Photograph by Michael Cooper showing Morris Dancers in Church View with names
2004

Sam Bennett born (1865-1951) from Ilmington, a frequent dancer and musician in Bampton, this photo dated 1920
Sam had the distinction of being called “a rotter” by Cecil Sharp. He was responsible for reviving the Morris tradition in the Warwickshire village of Ilmington. Although a fiddle player himself, he learned the tunes from a local pipe and tabor player, Tom Foster, who “no longer had enough teeth to hold the pipe in place” In the process of reviving the dances, Bennett did some improving and inventing along the way. To Sharp, this was inexcusable meddling; what he most treasured about traditional dance was that is was supposedly not the work of individual creativity, but of centuries of continuous evolution by the common, preferably uneducated people. Bennett was recorded in 1933 by a Harvard academic, James Madison Carpenter. Being a self-taught fiddler, and having learned his tunes directly from a piper, it is little wonder that his playing, though very rhythmic, was plain and unadorned except with frequent open-string drones.

Black and white photo of Morris dancers taken on 6th June 1927
left to right Tanner snr. Billy Flux, E Lay, Hudson. Bertie Hunt, Freddie Tanner, (written on back)

Black and white photo of Morris dancers taken on 1951
outside Elephant and Castle,

Black and white photo taken in 1973 of Frank Daniels, in Market Square

Black and White Photo taken at the Deanery in 1977
Roy Shergold fool, Frank Daniels, Terry Rouse, Dave Rose, Jasper Walsh, Shaun Mullis, Bob Allinson

Photo of Morris Dancers taken in 1978 at Greyshott House
left to right Bill Daniels, Reg Hall on Fiddle, Terry Rouse

Black and White Photo of Reg Hall taken in 1978 at Greyshott House, from Colin Hicks

Photo taken in 1984 of the Morris Dancers with numbers

1. Francis Shergold
2. Bob Allison
3. Rod Stradling
4. Martin Ferguson
5. Ray Borrett
6. Bruce Piercy
7. Dave Rose
8. Billy Main
9. Tony Daniels
10. Cyril Smith
11. Jamie Wheeler
12. Mark Harrison
13. Jasper Walsh
14. Terry Rouse
15. Craig Godwin
16. Bill Daniels
17. Keith Rouse
18. Jamie or Jason Blackwell ???
19. Reg Hall
    Bob Allinson’s last year carrying the cake was 1989.

Team photo taken in 1989 outside Deanery