ATMD diary of 2015
Thursday 1st January: New Year’s Day lunchtime at the Cherry Tree, Steventon, with Icknield Way as usual. Dancing outside, then music inside.
Saturday 24th January: First Abingdon Wassail at South Abingdon Children’s Centre (Caldecott Meadow). Anthony Walker was the Green Man in charge of the event. An instant tradition enjoyed by all on a freezing cold day.
Thursday 9th April: Mayor’s Challenge at the Brewery Tap. Somehow we managed to lose to the Town Council team.
Saturday 11th April: St Hilda’s college, Oxford, danced on the lawn for a Book Crossing event. Excellent audience and for once it was a pleasure to dance on grass (flat and even). Also had a good time in the Cape of Good Hope nearby.
Sunday 12th April: Abingdon Rowing Club Event. In contrast to St Hilda’s the dancing surface by the side of the river outside the beer tent was awful, uneven and with large holes. No serious injuries fortunately and afterward we played a few tunes at the Kings Head & Bell.
Sunday 19th April: Oxford Folk Weekend. Danced at Radcliffe Square, Castle Unlocked and Gloucester Green. Played some tunes in the Royal Blenheim at lunchtime.
Thursday 23rd April, 2015: St George’s Day Pub Tour. The usual evening town tour of the Old Anchor, Kings Head & Bell and Punch Bowl, finishing with a few tunes in the back bar.
Saturday 25th April: Danced at a wedding anniversary party at Crowmarsh Gifford barn.
Thursday 30th April: Gave a demonstration and instructional at Kingfisher School.
Friday 1st May: May Morning in Oxford, dancing from 6.30, breakfast in St Edmund Hall then more dancing at the Ashmolean and North Parade.
Sunday 3rd May: Danced at Abingdon Air and Country Show.
Thursday 7th May: Pub Tour with Old Speckled Hen at the Prince of Wales, Shippon.
Saturday 16th May: Danced at St Nicolas School May Fair
Thursday 21st May: Pub tour, North Star Steventon. Two dancing shows with the chip van visit in between and some music afterwards.
Sunday 24th May: Danced at the Island Farm Country Show (Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Donkey Sanctuary).
Monday 25th May: Harwell Feast, procession and dancing.
Thursday 4th June: Pub Tour, Wheatsheaf and Red Lion, Drayton.
Saturday 6th June: Danced at Fun in the Park (Abbey grounds) then at a wedding reception at the Nags Head where all the guests arrived by boat.
Sunday 7th June: danced at a 50th birthday party at Rutherford Appleton Lab’s social club, where we were made very welcome.
Tuesday 9th June: Pub Tour, Crown, Marcham with the Vale Islanders.
Saturday 13th June: Dunmore School Summer Fete followed by the Coxleton Ceilidh – a splendid birthday bash celebrating two recent 70th birthdays.
Saturday 20th June: Mayor’s Day. Guests were Bampton Traditional Morris and Wychwayz Border Morris. Yet another change of mayor – Duncan Brown 64 votes, Harry Knight 55, Roger Cox 49. Thunderstorm when chairing the new Mayor up Ock Street and we had to dance inside the White Horse during the rain.
Thursday 2nd July: a corporate event to celebrate Oxford PharmaGenesis winning the Queen’s Award for Export. We had to meet at the Black Horse before being smuggled in as a complete surprise to the gathering which included the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire. After dancing we had to train 2 teams from the audience for 30 minutes and then have them do a competition dance. The judge (the new Mayor of Ock Street) diplomatically declared a draw.
…….Then back to the Black Horse where we were to have a meeting with a film director who had come to Mayor’s Day and wanted to involve us in a music video project for a girl band called Stealing Sheep. After a few ground rules had been agreed we surprisingly let ourselves in for this venture.
Thursday 9th July: Pub Tour, Kings Head & Bell and Punch Bowl.
Thursday 16th July: Pub tour, Prince of Wales, Shippon.
Monday 27th July: the first Stealing Sheep rehearsal at Trinity Church Hall, where we adapted some of our dances to the general ideas of the director.
