Hi Les
The first mention of Gorton Morris was in the Gorton Recorder of 1775 saying the Gorton Morris failed to turn out as usual (not being there was newsworthy, so they must have been going for a few years before then). The first performance by the revival side was exactly 200 years later in 1975. I joined that year, two of us joined together and we were the first members with cars so that footups were no longer restricted to cycling distance or bus routes.
First big trip away was Cornwall, first Ring Meeting was Giffard, busiest weekend was the Jubilee with 19 foot-ups in 2 days.
Great times and great memories from the Biermeister. If you want stories from that era let me know, I can bore you silly.
I turned up to the Waggon a few years ago in a morris t-shirt and a couple of lads asked if I'd heard of Gorton Morris, I heard myself saying " I were dancing wi Gorton Morris before you were born" and what was worse, I was right.
Not 40 yet...
Cheers
Bill