At the end of our day walking around the three dales from Litton we arrived back in the village ready to return home. What had been a sleepy village when we arrived in the morning was transformed late in the afternoon with the sounds of folk music, bells and the crack of clogs on the road.
I have to say I have always been a little bit sneery of the old tradition of Morris Dancing, it seems so out of place and I have difficulty believing that it really had much of a place in old English country life. But on this occasion we walked over to the green in front of the Red Lion Inn to watch first the Morris Men and then the ladies of the Poynton Jemmers as they performed these traditional dances and I have to say that it didn't feel out of place at all.. The dances involved some really complex moves and it was amazing to see how well the dancers kept in time with each other and of course with the music.
The bright colours, the bells, the unusual costumes, the waving of handkerchiefs and batons and the jolly folk tunes really conjured up a magical atmosphere in the perfect location. Speaking afterwards to one of the ladies it was clear that preserving the traditions is very important to them and they had just completed a whirlwind tour of the dales villages bringing these dances back to the places they would once have been a familiar sight.
I think that the expressions of the dancers show a mixture of concentration and a lot of joy, especially in the second of today's pictures which I think is my favourite shot of the day.
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