Open Morris Member Sides

UOM is a very recent resurrection of the Upton upon Severn Morris side, which last danced in the early 1920s.  It was comprised of locals that mostly worked on the River Severn but which, when frozen over, could not provide an income.  When too few men returned from the Great War, women stood in for a few years.  Fortunately Dr.Maud Karples collected the two dances, the Upton Stick and the Upton Hanky, in 1925 when she persuaded William Griffin and members of his family to dance one last time.  She said: “It was very corrupt when I saw it.” They were not really a Border side as we know it now, using hankies too and with no record of blacking up, but it’s not Cotswold either.  We try to keep as close as we can to how it was at the start of the 20th Century, starting practice in November and dancing through to early Spring.