Cyril Smith on left and John Grout 1995

Copy of Poster issued for a Traditional Dance Day and BBQ held at the Scarborough Arms featuring Bampton Morris Dancers

Dancing in the grounds of the Deanery. Reg Hall on fiddle, Craig Godwin (back to camera) and Jamie Blackwell dancing a jig.

Frank Purslow on melodeon, Roy Shergold dancing a jig

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.

Copy of text with explanation (PDF)

1a. Whole front page

1b. Dates showing and first three sealed names

1ba. Closer view first three sealed names

1c. Next four sealed names