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Cotswold Series of Recordings
The first volume of five CDs presenting the lively music of the Cotswold Style of
dancing was launched in 2001. Each disc is accompanied by a separate book containing
information about the history and folklore of the music, some pictures, and information about
the contributor.
Contributors
Cry Havoc
Cry Havoc, from Botley near Oxford are a relatively new dance side in historical terms.
Formed in 1993 they dance to their own renditions of tunes drawn from other villages in the region,
and therefore provide an ideal overview to the Cotswold volume. This disc includes a new
tune which has never been published or recorded before (The Dogs of War).
[ track listing ]
Eynsham
The earliest written record of Eynsham Morris dancing goes back to 1856, but it is quite
likely that they had already been dancing for hundreds of years before that.
They disbanded in the 1930s and reformed in 1979, rebuilding their repertoire from
written records and the memories of villagers. All their dances are from the village
and some dance tunes are unique to the village. To this day
you still have to either live in Eynsham, or have been born there, to dance with
Eynsham Morris.
[ more ]
Adderbury Village
The existence of an Adderbury morris side was first documented in 1916, and in 1919
Cecil Sharp included details of the Adderbury dances in his Morris Book.
At one time there may have been three Morris sides in Adderbury. Today there are two.
Adderbury Village made some recordings in the past, notably with John Kirkpatrick,
Ashley Hutchings and Martin Carthy on the legendary album Son of Morris On.
Ilmington
The Ilmington Morris Men are based in South Warwickshire, and the current Ilmington Morris were
formed in 1974.
There are about twenty dances from Ilmington, of which many go back to the nineteenth century.
Perhaps one of the earliest known dates for the composition of a Morris Dance is that of the
Ilmington stick dance 'The Jubilee' which was composed for Queen Victoria's
Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1897.
Headington Quarry
Legend reserves a special place for the Headington Quarry men, for it was they who first
motivated Cecil Sharp to embark upon his life's work of collecting Morris dances. In 1899,
for some reason, they decided to go out on Boxing Day, which was an uncharacteristic step for
them. They stopped to dance outside the house in Headington where Cecil Sharp happened to be
staying for Christmas with a friend and the rest, as they say, is history.
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