The Morris Ring

The Morris Ring founded in 1934, is an association of over two hundred morris dance sides. Our mission is to encourage the performance of morris dancing, to maintain its traditions and to preserve its history. Each year we organise several Ring Meetings for our members. See the 2008 meetings programme here.

The Morris Ring Google Group: Please Read: Instructions and Netiquette.

The Morris Tradition: describes the background story for Morris Dancing in English, French, German, Dutch & Spanish, and the English text booklet is for sale from the Morris Ring Shop.

TO FIND a Local Morris Side use
the SideFinder Click Map. MORRIS MEN to update your Sidefinder Entry, Click Here!
ENQUIRIES TO the Morris Ring Click Here!
TO FIND a Named Morris Side use MMD.
TO BUY MORRIS ITEMS goto
The Morris Ring Shop. Just ask !

Mainly Morris Ring News

The latest Bagman's Newsletter, No 57, June 2008, is now available on line. Charlie will (of course!), send out paper copies

See Sidmouth and don't forget the John Gasson Jig competition, Tracey Rose gives us the details and an application form here, this year on Sunday 3^rd August, be there!

Morris Dancing and Swords: Quite a lot of hot air has been blowing around this subject. Kate Hoey has helped to clify the situation, see the Independent newspaper comment for 18th June 2008 I like the Urban Morris Dancer, it looks as if our image is a-changing.
Previous to this notice Paul Reece (Thge Morris Ring Squire) said:"We must counter the notion that the Act, which is already law concerns all swords and by their use in sword dancing is likely to be banned. The Act which is designed against 'Sumarai' and look alike swords is only concerned with curved swords over 50 cms measured in a straight line from the tip to the hilt. Consequently very few sides fall into this category. The Joint Morris Organisation are assessing the size of the problem, but it is considered to be very very small. I only know of two sides that use curved sides, Plymouth Morris Men is the only Morris Ring side and they use curved naval cutlasses. They have approached their MP who is looking into it for them and we are awaiting the result. All efforts have been and are being made behind the scenes to resolve the matter at the highest level. Despite the alarm and natural concern in the sword fraternity that has been generated by the petition, as it is based on a falacy, the petition is likely to be counterproductive."

Take a look at John Hegley's view of the Morris; the pictures are from the recent Oxford Folk Festival; reported in the Guardian. See here; you will need Adobe Flash Player

The Fed now has a Blog, see http://morrisfed.org/mfblog/?p=1, Kevin Taylors wary comment "If it becomes a collecting ground for garbage, access will be made more restrictive." is certainly appropriate! Good luck, I have registered myself - I am member of the Fed. {2/5/09}

The Illustrious Order of Fools & Beasts: Unconvention 17-19 October 2008. Application form open to all, Morris Ring, Open and Fed.

Some older news items have been moved, see here

IE USERS: The above menu and the video don't work for your browser! Try this version of this page for the time being: http://www.themorrisring.org/alt_index.html. Better still, use the Firefox browser!

Bristol Morris Men Dancing Outside St Peter's (ruined) Church, Castle Park, Bristol, on May Day Morning at Sunrise

The above video was taken with a Canon A540 handheld camera, then transfered as a Quicktime movie (278MB!) to the Internet Archive; transfer via Virgin 4M Broadband did take nearly 45 minutes, however I think it was worthwhile; whatever you think of the quality of my camera work! For the original Quicktime version see here. The system reformats the movie into several versions in MPEG4 format, so that it should also be possible to see via a dialup connection. I cannot try this, but would be very grateful if someone "out there" could. The Internet Archive is free, anyone can apply for a library card, and there is no reason why it could not be used alongside of YouTube and the like. The advantages in using the Internet Archive for the storage of our morris videos should be obvious, not the least of which is the above video (code pasted from the IA). However you will need a Flash player to appreciate the squeals of the virgin as she is ritually fertilised at the end of the performance!
I would be very interested to hear from anyone else in our morris community who tries the Intenet Archive for storing their morris videos.

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