Diary for 2017

ATMD Diary of 2017

 

Sunday 1st January: New Year’s Day lunchtime at the Cherry Tree, Steventon as usual, this year joined by Old Speckled Hen.  Dancing in the rain outside, partly under the large pub umbrella, then some music inside for the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday 18th March: South Abingdon Children’s Centre farewell celebration. Danced at the ‘closing down party’ of the location where the Abingdon Wassail tradition lasted for all of 2 years.

Sunday 19th March: danced at the King’s Head and Bell Beer Festival, with a music session between dance spots and afterwards.

Sunday 9th April: danced at Abingdon Head of the River in Hales Meadow.

Sunday 23rd April: danced at Oxford Folk Weekend, Gloucester Green, Broad Street and Pitt Rivers Museum, with a nice relaxed session at the Blenheim at lunchtime.  Then back to Abingdon for our St George’s Day evening tour  – King’s Head & Bell and Punchbowl.

Monday 1st May: danced at Oxford May Morning

Thursday 4th May: danced at the Prince of Wales, Shippon with Old Speckled Hen

Sunday 14th May: danced at Abingdon Air & Country Show

Friday 26th May: filming in Leamington Spa  for a BBC2 show “My Country”, to be screened later in the year.

Monday 29th May: danced at Harwell Feast and took part in the opening procession

Thursday 8th June: pub tour, Wheatsheaf and Red Lion, Drayton

Saturday 17th June:  Mayor’s Day.  Guests were Oxford University and City, dancing as one side.  An extremely hot but enjoyable day.  Harry Knight re-elected as Mayor with 122 votes, Roger Cox got 61 votes.

Saturday 24th June: danced at Grove Rugby Club Extravaganza

Thursday 6th July: danced at North Star, Steventon with Vale Islanders with a break for the chip van and some music afterwards.

Saturday 8th July:  danced at Caldecott Primary School Summer Fair.

Thursday 13th July: pub tour, Plum Pudding, Milton with some music afterwards.

Sunday 16th July: danced at LAM Brewery LAMbar session, Kennington.  Lovely occasion, our fee was some excellent beer.  Who says the bagman can’t organise such an event?

Thursday 20th July: pub tour around town at Punchbowl and Broad Face.

Saturday 29th July: WADStock Festival, Wootton.  Danced as the event opened at mid-day.  Not a lot of audience at that time, but at least we didn’t get rained on like some of the dance acts that followed.

Sunday 30th July: Fleurfest, Fleur de Lys, East Hagbourne.  Had a very pleasant Sunday lunchtime, dancing with Rose Hips belly dancers, Off the Rails Appalachian dancers and Leptons Morris. Afterwards, some of us were brave enough to have a go at belly dancing and dancing to an excellent Ska band. The rest of us just enjoyed the excellent Loose Cannon beers.

Thursday 3rd August: danced at BBC Countryfile Live, Blenheim Palace.  Gave three dance shows, including one involving the audience.

Saturday 5th August: We said our final farewells to Colin Corner as his ashes were scattered on White Horse Hill, then danced at his wake at the Cherry Tree.  Colin took over from Jack Hyde as bagman in 1971 and was the main driving force behind the team in the 1970s and 1980s.

Wednesday 9th August:  danced at the Plough, West Hanney, with Icknield Way.

Sunday 3rd September: danced at Wallingford Bunkfest.  Quite wet at times but still very enjoyable – could it have been all those different beers on offer?

Saturday 9th September:  Heritage Open Day, danced on the Market Place 11am.  Warm-up beforehand and some music afterwards in the Punch Bowl.

Friday 15th September: danced at the Gala Dinner of the 2017 Convention of the European Sales & Marketing Association, Heythrop Park.

Thursday 28th September: visited Uffington cubs and taught them some Abingdon morris dancing, which they picked up very well.  Then visited the Fox & Hounds and played a few tunes there.

Monday 6th November: gave a talk on morris dancing & dance display for Abingdon U3A (University of the Third Age), Preston Road community centre.

Saturday 18th November:  The BBC2 programme “Our Country – A Work in Progress” was screened at 9pm, including a 30 second clip of us dancing (see filming 26th May).

Saturday 2nd December: Abingdon Christmas Extravaganza.  Mid-day parade, then dancing at 1300-1330 in Bath Street, 1330-1400 on the Market Place and 1530-1600 in Bath Street.  Some rest and music in the Kings Head & Bell in between shows.

Tuesday 19th December: Mummers Town Tour – Punch Bowl, Broad Face, Kings Head & Bell, Old Anchor, The Grapes, Conservative Club, Brewery Tap.

Thursday 21st December: Mummers Out of Town Tour – Wheatsheaf (Drayton), Plum Pudding (Milton), Cherry Tree (Steventon), Fox (Steventon), North Star (Steventon), Red Lion (Drayton).

The Mummers collected a total of £551.96 for Abingdon Community Hospital League of Friends. 

 

click for some photos from 2017