As Graham Bradshaw says, before the first Sharp-inspired revival, membership of a Morris side *was* usually seen as a great honour, jealously guarded and often kept within the same group of families within a village.

The "Pagan Survivalists" would have us believe in some sort of hereditary priesthood thing going on, but far more likely was the fact that belonging to a side meant that you could often pick up a few extra bob when times were hard.

Which, of course, was exactly what has going on when Sharp first encountered Headington Quarry Morris on Boxing Day, 1899...