Summary: Vol. 32 Issue 3
Editor: Simon Vaughan
Published: Autumn 2025

Table of contents

• Notices
• Editorial
• There Used to be Longsword Dancing at Christmas
  How sword dance returned to a Yorkshire village
• Towards a History of Lingdale Sword Dancers
  Part Three: Fame and Fade-out
• News
• Dancing in Pubs
  For Pence and Tasty Ale
• Pub Crawl Chronicles
  The Sword Dancers’ Pub Guide: No.1
• Letter From America
  A doubter’s progress or how I learned to stop worrying and love longsword
• Obituary
• Jeff Lawson’s Notebook
  The life and times of a sword dancer

Editorial

Midwinter Dancing
Yes, you read that right. Strange as it seems right now, the next edition will be the Winter edition. Tradition dictates that RUMB will publish a round-up of where to see sword dance over December and January. If your team is going to be out and about, dancing or mumming, send the  details of where and when to rattleupmyboys@gmail.com and I’ll stick it in the guide.

It feels absurd to contemplate such things as winter dancing right now as I roast slowly at 32˚C. I can hear the ice melting in the glass beside me. The curtains are tightly drawn against the sun’s afternoon death rays. There’s not a hint of a breeze, so it must be convection currents carrying the smell of toasting grass from what’s left of the lawn. My son’s splashing about in the garden means the only green grass left forms a little halo around his yellow inflatable paddling pool.

Perhaps this is another reason why sword dance appealed to me, all those years ago? There are far fewer occasions where you need to dance outside in full sun during the summer. I pity the dancers gadding about on a day like today. Good luck to ‘em. Much better to be out in the evening or in a cool dark corner of a pub, nursing warm beer and a pickled egg.

Sword dancers are not entirely excused summer duty. When North British went to Überlingen in June 2022 – RUMB 29(3) – we did the Manx, Maryport (rapper) and Papa Stour (at a run) back-to-back at three dance spots in very quick succession. It was 34˚C and higher. The forty five-minute yomp left me somewhat damp. My shirt was soaked, my waistcoat was wet, and I had distinctly “salty” trousers. A teammate (also a young one) found the heat a bit much and looked close to death…

Happily, our German hosts were on hand to dole out bottles of water from neatly stacked crates. Our ‘kitty meister’ – a term I’ve just invented (probably Jeff) – was quick to return from the bar with gloriously heavy glass Steiners filled with gloriously cold, life re-affirming beer. We sipped it in the shade of a tree and slowly cooled down. Such was management’s concern for our wellbeing, the Editor (the title North Brits give to the boss) granted special permission to remove our ties and waistcoats. Frankly, it was touch and go with the trousers too. Once they’d dried out, the salt just brushed off.

Crime and Policing Bill: Update
Further to the report in RUMB 32(1): Clauses 12 to 36 (part two) of the Bill deal with offensive weapons and contain a package of statutory reforms on knife crime known as ‘Ronan’s law’. This is named after 16-year-old Ronan Kanda who was savagely murdered in 2022 by two other 16-year-olds armed with swords and a machete bought online using a parent’s ID and credit card.

The Bill creates new controls on selling, buying, and receiving ‘bladed instruments’. The Bill does not seek to redefine “sword’ in law and it looks like the rules on carrying, “displaying” and dancing with swords in public will continue unchanged for the time being.