North West Morris, Lancashire and Yorkshire

Saddleworth Morris Men

The North West Morris from north Cheshire and Lancashire is danced by at least nine men and as a processional so that the dancers dance along the road performing set figures accompanied by stepping - as a 'rant' step. The team usually has a leader at the head of the set, with a whip and a whistle to instruct the dancers. The music for the dancing is usually provided by a band of musicians with drums, brass instruments, melodeons, etc. The dancers wear elaborate and colourful costumes, often decorated with strings of beads but with fewer (sometimes no) bells, and they dance in wooden clogs fitted with irons that accentuate the rhythmic stepping. Their hats are often decorated with so many fresh flowers that the hat underneath disappears! Saddleworth Morris Men and their rushcart, August 2005 In recent years many communities have seen the re-birth of their team - Manley, Horwich, Preston, Rochdale, Leyland and others. NW Morris has also spread to many other morris sides outside of the 'traditional' region; close by are John O'Gaunt from Lancaster and Earlsdon Morris Men from Coventry, and in the south of England are King John's Morris from Southampton who dance Cotswold as well as NW Morris.
A few teams have recreated the Rushcart tradition, most notably and successfully Saddleworth Morris Men. Rushes have had many uses: to form a warm carpet on earth and other rough floors; the rush pith forms a cheap and easily obtained wick for the "rush-light", and Cornish miners once used them to make fuzes; rushes were used to make bedding, mats (hassocks), seats for chairs, ropes, also cheese wraps, fish nets, and the pith for stuffing parts of clothing. Even a charm for warts or a ring to delude naive young women "A custom extremely hurtful to the interests of morality, appears anciently to have prevailed both in England and other countries, of marrying with a Rush-Ring. It was chiefly practised, however by designing men, for the purpose of debauching their mistresses, who were sometimes so infatuated as to believe that this mock ceremony was a real marriage" (Brand's Popular Antiquities)

Rush-Bearing

The strewing of rushes on house and church floors largely died out in the early 1800s. The purpose of the rushes was to provide warmth for the earthen and flag floors. They were replaced occasionally, with little thought given to cleanliness. Sometimes the house rushes were changed regularly, but more often they could be left for years "As to the floors, they are usually made of clay, covered with rushes that grow in the fens, which are so slightly removed now and then that the lower part remains sometimes for twenty years together, and in it a collection of filthyness not to be named". Erasmus at the time of Henry VIII. From William the Conquerer to Elizabeth the First, the palace floors were covered by rushes.
In churches seats were not provided until the fifteenth century, wooden floors were rare, kneeling was very uncomfortable and since only the gentry could afford cushions, rushes were used as a floor covering. It is in this context that a custom arose for the replacement of rushes strewn on church floors. In Lancashire the rush replacement developed alongside of the wakes religious celebrations or the feast of dedication of the church, becoming a festival and an excuse for singing, drinking and dancing - and fighting. A parish party!

Women pulling Rushcarts in Rochdale

One of the very few references to women pulling rushcarts: in the 1618, King James's 'Book of Sports' there is the statement: May games, Whitsun ales, Morris dances and the setting up of Maypoles and other sports, ... so that the game may be had in due and convenient time without impediment or neglect of divine service, and that the women shall have leave to carry rushes to church for the decorating of it. However by the 1800's rushcarts had supplanted the women's role. Men generally built up the rushcarts, and men usually pulled the carts - with one or two exceptions. It is possible that the complete takeover by men of the collection of rushes put an end to the Mayday style frolics. In 1859, however, the Smallbridge Rushcart shocked even the Vicar. As the Rochdale Observer put it, in a piece of calm and uncritical reporting: the Smallbridge cart was "...partly manned by women and girls - 42 females helping to drag the cart". Letters to the newspaper following the event bordered on the hysterical, John Ashworth, who founded the Chapel for the Destitute, wrote: "Those persons labouring for the redemption of mankind must be sick at heart. Never could they have conceived that young girls would be seen drawing rushcarts."

Revival of Rush-bearing ceremonies

Ambleside mural

In recent years a number of other rush-bearing ceremonies have been revived:

Other References to NW Sides, past and present

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