In another recent thread - Folklore: Rossendale coco-nutters in the 1930s - I quoted a passage from a book by Tommy Thompson, describing how morris dancers came down from the Rossendale valley. Replies to my original post included the interesting quote (from the Britannia dancers website) posted by Bernard:

"The Dances spread throughout Rossendale and around the turn of the Century there were at least four troupes. One of these was the Tunstead Mill Troupe who celebrated their half century in 1907. It is from this troupe that Britannia is descended."

If Cornish miners brought their trade to the new Lancashire coalfields - or if the miners picked up the dance from South Africa - both possible suggestions by Bryan - my question is: why just the Rossendale Valley? My own paternal ancestors were coal miners in south-east Lancashire (not Rossendale) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The coal industry was quite widespread in those days, and it's fascinating to read that the coco-nutters troupes appear to have originated in just one part of the overall coal area.

One answer to my own question may be in the fact that movement of people from area to area was less common in the earlier years of the 19th century - my own family remained in their part of Lancashire with little movement out of it until the 1890s - and the dancers in Rossendale were more isolated at that time.