The Saddleworth Morris Dances

In Saddleworth, there are six villages; Uppermill, Greenfield, Delph, Diggle, Dobcross and Denshaw. There is one dance from each village, and in addition, we perform a processional dance when going from place to place. Finally, there is the Stang dance, which we do only once each year as this involves using the stangs, long wooden poles that are used to pull the Rushcart.

When in the early 1970s Peter Ashworth was trying to restart Morris dancing in Saddleworth, he was able to talk to some of the old men who used to dance long ago, or who could remember seeing the dances. Pete was thus able to learn about the style of the old dances, and some of the figures, but could not collect any complete ones. With some of the others who revived the tradition, he set about writing dances as close to the old ones as he could. Many of the figures in the dances are based on the movements of mill wheels, shuttles and other machinery. The Saddleworth dances are complex, and quite long by Morris dance standards.

Like most north-west Morris sides, Saddleworth nearly always dances outside on the road. Clogs irons would soon make a mess of a wooden floor! Our musicians play melodeons, base and side drums, and sometimes piccolo, fiddle and brass. Usually there will be eight dancers, though the Diggle dance requires nine - this is the ONLY nine man Morris dance you will ever see. Sometimes we have sixteen dancers (in two sets of eight) or even twenty four dancers (in three sets). Our Foreman, who teaches the dancers, usually dances in front of the set, carrying a carriage whip which he threatens to use to keep the dancers in order....

The Saddleworth men are famous for their hats. We wear bowler hats, with canes decorated in red, white and blue curving up above them. However, most dancers stack their hats so high with fresh flowers that you cannot see the bowlers nor the canes. We spend an hour or two making up our hats before each day of dancing, and each man tries to make his hat distinctive, and as good as possible. Sometimes, usually before we do the Diggle dance, we ask a young woman to come and judge which hat is the best, with the winner getting a kiss and a prize. Our hats have been featured on both TV and radio programmes about gardening and flower arranging!