This is one of the earliest photograph of the Bampton Morris Men taken in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The dancers are George Wells/Taylor Thomas William Tanner Joseph Rouse Robert Dixey George Dixey James Dewe Charles Henry Tanner, ragman Henry Radband, sword carrier William Nathan Wells, fool, known as Jingy Richard Decimus Butler, musician
This newspaper sketch shows the fiddler Billy Wells - better known as Jingy Wells. Second from the left is Charles 'Cocky Tanner', the Bagman.Charles danced for forty years. At the back can be seen the Fool, Dave Edginton and at the front, extreme right, is Thomas 'Buscot' Tanner, the Squire.
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.
William Nathan 'Jingy' Wells danced, fooled and played the fiddle for Bampton Morris from the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. In this picture he is seen with his fiddle. The hat, waistcoat, trousers and socks (odd socks) are still cared for by the Bampton Traditional Morris Men.
Bampton Morris dancers c1924/5 outside the Elephant & Castle.
The sign over the pub door says Posting House, Horses, Carriages, Brakes. Personal attention given, Albert Townsend. The 3rd and 4th lines are hard to read which is a pity but it looks like 'For Hire All Trains Met On The Shortest Notice.
On 23rd September 1935 the Townsend family moved across the road to Castle View and made a farm of it having much more room to fatten more pigs.
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)
Dancers at Shipston on Stour June 23rd 1930. Arnold Buckingham. Billy Flux, Reg Tanner, Jim Buckingham, Bert Hunt, Vic Tanner, Ted Lay, Sam Bennet on fiddle