Regular Sides

Our (more) regular sides include teams that have been performing at the festival for many years, and newer local teams who celebrate the border tradition borne from Herefordshire and neighbouring Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Worcestershire. Look out for some of them at this year’s festival!

Earlsdon

One of the finest exponents of North West clog Morris in the country. Founded in 1971 in Coventry, they have delighted audiences across Europe with their colourful kit, energetic dances and fantastic band. They perform a selection of traditional and self-written dances, and with a youthful and large number of dancers they will be hard to miss at this year’s festival.

Faithful City

Faithful City Morris Men hail from the Worcester area, based at The Talbot at Knightwick, and are named after a Worcester City motto: Civitas fidelis in bello et pacem (a City faithful [to the Crown] in both war and peace). The Side has celebrated 50 years of dancing, mainly traditional Cotswold & Welsh Border Dances. See them dancing in black top hats with green & blue chequered ribbon, white shirts and blue tabards with three Worcester black pears (front) and pear tree, Malvern Hills & River Severn (back).

1st Sedgley

1^st Sedgley Morris were formed in 1979 based in Sedgley, a village between Wolverhampton and Dudley, in the heart of the Black Country.  They first visited Bromyard Festival in 1981 and have been regular performers ever since. After the pandemic when we didn’t have enough members to perform at the Festival and nearly disbanded.  However, in early 2024 they decided to become “1^st Sedgley Morris”, a mixed Cotswold side, now with 25+ dancing members. They are looking forward to their first visit to Bromyard in their new format.

Jockey

Jockey Morris was formed in 1949 and have performed ever since in Birmingham, country wide and in Europe. They mainly perform Cotswold dances in their traditional kit of straw hats, white shirt and trousers, blue baldrics with a rosette based on the Sutton rose and red, green, yellow and blue flashes on the end of the baldrics.

Ledbury

Ledbury Morris are a relatively new, mixed side formed in 2018 based near the market town of Ledbury in Herefordshire, a few miles south of Bromyard.
Their look is influenced by local tradition and inspired by the vibrant hedgerows, and they perform a mix of both traditional Border and Not for Joe dances.

Leominster

Leominster Border Morris started in 1983. They have a range of traditional Border dances and reinterpretations of dances from other traditions that we perform in a Border style, together the odd smattering of Cotswold dances just to prove they can! There is a historical record of Leominster men wearing ‘cheap print jackets, jingling bells and clashing sticks together’. Today, they wear boots, black jeans or trousers, braces, arm ribbons, a formal jacket made from colourful curtain material and a top hat. In the winter, the hat is decorated with feathers and foliage, a black shirt is worn under the jacket and faces are disguised with green face-paint. In summer, a white shirt is worn and the hat is decorated with fresh flowers.

Lord Conyers

Lord Conyers Morris are a traditional Morris Dancing side from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, founded in 1974. They dance a wide variety of Cotswold dances from different traditions, plus Border dances from the Pershore tradition. They can be found in the summer months dancing at various pubs plus other events in South Yorkshire and the surrounding areas. They are also to be seen at festivals both throughout the country and abroad.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare Morris are based (unsurprisingly!) in Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire and they dance Cotswold traditional Morris, with a strong focus on the Bidford on Avon tradition dances. They are open to all for Morris dancing, learners and experienced, and musicians too. Their colours of black and gold are from John Shakespeare’s (father of Will) Coat of Arms, including the black and gold shield with a “shake spear”.

Silurian

Founded by folk legend Dave Jones, Silurian began dancing in 1969 in Ledbury and have kept faithful to the Border dances Dave and others collected from documents & old people in the Welsh border counties. Over the years Silurian has performed all over the country and tours abroad, gaining friends, admirers and lifetime bans across the continent. Their motto for the recent half century anniversary was, ’50 years and still going wrong!’.

White Hart

Formed in the 1970’s and based in Alcester, White Hart perform a number of Cotswold Traditions and their own distinctive Headless Cross style of dance.

Soft Option

This long established Worcestershire side performs fast and furious dances in the spectacular Appalachian precision stepping style. The percussive rhythm of their feet is complemented by the bluegrass/old time sound of violin, mandolin, guitar, banjo and double bass as performed by their band ‘No Option’.