Grimspound Morris celebrating 30 years of dancing

2024 sees the 30th anniversary of Grimspound Border Morris, a local ‘side’ of Morris dancers based in Newton Abbot who are regularly seen dancing around Dartmoor and the surrounding area. To celebrate, they are visiting the 17 churches in Devon that have roof bosses depicting the ‘Three Hares’, the symbol being part of Grimspound's tradition and evolution, going some way towards the inspiration of their much loved and dance, Tinners Rabbits.

A warm Monday evening saw the side descend upon the parish church of St. John the Baptist in North Bovey, where after viewing the roof boss, they performed the dance of the Tinners Rabbits, before heading to the Ring of Bells for refreshments, where they also hosted the Otter Border Morris, a side based between Sidmouth and Exeter who also dance in the Border Morris style.

Border Morris originates from the English-Welsh border region and is typified by tattered raggedy coats in various colours with sticks, as opposed to Cotswold Morris which is generally white costumes with handkerchiefs and bells. Grimspound wear raggedy coats in mainly black with some purple and some flashes of green, also top hats and sticks. Other Border Morris teams such as Otter Border Morris have different colours, in their case mainly greens, some brown , yellow and flashes of red to represent oak trees and leaves. The hats are again part of the Border style, top hats being the most common.

One of the mythologies for the origin of the dancing is that it goes as far back as to the Bronze Age, but the most popular belief is that it likely originated from North Africa via Spain in the Tudor period, probably brought by the followers of Catherine of Aragon. There is a dance in Spain called the Morisco which is vaguely similar.

As far as the dark faces are concerned, Andy Muyer (age 62), Squire of Grimspound Border Morris, explained that “we are figures of mystery, darkness and chaos and all that, but who knows, basically?”

John Owen, Foreman, explained that it also used to be a form of disguise, as “it used to be illegal to busk and earn extra money outside of work, and not be recognised and get fired on Monday morning”, although Andy was keen to dispel that theory and stated that most things one hears about Morris dancing are myths anyway!

Andy writes on the Grimspound website that in England, somewhere between 1500 and 1700, some people stated using the word “Moorish” to describe a fun dance that was considered to be wild / barbarian /outlandish / outrageous, in a similar way to how words like “Tartar”, “Vandal”, “Young Turk”, “Red Indian”, “Voodoo”, “Heathen”, “Pagan”, “Hooligan” etc., have been used at different times to describe things that are thought to be ‘wild’ to our English sensibilities. Whilst this story doesn’t tell us anything about the face paint, it does possibly link in with the origins of the name. Andy also states that it also possibly tells us about how the dance got its reputation as “Pagan” or “Ritual”… for which there is otherwise not the slightest bit of evidence!

Grimspound Morris dance team was formed in 1994 from a group of ex-Cotswold style dancers and a few friends, and from the outset they set out to dance with vigour in an uncompromising “border” style that celebrated “maleness”, with a balance between the rude (but never totally crude) and the dark side. Today the team survives after splits and various changes of personnel, including the welcome of women to the side.

Grimspound Border Morris are dancing throughout August and September across Dartmoor and South Devon, including the Dartmoor Folk Festival on 10th August and Moretonhampstead Carnival on 22nd August.

There is a full calendar of events to be found on their website.

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