Thanks for that Freddie - just saved me a job. For the uninitiated, the Abram dance is well known in the Morris Dance world, and many teams dance interpretations of it. We've seen a few versions, but never with a maypole, so they're not doing the Abram dance. It is, as far as I know, the only surviving English Maypole Dance. This differs from the familiar style with plaited ribbons, which was introduced from the continent in the late 19thC, when the English dance was thought to have died out. The Abram Morris Dancers will not be familiar to many of you, because we don't dance at festivals and dance weekends. We only do the tour of Abram and environs on the last Saturday in June, following an age-old tradition. None of us is getting any younger (not even me!), and if we don't get some younger men to take over, it's going to die out. So get along on Saturday if you can, and see it done properly, before it's too late!
Abram, as you can see from th map link above, is on the south east side of Wigan, close to the East Lancs Rd and M6.
John Kelly.