These three pictures show the Shirt Race over several years. The first race ever took place in 1953 to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. All the contestants wore long night shirts hence the name. The children's race is seen by the bridge in Buckland Road. In those days the race started by The Swan Inn just beyond the bridge on the left. In later years, the night shirts were done away with and with fewer and fewer prams available, the modes of transport have varied and the costumes are now so good there is a competition before the races to judge the best one.
Bertie Clark. Fiddle rear Harry Hampton (fool) Peter Alum, George Hunt, Bobby Wells cake Bertie (1877.-1958) was another Bampton Morris fiddler, but unlike Wells was not born into the tradition. He was brought up in London, where he worked at a railway depot in Camden Town. He had some violin lessons, and played in the railway staff orchestra. Sometime before the Great War he moved to Carterton, the village next to Bampton. When in 1926 Jinky Wells had a falling-out with his Morris side, and went off to form his own, Bertie Clark was invited to be fiddler for the original Bampton Morris; he initially learned the tunes from Cecil Sharp’s published manuscripts (presumably relations with Wells were such that he wasn’t going to teach them to Bertie himself!) Recordings of his playing made in 1958 appear on Rig-a-jig jig; dance music of the south of England from Topic Records’ "Voice of the People" collection. A listen to his playing is very instructive. At the time he would have been 81 years old, was quite likely well out of practice and possibly arthritic.
Black and white photo of Morris dancers taken in 1970 in Deanery Gardens Left to right, on extreme left Roy Shergold fool, Bill Daniels, centre of picture Frank Daniels, Terry Rouse, Dave Rose’s face just seen on the right.