Thursday 30th July: Stealing Sheep rehearsal, this time at the Guildhall which was chosen by the film company as it was more spacious.
Thursday 6th August: Another Stealing Sheep rehearsal, this time along with Oxford University and City (who had been roped in because they have a stick dance) and also the group’s lead singer who would be dancing in and out of the ‘real’ dance sets.
Tuesday 11th August: Dance out with the Vale Islanders at the Fox, Denchworth, along with some German guests of Wantage’s twin town.
Tuesday 18th August: Final Stealing Sheep rehearsal, along with Oxford and the whole of Stealing Sheep.
Wedneday 19th August: The Thames Source to Sea annual event which involves a bottle of Thames water being taken from the source to the sea by a series of boats. Rob Charlton’s boat took the bottle from Sandford lock to Abingdon lock, where it was handed over to the assistant lock-keeper, Frank Jordan – who was a dancer with us between 1952 and 1956. We danced in the pouring rain, then went to the Punch Bowl. Mark Wright’s boat had earlier ferried the bottle further upstream.
Thursday 27th August: Stealing Sheep filming at Turville (in the middle of nowhere in the Chilterns). Luckily the filming used the Bull and Buthcher pub as its base and we started with breakfast at 8am! This is also the location for the Vicar of Dibley, various Midsomer Murders etc so the locals are quite used to such activities. In the afternoon it rained for about an hour, so we played some tunes in the pub. Then back to filming until 7.30pm.
Friday 28th August: Stealing Sheep filming day 2 at Turville. Over the day it became apparent that a lot of us were affected by some sort of food poisoning, not just the dancers but may of the film crew and extras – no doubt something from the food served by the pub the day before. We soldiered on, despite 23 takes of one scene. And some of us got stunt doubles who performed acrobatics. To say nothing of straw bears, a giant and a horse on a hoverboard. You probably need to see the video……
Saturday 29th August: Danced for a Mrs Booth’s 102nd birthday lunch at Ewelme (though some were still suffering from the food poisoniong), then on to a Wedding Renewal party at St Ethelwold’s house. Mrs Booth later sent a charming Thank You letter.
Sunday 30th August: Danced at the Kings Head & Bell Beer Festival between the showers, and played some tunes inside.
Sunday 6th September: Danced at Wallingford Bunkfest.
Saturday 12th September: Danced on Market Place for Abingdon Heritage Day, then at Stowford House summer fete.
Sunday 20th September: Danced at the Cherry Tree (Steventon) beer festival and played a few tunes.
Wednesday 23rd September: Gave a demonstration and lesson to Abingdon Beaver Scouts at the Baptist church.
Thursday 1st October: The director (Dougal Wilson) came to the Brewery Tap to show us the finished Stealing Sheep video before it was released the following week – our own world premiere for the side and families.
Wednesday 7th October: The Stealing Sheep video is finally released and spreads quickly via social media. Most people ‘Like’ it. Some claim that this makes morris dancing cool. John Spiers, local folk musician, tweets that it is cooler than anything he has done with Bellowhead.
Thursday 8th October: Back to reality – demonstration and lesson for Uffington Cubs, followed by dancing and music at the Fox & Hounds in Uffington.
Saturday 28th November: Abingdon Christmas Extravaganza – parade at 12, then dancing shows at 1, 2, 3pm with rests in the Punch Bowl in between.
Wednesday 2nd December: North Abingdon Womens Institute Christmas Lunch. Dancing and talks.
Friday 11th December: Mummers Play at Mayor’s Old Folks Christmas Dinner, Preston Road Community Centre.
Tuesday 15th December: Mummers Out of Town Tour – Wheatsheaf (Drayton), Plum Pudding (Milton), Cherry Tree (Steventon), Fox (Steventon), North Star (Steventon), Red Lion (Drayton).
Tuesday 22nd December: Mummers Town Tour – Punch Bowl, Kings Head & Bell, Old Anchor, Crown & Thistle, Conservative Club, Brewery Tap.
The Mummers collected a total of £498.80 for the Abingdon Breakaway Club, including a £10 donation from someone who missed the performance. The organiser rounded this up to £500.
click for some photos from 2015