Morris Dancing in The Forest of Dean (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, November 07, 2011, 21:16 (4768 days ago) @ ijriddell

Hi, I'm not a dancer but trawling the internet gives a little more detail, which you're probably aware of, namely

"Cecil Sharp had visited the Forest of Dean after meeting the fiddler Henry Allen at Stratford upon Avon on 27 August 1909. Allen, whose age Sharp gives as 90 (probably a rounded up figure as the 1871 Census puts his age at 48) was then living in Mere Street and working the pleasure boats on the River Avon. Henry Allen told Sharp that he had played the fiddle for a set of morris dancers at Ruardean until about 1870, when a man was killed during a fight between rival sets of dancers on Plump Hill (on the road between Mitcheldean and Cinderford)."

http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/baldwin.htm

Surely such an incident would have been reported in the local newspapers, suggest researching the Dean Forest Mercury archives in Cinderford Library if you can.

ps living in West London as I do and having a keen interest in all things music and history, I've enjoyed a few good days out at the delightfull Cecil Sharpe House in Camden in the past, an area renowned for Irish folk music etc. Cecil was an iumportant figure particularly regarding English folk music.