At the beginning of the month I witnessed some Morris at Jack in the Green. One of the sides taking part were Black Swan Morris and, wanting a change from shooting bands, I checked out their website to see what upcoming events there were. Two caught my eye, the Broadwood Day of Dance in Horsham and the Sussex Day of Dance in Lewes. The Saturday following the additional Bank Holiday I travelled to Horsham for an enjoyable day. The event should’ve been the weekend before but an event in London hijacked the weekend. Broadwood got the last laugh as the gods were obviously smiling on them – it had been raining the previous weekend and this weekend was a sunny one. I photographed and chatted with dancers and musicians from many of the sides and ended up in the pub with Black Swan and Mythago.
The hosts were Broadwood Morris Men, a Cotswold side.
Also local to Horsham are Magog.
Mythago are another Horsham Side.
The side that I found out about the event from are Black Swan Morris, from Carshalton.
Jackstraws came along from Farnham.
Rampant Rooster hail from Dorking.
Ewell St Mary’s Morris Men are, unsurprisingly, from Ewell.
Box Hill Bedlam Morris came from that hill.
Worthing Larks danced with red and yellow hankies.
Fishbourne Mill Morris are based in Chichester.
Fleet Morris arrived quickly.
Dancing with wooden soles were Pennyroyal Clog,
and Sun Oak Clog Dancers.
Sompting Village Morris have differing kits for the male and female dancers.
Prompting me to put in my earplugs (I have tinnitus) were Pentacle Drummers from Eastbourne.
Supporting the sides were the musicians who play the tunes to dance to.