In discussions here about songs, people have often drawn attention to the context in which old songs, traditional songs if you like, have survived. Context is equally important for social dance and even more so for that which we call morris.

Northwest looks different to Cotswold because it evolved in an urban / industrial context in the 18 / 19 century. From what did it evolve? It was associated with Rushcarts but I understand that many Rushcarts did not have Morris dancers and that Rushcarts pre-date Northwest Moris. The most obvious explanation is that Northwest evolved from something like Cotswold. It is an explanation not often heard in North west circles.

People dance morris now for all the reasons given above. Some people, often men, seem to need to offer some kind of serious explanation for what they do and so they call upon "pre-christian, pagan, fertility" history to justify dancing with other men in public.

The fact that almost no coherent body of evidence exists bothers few. Perhaps no coherent body will ever be identified. People who have spent serious amounts of time searching for evidence, almost to a man woman and child, find little or no evidence for the "pre-christian, pagan, fertility" idea and much for the "escaped from the courts of the rich" idea. Not as sexy though is it?