Headington

Possibly the simplest tradition but therefore the most danced and the worst danced and the one deserving most attention.

Also the focal tradition that happened to be the first Cotswold Morris team recorded by Cecil Sharp. The village of Headington is in Oxfordshire and is actually a suburb of Oxford now. Once known for its stone quarried there, the Morris Team is known as The Headington Quarry Morris Dancers to themselves and the Headington Quarry Men to most others and acknowledge themselves very modestly to be the world's premier side.

It was fortunate that the dancers were uncharacteristically dancing on Boxing Day 1899 otherwise things might have turned out very differently.

The Headington Dances (Sharp)

• Bean Setting (S)
• Laudnum Bunches (C)
• Constant Billy (S)
• Country Gardens (H)
• Trunkles (C)
• Rigs O'Marlow (S)
• How D'Ye Do Sir (C)
• Blue Eyed Stranger (H)
• Getting Upstairs (H)
• Double Set Back (H)
• Haste to the Wedding (H)
• Hunting the Squirrel (S)
• Rodney (S)
• Headington Morris Reel
• Jockie to the Fair (J)
• Old Mother Oxford (J)
• Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket (J)
• Shepherds Hey (J)
• Bacca Pipes or Greensleeves(J)

C= Corner, H=Handkerchief, S=Stick, J=Jig

The Headington Dances (Bacon also notes):

• Morris On
• Morris Off
• Merry Kimber
• The Twenty Ninth of May
• The Weeping Willow Tree
• Mummers Dance
• Leapfrog

See Also:

• Headington Quarry Morris Dancers