Cutting a Dash on Woodstock Town Square

One Monday evening in June, how lovely to see a large group of Morris Dancers and musicians arriving to perform for the interested spectators. They consisted of teams from Kirtlington, Wolvercote, and the Mason’s Apron Morris team from North Leigh who had come together to dance ‘somewhere different’.

The Wolvercote team in front of The Star Inn

Some of the dancers wore traditional clogs with metal strips tapping and clattering on the square, whilst others wore 21st century trainers for comfort. Their different, coloured and decorated costumes added to the quintessential, English tradition as they danced with handkerchiefs, sticks and bells to rhythmic folk tunes played on accordian, fiddles, pipes and drums.

The Masons Aprons Team taking a rest

'Chairing the Feathers' by William Nicholson

Memories of the 1970s TV show, The Two Ronnies sprung to mind for me. However, the scene brought back to mind the portraits painted by one-time Woodstock resident, William Nicholson, who painted dancers from Eynsham outside the Hensington Gates to Blenheim Palace at the beginning of the 20th century. These two paintings were photographed during a recent Nicholson exhibition in Chichester.

Whether watching the dancers on the square, surrounded by historic buildings and bathed in evening light, or looking at the Nicholson paintings in an art gallery, reminds me how lucky we are to have such a rich heritage.