Hageneth Morris Men 1977- 2019; Rest in Peace

A celebration/wake for Hageneth will be held at the Chestnut Horse, Great Finborough at 12.30pm on 10th November and a great turn-out of ex-members and friends from other sides is expected. We hope that a Hageneth side of some kind will dance as well as the Haughley Hoofers. All are welcome.  The Chestnut Horse has been chosen for the event because that was where Hageneth first performed in public in June 1977, as below.

Hageneth 1977 the first public performance

Hageneth June 1977

 from left, Codge Barber, Bruce Sydell (hidden), Ronnie Godbold, Brian Francis, Sally Green, Dave Burt

Hageneth, founded as “Haughley Festival Morris” in 1977 to perform at Haughley’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations, have been suffering a mid-life crisis for the last 2 or 3 years. They managed to reach their 40th birthday but have now sadly passed away after 42 years. The side have decided that because of a declining number of fit and able men, it is no longer possible to continue as an independent side. Some members of the side will continue dancing with other local sides.

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Morris Dancing and Me

A new BBC 4 TV Programme - For Folk's Sake: Morris Dancing and Me will be shown on Sunday 31st March at 2.55am and Monday 1st April at 9pm

I have just heard about this programme and hope you see this message before Monday 1st April as, judging from the BBC trailer for the programme (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p074rfsv ) it looks like it could be worth watching.  It seems to cover a bit of Morris history, the usual speculation about origins (is it called Morris because it sounds like “mores” when pronounced in a Chaucerian fashion?), as well as an insight into the challenge of learning the mysteries of the “one, two three hop” double step.  It raises the question of how to save an ageing generation of Morris dancers from extinction and wonders whether the solution is to encourage people other than men to dance the Morris (no, really, it does!  Imagine, whatever next?). 

Moulton Morris Men at Thaxted Ring meeting 2014

As the programme goes to Thaxted to interview dancers as well as audience you can imagine how some of the issues are addressed but it also goes to Bampton and meets a young dancer from Moulton Morris.

The BBC press release for the programme goes as follows;

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