History of the Berkshire Morris

(and Morris Generally)

The origin of the arcane exercise known as "Morris Dancing" is lost in the mists of pre-history. The first written allusion is in a steward's record of household expenses from the 16th Century, where he debited "50p for the Morrismen" (and cheap at twice the price!). But Morris Dancing was no doubt already old by then.

Eric von Danniken has theorized that the elaborate patterns created by the dancers recreate the air traffic and landing patterns of archaic space craft at pre-historic space-ports - the trajectories of the legendary "Chariots of the Gods!"

Cecil Sharpe, the man on whom the modern tradition depends for its authenticity, is said to have spent countless hours in Cotswald pubs plying the region's most ancient residents with pints of strong local ale and urging them to reveal the secrets of their mysterious practices. The more ale they consumed, the more they could remember, and slowly the details of the esoteric rituals - handed down from Gaffer to Da - emerged from the dull sobriety that had so long concealed them. Dismissed by many ethnographers as "the ravings of drunken bumpkins," Sharpe nonetheless contrived to turn the murky ramblings of his subjects into a "body of knowledge" on which he managed to build an entire career!

The solution to the conundrum of the so called "Celtic Knot" has recently been deciphered by the Berkshire Morris' crack research team headed by Head Librarian Jim "yes, he really is a professional Librarian - with a Degree in Library Sciences" Cosgrove, According to his exhaustive research, the pattern (displayed here as it appears on the back of the Berkshire Morris Vests) delineates the exact path of the dancers executing the "Berkshire Hey"

While other experts have proved mathematically that such a solution would end in chaos (this research was essential in indentifying the random and accidental nature of such phenomena as "The Big Finish," that were basic to the development of Chaos Theory), Cosgrove contends that it illustrates the essentially paradoxical nature of time and space as experienced by Morris Dancers, who can simultaneously be in six places at once, and no place at all.

Berkshire Morris was founded in the early 1980s to demonstrate the literal truth of the maxim that the devil makes work for idle hands.

Originally dancing a tradition called Sherbourne, the team soon found this to be too much like hard work and adapted the much less exacting Adderbury and Fieldtown styles, more suitable to their unique talents.

In the ensuing twenty-something years the team has expanded and contracted with the economy and gone through many phases, including the historically significant "brown-shoe uprising," the "fiber-hat epoch" and the Italianate Renaissance. Currently awash in new recruits, our proudest recent accomplishment is that the median age of the team has dropped sharply from about 52 in 2003 to just over 42 in 2005 - and this without anyone dying.

The Berkshire Morris is dedicated to preserving the independent, iconoclastic, spontaneous and improvisational form of Morris as a community-based socio-political, participatory entertainment and opposing the exclusivist, academic punctilliousness of the few rigid and self-righteous practioners (although we respect their right to knock themselves out). The Secrets Of Morris are safe with us - but not much else is.

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