The recent Village Fair in David Lawrence's village in Somerset saw the reappearance of Taunton Deane Morris men, 'dancing out' once again - 'now that it is Summer'. 
Six men dressed in white dodged the showers of rain to dance to the ancient tunes of 'Old woman tossed up in a blanket', 'Lads-a-bunchum' and 'Trunkles', played on the ancient instruments of 'pipe and tabor'. Some dances saw the men wave large white handkerchiefs, in others there was the clashing of two short willow sticks, some had one long stick flailing about and others - such as 'How d'you do, Sir?' are a ritualised bare knuckle fight. As they capered, double stepped and galleyed the bells (on the bell pads around their shins) jingled and the jig ribbons about their arms waved. This is the sound of summer in England.
Popular culture has it that Morris men are beery bores - but to see them dance in close precision and wield their sticks without serious injury (only one member has had his head split open in the last twenty five years) one quickly realizes that this is a sport for the quick witted, and for someone who possesses considerable memory, agility and stamina. Every step is written down, many movements have a ritualised origin....

The history of Morris dancing is so ancient that a lot of it was never recorded, has been forgotten or has been made up to fill the void left by what was forgotten or was never recorded. I am no great scholar, but I shall tell you what I know.
There are still one or two sides in England that dance with the benefit of 'additional characters' - the Fool, a Hobby Horse, sometimes a boy and even a Betty (a manwoman of fertile significance). These are the last vestiges of the dance's origins - for once it was The Play that was the most important thing and the Dance came as an addition at the end. The Play was a version of The Mummers Play ( something which David Lawrence leads in his village on Boxing Day, and which we will touch on in a later news letter) a Midwinter Ritual of Death and Rebirth. 
The Dance, as performed exclusively by men - as opposed to the Country Dances of the general village public which were community affairs for both sexes -became more popular in Tudor times with the addition of steps & moves possibly from the Moorish Court (a possible origin of 'Morris'). As an tradition spread through the country - the Cotswold Morris being distinct from other male dances such as Sword or Rapper Dances - on a village by village basis. Many of he steps - the capers & galleys displayed men's fitness & agility to the full & were very akin to a stylized mating dance. 
Village 'traditions' bore similarities to and differences from their neighbours (depending, I suspect, on the strength of memory of a visiting side who might admire a particular step or move or tune & attempt to mimic it - with varying degrees of accuracy & success). To the east of the Cotswolds dances are brisk and snappy, to the west they are flowing and graceful. Some are extraordinarily difficult.
Rural depopulation and the lure of mass entertainment saw the decline of the Morris - the great saviour of the traditions, Cecil Sharpe, collected the few remnants from a collection of aging men in the years just before the Great War. At that time there were few sides still dancing - and of those that did remain most of the men died on the battle fields of the Somme. There are only two sides who have danced without a break in their summer appearances through the centuries - most sides now are 'revival' sides, manned by enthusiasts who hate to think that such a wonderful heritage might die out.
We are eternally grateful to Cecil Sharpe - yet had someone taken the trouble to make a record a hundred years before and there would have been possibly two or three hundred other village traditions to have been written down.