Morris in Wantage
Morris dancing has a long history in the town. The Wantage churchwardens’ accounts record 16d spent in 1565 on ‘a dasson morys belles’, and in 1590 John Eshmond was paid for ‘lyveries’, or costumes. Unlike Abingdon, though, Wantage did not keep a continuous tradition of its own, and no local Wantage dances were ever collected.
A school club that kept going
The present side began in September 1958, when boys at Icknield Secondary Modern School in Wantage asked their music teacher, Miss Mary Shunn, for ideas for an after-school club. She had danced with Headington Quarry during the Second World War and taught them dances from the Headington tradition, and she introduced them to experienced dancers, including members of William Kimber’s family. When the boys left school they carried on dancing, at first in private, and gave their first public season in 1965. The side was invited to dance at the 100th meeting of the Morris Ring in Oxford and became full members of the Ring in 1974.
Their emblem, the Wessex wyvern, came from Icknield School and recalls the kings of Wessex, Alfred among them. Dancers wear white shirts and trousers, sky-blue waistcoats with the wyvern in orange and yellow, red spotted neckerchiefs and straw hats decorated with ribbons, flowers and badges. The side dances Cotswold morris from several Oxfordshire villages and is recognised as keeper of the stick dances of Stanton Harcourt.
The Wantage Mummers
The same men perform as the Wantage Mummers. Since 1977 they have given a traditional mummers’ play in Wantage on Boxing Day, a short knockabout drama of combat, death and comic revival that was once common across English villages at Christmas.
Where to see them
- Summer evenings, May to September: dancing outside pubs in Wantage and the villages.
- May Morning in Oxford: the side dances in Radcliffe Square each year.
- Boxing Day in Wantage: the Mummers’ play.
- Winter practice: Wednesday evenings in Grove. New dancers and musicians are welcomed.
In 2009 the side marked its fiftieth anniversary with a tour along the Icknield Way, the ancient route that gives it its name.