Whitethorn Morris is a ladies-only North West Morris team, based in the London Borough of Harrow. We enjoy performing a variety of lively and traditional dances in our characteristic and recently redesigned red, white and blue kit. We are always on the lookout for women of any age to join for fun social exercise, as well as both men and women to play in the band.
The side was formed in 1977 as an off-shoot of the Flowers of May Morris. Our repertoire consists of dances that are predominantly from the North West of England, especially Lancashire and Cheshire and are performed in our own inimitable Whitethorn fashion. In addition, we perform a number of dances which we have ‘written’ ourselves. We dance using short sticks with bells on, mollies (another type of stick with its origins in the mill industry of the 19th century) and also with hooped garlands decorated in red, white and blue. Dancers wear leather-topped clogs with wooden soles which accentuate the rhythms played by the band, making for a great audio-visual spectacle. The all-important band consists of melodeons for the melody, a variety of stringed instruments such as guitar and banjo and, of course, drums. In fact, anything else that can be used to make a sound is acceptable – even a crowbar has been in use for years!
Although based in Harrow in North West London many of our members come from further afield – Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire as well as other London boroughs.
The short video was shared in several formats (landscape/portrait modes) and posted on several social media sharing services:
The following short video (available in landscape and portrait formats) are also available on YouTube.
Download short video: [landscape mode – File size: 33 MB] – [portrait mode – File size: 33 MB]
To download click on link and then right-click video and chose Save video or similar option (may differ on browsers).
See the “Dissemination Channels for your Side’s Videos” document for suggestion on how to use the video.
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