The Morris Dancer, Volume 4, Number 1
- - - by laying the swords cross - bladed on the ground and
dancing in and out before beginning their hand play in the air."
by David Thompson

A geographical index of the ceremonial dance in Great Britain gives the most southern occurring reference to a long sword dance as Newbold near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. A visit to Derby Local Studies Library will produce a series of references to a dance at Coxbench near Derby. There are six references including a play text to a dance with a unique hopscotch figure in an area rich in mummers plays known locally as guisers plays.

Thomas Ratcliffe we know was born at Coxbench about 1840 and that between 1851 and 1881 he moved with his parents to Worksop, at about the age of 15 by reference to parish registers and census returns of those dates. There are four pieces from him one dated 1914 another more specific 1920, another more recently came to light dated 1923 and another as yet undated piece, probably between the two. There is the text of a mummers play from his manuscript. The earliest piece speaks of the dance opening with stepping over the swords on the ground followed by the more usual figures. He speaks of being bemused because what is recorded and written elsewhere is different to what he remembers being performed in his village in 1851. The 1920 piece is more specific and would seem to be describing an actual dance because of the amount of detail. The third piece is more general but gives very specific detail of the dress largely confirmed by the 1920 document but has the dance end with a lock figure, like Grenoside. There is a 1923 piece repeating the dress of the dancers, establishing the team to be six dancers and a musician and a repeat of the unique figure.

Of one thing he is in no doubt, that is, the placing of the swords on the ground and the dancers stepping over them. We may surely conclude that this was the special feature of the Coxbench dance and a feature that stuck most firmly in his mind after all those years a memory that could have been clouded by what he subsequently saw or read and was the source of his confusion. This highlighted the Coxbench practice because nothing quite like it happened elsewhere, with what he might have seen or read about at the time.

We could if we take the 1920 document see the Coxbench dance as unique in the country in not having a lock figure anywhere in the dance. I doubt this since there is such a fertile mumming/guising tradition in the area and without the lock figure there is nothing to suggest the idea of immolation of a sacrifice the central idea of the guising, sword and even the morris traditions. We may conjecture following Thomas Ratcliffe's grandmother that sword dances were more wide spread in this area than E.C.Cawte's survey suggests, for he has Newbold near Chesterfield as the most southerly appearance. On the other hand, there is the textual tenet of giving strength to the most difficult but if we do this then we have to discard some of Thomas Ratcliffe's information and we have little alternative but to take him on face value if we are to trust any of his information and we must take into account that he is not always intending to give the same degree of detail when he speaks of sword dancers.

There are other interesting features of this information, namely that there is no suggestion of any singing or death resurrection snippet (calling on song), other than in the play text and that much is made of the increase of tempo to the same tune, the only other tradition where much is made of this is Grenoside, the suggestion of stepping concluded with a smack is there elsewhere but without so much emphasis and there seems to be some indication of a dance in two halves, again like Grenoside.

If we take all the Information together then we have a dance with the following features:

1. Swords are placed on the floor and every dancer steps over them.
2. A circle is formed and they danced round 3 or 4 times.
3. Movements as in a normal sword dance.
4. There is a distinctive concluding smack at the end of a phrase of stepping.
5. A lock made and disengaged at the end.
6. Same tune is used throughout
7. Six men and a fiddler in distinctive dress.
8. Four figures danced to quickening music.
9. There is much detail about dress, including bells.

The information taken as it is presents certain problems:-

1. Is the stepping over the swords at the beginning or end.
2. How does the lock fit in.
3. The quickening tempo rules out certain figures i.e. they need to be figures that do not have the hilt-point configuration. At least anything more complex than a circle is ruled out given the limitations of the long swords.

If you take all of the Long Sword Traditions both those collected and published and all the other evidence that has been collected, where there is enough to give a different danceable remnant, it would be interesting to see if there are any common figures. To do this it will be necessary to standardise the terminology by looking at all of the descriptions of the figures making up the dances, c.f. Table 1. This will bring to light any common elements that occur among the traditions. The pattern produced so far c.f. Table 1, is interesting in that it is those figures executed in the hilt/point formation that show a common group of figures, some occurring in all traditions. This must mean that given the geographical distribution that we can posit the hypothesis that the Long Sword traditions originate from an underlying common source c.f. Sharp's introduction to The Morris Book 1 (Second Edition) and the Sword Dances of Northern England. The explanation surely lies in the limitation placed on the hilt/point figures by the constraint of the rigid swords. It is even more interesting that where, what I will call the set figures exist, that there is no such pattern, which must make them products of later or separate development since there is no restriction on what can be done once you move away from the circle.

By analogy, then, some figures can be inferred, small amendments to detail like being right handed can make it a tradition in itself. Some figures can be considered as a common element of the long sword dances and are scattered throughout their dispersion. A possible notation that takes care of all of the considerations of the information could be:-

None of this takes into consideration the Play that is a much fuller version at Coxbench than most. the text in its entirety as it appears in Ratcliffe's Manuscript can be found elsewhere.

This may shed further light on the sword dance in the following way:-

1. The introduction speaks of a dozen people, three with blackened faces, dressed in tatters and the others in soldier uniform. This could be a reference to the sword dance and extra characters of the play.
2. There are several references to 'game' and I would suggest refers to the hop scotch figure, which is a major element of the Coxbench dance.
3. There are two death resurrection episodes and appearances of the Doctor.
4. What is the point of this other than to accompany the dance.

We may have here a play that goes with the dance but how do the two fit together, there is another tradition with an expansive play in two distinct parts at Ampleforth.

There are two considerations:-
The entrance of the Noble Captain who may well be the leader of the sword dancers. This character's reference to 'game' is the point at which the dance takes place beginning with the 'hop scotch' figure. If the Captain enters the Lock and the swords withdrawn then we come to the second reference to the Doctor. With the second appearance of the Doctor he uses a pill like in the Ampleforth play and following this tradition is the place for the second part of the dance with its differing figures, not a selection of the others.

It may well be that there are two versions of the dance one with the play and one without. This would fit with Ratcliffe's grandmother's assertion that in her time long sword dances abounded in the area.

The second form would be as follows:-

What you have here is a very interesting if not unique Long Sword Dance, there is not room here but a much fuller version is available on my website: www.tradcap.com/introduction.html