Thanks Kitty, Julian Pilling has maded some interesting comments perhaps tongue in cheek, perhaps just stupid.

I guess Preston Royal (was that his side?) were carrying on a tradition just as much as the women of the Northwest. I remember a couple of quotes from his letters to ED & S, that one of the commonest aspects of morris was revival and that it is largely an urban event in that most morris sides were from small towns with an industrial base rather than tiny agricultural villages. The logic is clear - only places of a certain size could generate enough dancers and then provide enough audience to provide beer money. This seems particularly true in the Northwest.

I danced with Gorton Morrismen some years ago and the feeling I got was of a celebration of working class life. I think that is clearly associated with the times during and after the Industrial Revolution. What ever the origins of Northwest may have been it really grew out of the social life, such that it was, of working people in those small poor industrial towns based on mills and mining.

Morris Dancing isn't much like Country (Social) dancing. When it is it doesn't really work. It is dramatic, all that banging, ringing and stick whirling even better with a big mixed band. Jemmers had a sax last saturday and all manner of things.

For drama Gorton were as good as it gets. 8 men on the pavement between a pub and a chippy, in the dark and rain in November in Openshaw. 3 melodeons, 2 drums, banjos and Ash Latham in full cry. Scared the daylights out of the locals.

Who needs to claim a link with the pre-christian or fertility rites?