Rush Bearing

This is unlikely to be of interest to anyone except those interested in North West morris dancing or English traditions.

I'm reading up on rush-bearing traditions at present. 

In the days of earth or stone church floors, they used to cover the floor in rushes for insulation and to provide a softer surface to kneel on.  Castles and houses likewise used rushes.  (You'll find plenty of references in Shakespeare to strewing fresh rushes for guests)

In areas like Lancashire, the annual renewal of the rushes became a big, festive event and processions would bring the rushcart to the church - accompanied by morris dancers and many others. 

Here's a bit more about the tradition.



This is Saddleworth rushcart - a recreated tradition, but the rush cart (going by a rather rare book that I own) is pretty accurate.  The cart can easily weight a couple of tons.  Note the ropes leading to a bar held by more men in front (I've seen pictures of carts with over a hundred men pulling them with long bars with ten or twenty men to each bar).  Now, look at the men behind, there's plenty of those too.  They're the brakes!  Very necessary if the cart has to go down a hill...

Also note the classical North West morris costume.  The hats decorated with flowers are typical of many Nothern sides (especially men's sides).  The knee britches are often seen as well.  Bells on the shoes go without saying (it's possible that it is the bells that gave morris its name, but more on that another day)  They're wearing clogs.  Not all traditional side would have worn clogs; normal shoes would actually have been more common.  Modern North West sides like clogs as they give a link to the past, they also emphasise the footwork and make a distinctive sound.

Bluffers guide to morris dancing. If a morris dancer is wearing clogs, then they're dancing North West morris (unless they're the Dorset Button rapper dancers who wear clogs becasue they double up as the band for the Dorset Buttons North West morris team).  However, absence of clogs does not prove that they are not North West dancers.

An interesting outlier in rush traditions (in that it's not in the north west and isn't connected to morris) is an annual rush day service that still takes place in Bristol every year at St Mary, Redcliffe.

North West morris dancing at Odyssey

Now that I've hopefully got you briefly interested in North West morris, I should mention that I'm doing a morris workshop on Friday and Monday mornings.  (the other mornings are frostfox  doing belly dancing and another fan doing Lindy Hop)

No experience required.  Total beginners (which will probably be everyone except me) very welcome.

Traditionally, it was mostly danced by men.  Today, both men and women dance, though single sex sides are almost the norm.

Musicians welcome (we've already got a skilled accordion player in the form of SF writer Tony Ballantyne)  I'll bring along a bodhran for anyone who wants to bang a drum.

I'm borrowing a set of sticks from my local morris side, so there's enough for lots of dancers.