One hundred-and fifty Morris dancers from districts as far apart as Devon, Somerset, Suffolk, The Lake District, Forest of Deane, Winchester, Derbyshire, Staffordshire etc., were housed for the weekend at Chester Training College, and were joined for the Saturday by a further hundred men from the surrounding centres in Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside and The Wirral. Nine separate tours for the whole Saturday had been organized beforehand in great detail and police permission had been obtained for every one of the thirty-six stands to be used during the day by one or other of the nine teams of dancers and musicians who undertook this exhausting and rewarding exercise. Shopping precincts and public places, markets, piers, promenades, Church grounds, Botanic Gardens and Pubs were visited in town and country areas on both sides of the Mersey and the Dee and into Wales. Minimassed Dancing took place in Church Street, Liverpool from 3 to 4 p.m. and a grand massed Display in the Groves by the River Dee in Chester from 6 to 7 p.m. that evening and again from noon until 1 o'clock on Sunday.

The traditional Morris Service is held on Sunday morning and this was the occasion of the most solemn and the most dramatic episodes of the weekend when the whole company walked in procession from the Groves to St. Peter's Church. Only a muffled drum beat accompanied the marchers whose festive gait and normally high spirits were temporarily subdued to the occasion.

On arriving at St. Peter's once the Headquarters of the Roman Governor of Chester, and founded as a Christian Church in A.D. 907-the Morris Men took their places for the singing of the first hymn during which the Staffs of Office of all the participating Morris Clubs were presented at the Altar, where they were received and where they remained until reclaimed at the conclusion of the service, thus reaffirming annually the blessing of the Church upon this ancient pagan ritual.

The present generation of Morris Men has another blessing in the person of an ordained Priest of the Church of England who has been for years not only a man dedicated to his calling but a man almost equally dedicated to the world represented by the Morris Ring and the English Folk Dance and Song Society I -The stirring sermon that he preached on this particular Sunday " as Morris man to Morris man " must remain a vivid memory to many people in that crowded congregation. He recalled with great simplicity - and sometimes with great humour - the crucial moments of his life, and of his experience, which had finally transferred his centre of activity from war time service in the Royal Navy to an East End Parish of London.

Another memory of this Sunday service which to some of us was also a highlight of the whole weekend was listed on the printed Order Paper as "A Morris Dance of Praise." The dance chosen was Shepherds' Hey, Fieldtown and the honour of dancing it was accorded to the hosts of the Morris Ring Meeting - the Mersey Morris Men.

In the stillness of the old Church the first notes pealed out their familiar call.

The six dancers responded as one. Though they were on a raised platform in front of the Altar with the two musicians, their feet were invisible and made no sound beyond the slow jingling of the Morris bells while the light from the high windows falling on the bare-headed festival-clad figures and the rhythmic movement of arms and handkerchiefs brought a magic hush upon the whole congregation. Again and again in the pause at the end of each phrase of that beautiful melody the dancers remained perfectly still for a fraction of a second with their arms and handkerchiefs thrown out at shoulder level while we all breathed our silent assent, and then the music came to its end.

Can Shepherds Hey, Fieldtown ever have been played or danced with more devotion and sincerity? It was indeed a Dance of Praise that united the whole company.

It was surprisingly moving too, and not least to one unimportant but very grateful member of the congregation who was proud to be the mother of one of the musicians and the grandmother of one of the dancers.

EFDSS Journal 1976

Agnes Z Stapledon

mother of John Stapledon (Mersey musician)

father of Richard Stapledon (Mersey Foreman)