Notes from Albert Fuddle, Rembrancer and Squire of the Morris
As well as being the village brewers, my family have been closely involved with the Mirkmere Morris dancers since we first came to live in this area and have provided many of the dancers and musicians for generations. At the moment I am the leader of the side, my wife Victoria is one of the musicians, my father Fred was the leader until his untimely death in a motorcycle accident on Hallowe'een night 1990 (returning from a celebration in Pidley on the back of the motorcycle driven by his old friend Charlie Nipperkin they failed to negotiate the sharp bend at Mirkmere Parva and sailed into the fen and oblivion. At the time of their deaths Fred was aged 90 and Charlie was 89) - and my grandfather "Old" John was leader before him.
The traditional seasonal festivals of Huntingdonshire were largely unmarked by the end of the nineteenth century. The celebration of the passing of the seasons by earlier generations in the Ouse River valley area was restricted to May Day festivities (especially the Glatton, Sawtry and St.Neots May garlands) and the mid winter activities associated with Plough Monday, when the village ploughmen would blacken their faces and parade the streets pulling a plough and collecting money from householders. In Ramsey there is a record of a Straw Bear akin to that of Whittlesey and some passing reference to Molly Dancers. For a long time this distinctive, if unexciting and badly recorded, fragment of local tradition was thought to be all of Huntingdonshire's contribution to the English folk tradition. That is to say, outside of Mirkmere where we knew all about our own traditions and were happy to share them ... but nobody came to ask us about it
The original morris side danced for centuries without a break until the terrible fate that befell them (at the Midsummer Feast) just before the last war, after which the survivors of that awful day felt unable to continue. Fortunately in the summer of 1987 over a pint in the Old Lame Duck. Fred and Charlie were persuaded to teach some of the dances and tunes they knew before the knowledge was lost with their passing. The final result was the reforming of the Mirkmere Morris, under my leadership, by a number of the young(ish) people of the village who have recreated the tradition.
Just in time, as it happens.
footnote:
Why is the dance leader called the "Squire" - a good question. For some reason dance leaders are all called squires as the teachers are the foremen and the administrators are the bagmen. Lost in the mists of time and all that but it probably has its roots more in the "How's things Squire?" culture rather than any reference to doffed hats and forelocks touched in deference.