h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Spidey,

Don't worry about the site, it will pick up when people find their way about, everyone has sites growing out of their ears due to the mass panic, I have lots in my favourites and I am finding it very difficult to find my way about on here, if it had not been for logicus and TT I would have given up to it.

I will not have much time for any of it for a while, probably just pop up occasionally if the weather is bad, and the election is over, that may take all of my time for a few weeks.

So you see you are not abandonded just stick it out for a while.

Cheers H.

yup shame about the change in the procession,suppose the next thing will
be the clubs/sticks that they bang when dancing will have to be made of polystyrene , just did a search to see what was entered on site re morris dancing below are all the entries i found,the last being a clever poem

A2345393 morris dancing
A349599 Morris Dancing
A618581 Morris Dancing

A145450 Morris Dancing
A1902881 Morris Danse Macabre
will check some of them out later ,just to give spideybaby some ideah of the size of this place these where found at about 5850 entries on just the letter m, and i also would imagine some more on 360 or book of the future, well back to being busy doing nothing

Thanks Logicus,

The traditions of Morris Dancing for some reason
appear to date about the same periods throughout the land.

The North West dancers listed, are of the same area of Lancashire, the ones similar to American Cheers Leaders are modern and based at Whitworth about three miles away from Britannia, Bacup where the Coco-nutters are based.

The Nutters dress in colourful red, white, and black uniforms and highly polished clogs, with brass nails around the wooden soles.

The name is because they dance with coconut shells as cups on wrists and knees to strike in tune to the music, they also use hooped garlands with flowers for part of the dance, and sticks to perform another part.

It is said that Cornish men brought the traditional dances from Cornwall about one hundred and fifty years ago, when the came to Lancashire to teach drift mining for coal. A similar technique to copper and tin mining at home.

It is also said that the dances were originally brought to England by Moorish sailors, hence the blackened faces of the dancers, a tribute to the sailors who taught them originally.


H.

Hi, how are y'all? Strange having to wander like a nomad from site to site to catch up with old friends now.

spidey

Hi Spidey,

Our lovely Morris Dancers suffered a real defeat, after dancing for about 150 years, they got curbed in fine style, by our over the top Lancashire County Police force, herewith an appeal to our next government. Please give us a national police force with identical policies, for policing the whole our country.

For goodnesss sake, we are a tiny island people, not generally agressive by nature, but lions when provoked with a big stick.Over in the next police authority, The Chief Constable of Manchester would have blessed the Dancers with good intent and a couple of Police Officers to control the traffic flow.

The procession crowd are mostly women children and an elderly population, yet the Chief Constable of Lancashire sent at fantastic expense, about half a dozen oficers in riot gear, to sit in vehicles and monitor the dancers, just to makes sure that they did not dance on the road.

The excuse being, to protect the public from the increased traffic flow,I do not think this Saturday afternoon was any different than last year when the traffic flowed smoothly round the procession just as it has always done, managed efficiently by the trained stewards.

Cheers H.

Well, it maybe they needed a wee bit of a rest after dancing for 150 years. That must be some sort of a record.

What record were they dancing to, anyhow?
It must have been quite old too.

well cad no doubt a tune sinuler to the horn pipe

Cad,

I am not going to explain the time factor, but the music is one hundred and fifty years old too, no records or tapes, just half coco nut shells strapped to wrists and knees.

Not being easily impressed myself and certainly not a morris dance fan, I have been impressed ever since I was taken to see it by my grandfather when I was about six years old, there is a photograph of us both in the local newspaper office taken about 1934.

Grandad's brother was the leader of the group from about 1930 to about 1945 but he was most certainly not over one hundred years old at the time.

Thanks Cad,

Cheers H.