Three films which show Morris dancing and entertaining troupes taking part in carnivals in the North West have recently been released by the fabulous North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University on its Vimeo site.
The most significant of these is the film of Poynton Horticultural Show in 1935. (Link below the graphic) It illustrates some examples of the early stages of the development of the Girls' Carnival Morris of today. The dancing starts at 9:01 in the film and entertainers can be seen as well as Morris dancers.
This film contains the best preserved and most lengthy recording of the dancing of the Gorse Hill Morris troupe from Stretford from the time before the Second World War. Films of troupes dancing a few figures from their routine are considerably rarer than views of them marching or walking in a carnival procession.
The Gorse Hill Morris Dancers are the troupe wearing black waistcoats who start their dance at 9:10 in the film. This troupe originates from an all-male troupe started in 1910 for the Stretford Rose Queen Festival, a forerunner of the Stretford Pageant which started after the First World War in 1919. The troupe became mixed in 1911 and remained so at least until 1922, before becoming an all-female troupe at some point in the nineteen-twenties. The troupe mainly played a ceremonial role at the Pageant before 1931 when it started to participate in carnival competitions. Though a late arrival on the carnival circuit, this troupe soon began to win prizes, with its most successful year being 1938 with at least eight first prizes.
This troupe is clearly influenced by the Cheshire style of Morris dancing. Each dancers holds a double ended shillelagh in both hands and these are held high over-head in some of the figures. The girls dance in flat dancing shoes as did the Cheshire troupes. The three figures that can be seen in the film are a cast out from both sides of the set into a large round, a diagonal crossover and a chain in line. Two of these figures, the cast and the chain in line, would be very familiar to Cheshire dancers of the nineteen twenties. Notation of the Mobberley dance collected from R. Ellis, one of those who danced with the Mobberley troupe in 1926, included these figures and they are common to notation collected from other troupes active at that time and still danced by the Mobberley troupe that dances each year at Mobberley Rose Queen a hundred years later.
However, the stepping of the dancers in this film is clearly a polka step, with the front foot crossing over in front of the back foot, more commonly seen in the Lancashire style of Morris, and their costumes contain elements of the fashion favoured by Lancashire troupes.
The dancing here represents a transitional stage in the evolution of Girls' Carnival Morris. In the period before the Second World War troupes travelled considerable distances to compete in competitions all over the North-West. Troupes were able to make adjustments to their own dancing based on what they observed. A wide variety of styles of dancing was on view in carnival dance competitions. Morris dancers often competed in open competition with entertaining troupes. Both the dancers and the trainers were able to see clearly what aspects of the dancing appealed to the judges and attracted points, trophies and prize money. In general, judges seem to have favoured the troupes that danced in the Cheshire style in the nineteen twenties, but the influence of the success of Lancashire clog troupes, predominantly from the Oldham area, began to play a part in style development the early nineteen thirties.
Following the dance by the Gorse Hill Troupe the film shows an acrobatic troupe at 10:23, if one ignores the antics of the man with the upside down umbrella. This troupe is followed by the Ashfield dancers from Altrincham, a cabaret style troupe who were performing under the name of the Carlton Girls. Ashfield was a very successful Morris troupe but they also had very strong entrants in the entertaining sections.
These are followed by a group of children dancers at 13:01, and then at 13:23 a troupe of girl Morris dancers who dance in the Cheshire style. The film ends with Miss Johnson's troupe from Stockport performed a tap dancing routine at 15:21.
Result of the Morris dancing competition:
Altrincham Morris Dancers [Ashfield troupe]
Gorse Hill Morris Dancers
Royal Morris Dancers, Kidsgrove
The Carlton Girls, Altrincham were awarded second place in the Country Dancing classification!
There are two other films recently released:
Altrincham Carnival 1929 features in the film Glengarry Topical Film No. 4 https://vimeo.com/1041072130 by the Preston Brothers of Stockport.
The film shows part of the procession passing by and includes a few shots of dance troupes, including the Cranford troupe from Knutsford. This was a mixed troupe dressed in Cheshire costume with black being the choice of colour for the dresses of the women and the mens' sashes. The distinguishing feature of the men in the troupe is that, unusually for Cheshire dancers, they are wearing bell pads on their shins like those of Cotswold dancers. This troupe was awarded a special prize at this carnival.
In a film entitled 'Gaumont Graphic Newsreel', NWFA 38
a section of Stockport Carnival procession can be seen at 5:06 . The date is uncertain. 1914 is on the title page but, looking at the numbers on other title pages in the film, it seems this is more likely to be the number of the film excerpt rather than the date. No newspaper report of a Stockport Carnival in 1914 has been located so far. There are brief glimpses of two Cheshire style Morris troupes, one all-female and one a mixed adult troupe, both of which are dancing with shillelaghs.
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