", (which is danced around hats to the rattle of bones), but using similar movements.

Proceedings continued, with diminishing exuberance, until the last of the revellers turned in at about 3.30 a.m. At 1.30 a.m. several members of "Morris 18-30" saw fit to indoctrinate some of the younger and fitter ring participants in the mysteries of their showpiece dance "The Webley Leap". [For those who do not know it; each hey involves six leapfrog movements!]

Sunday was a bit of a relief, as it was only drizzling and even showed signs of white clouds instead of black. A pleasant breakfast in the refectory was followed, for a few, by an ad hoc meeting to discuss the proposed "Morris Movie Magic" project. This aims to encourage new young dancers to become involved in the Morris by use of "Flash Movies" and other high tech means, to get the message across to technologically aware youngsters.

The procession to Church set off at the appointed time of 9.30 in pleasant conditions. The Band played the traditional Winster Processional tune and the colourful spectacle was led by Knotty the Stafford Hobby-horse who is skilled at being a travelling road block and forcing arrogant BMW drivers to pull in, even if they have no intention of doing so. (Presumably, filling in the insurance claim for running down a hobby-horse is a good deterrent!)

The Communion Service at St Mary the Virgin and Saint Chad, led by the Reverend Clive Burgess, was not too long and was filled with lots of good singing, excellent organ music, and an enthusiastic choir and congregation. There was time to reflect on the problems of others: due to natural disasters, man-made decisions and bereavement, whereon many though about John Butler, the Ripley Fool, who was at the Ripley Ring Meeting and had been recently killed in a motorway accident.

Stafford Danced "Lord of the Dance" - one of the dances on their new dances CD and Booklet that had been the subject of various commercials throughout the week-end. This was immediately followed by the same tune used for the recessional hymn. Gordon Taylor, who had played for the dance, joined the organist for the hymn, but was a little outgunned when asked to follow it with the Vidor toccata and fugue!

Tea and coffee after the service gave many the chance to meet both locals and visitors from around the world. A young man, (of about 6 or 7), from Dubai, asked lots of questions then said "Have you seen the Morris Baby?", to which there was no answer. We were later to find out that "Charlie" Gordon Taylor's young grandson, had been sporting Stafford baldricks at 14 months old. They start young in Stafford Morris!

The Massed Display in the square was a spectacular affair, not least because of the clement weather, which had not been much in evidence previously. A lengthy and varied programme saw massed dances, as well as presentations by each side in attendance, plus Jockey Morris, who just happened to be passing! Cotswold, North Western, Long Sword and Rapper were all displayed for the education and entertainment of the crowd of several hundred.

The display started with a Lichfield dance by the host side and finished with a Stafford group, who had been key to the organisation of the Ring, plus Nicholas, their youngest regular dancing member, (aged 8), dancing Postman's Knock, (Adderbury with Woodside variations.)

After the Massed Bonny Green Garters, the men returned to the School Sports Hall for a ploughman's lunch, prepared and served by Brewood W.I. As they all made their way to an uncertain journey home, most agreed that it had been a traumatic, but very enjoyable 311th Ring Meeting.