Background Adderbury sang old songs and other popular town songs of the day, often executing some of their stick movements whilst they sang the choruses. They did this to keep the crowd quiet while they were resting themselves. Sometimes they danced as they sang.

Janet Blunt (1859-1950) lived in Adderbury from 1892. She with the occasional help of friends, Mrs Elliot Hobbs, Miss Kennedy and Miss D C Daking, collected songs and country dances from 1907-1919, the morris only over the 1916-18 period. Several copies of her mss were made to pass to other people, such as Cecil Sharp who appears to have ignored it, which differ in details, so all have to be consulted. The Blunt collection was used by Michael Pickering for a thesis and a book "Village Song and Culture : A study based on the Blunt Collection of Song from Adderbury, North Oxfordshire" published in 1982 by Croom Helm, London This puts the material fairly into its context of period and locality. Keith Chandler considers the people involved in his books.

The major informant on the morris was William "Binx" Walton (1837-1919), at least a third generation morris dancer, and, with his brother, a well known local singer. The village orchestra was disbanded in his boyhood, but he sang treble in the church choir. He had a difficult teenage as his father was convicted of two counts of theft in 1844 and died in 1848 soon afterwards, so William was in the workhouse until apprenticed to a bricklayer and builder. However he became a lifelong bell ringer from the age of 15. He married a girl from Coventry in his early 20's, when he was probably already a morris dancer, and he claimed that he was its leader from about 1860 to its end just before 1880. He had four brothers who were also morris dancers. In the 1881 census he was a builder and shopkeeper, in the later 1880's and 1890's he kept The Wheatsheaf public house in East Adderbury until 1899 with an attached shop. When Blunt first met him he was a vigorous and upright man full of dance as can be seen in the Blunt photographs. He met Sharp and Karpeles in Hampstead, London on the mornings of 25th and 19th March 1919 by Janet Blunt arranging for him to visit a married daughter. He died in that September aged 83. Sharp said he was hale and hearty, rather blind although he can hear well, walk with a firm step and sing with a strong baritone voice. At first it was difficult to get his memory back and it was only by degrees that he was able to recall the different evolutions with their many technical details, despite Blunt's success over the previous few years

In the 1950's and 60's the Sharp and Blunt mss material was rationalised for circulation to be consistent with the existing Sharp publications. From the 1970's the various slightly different copies of the Blunt mss were treated as independent descriptions widening the interpretation possibilities. Unfortunately 1919 was in the period that Sharp appears to have pressurised informants, as at Abingdon, Brackley and Wheatley, and his interpretations can not be completely relied upon if there is alternative evidence.

The handkerchiefs, half a yard a side, had two opposite corners tied and held between thumb and forefinger. The hand movements were not very stereotyped but varied considerably, although always within certain limits. The arms were held in front of the body, the elbows curved and held well away from the sides. The movements were "counter-twists" in rather large vertical circles or ellipses. On the first beat of a bar the movement was outwards going down and then up. Sharp elucidated that they could be a slight upward pull using mainly the wrists when the hands met dropping in front on the 3rd beat.

The sticks were held vertically in the middle with the hand at shoulder level and a little in front of the body. The tapping in choruses is normally "doubles".

Hands Round: clasp hands at waist level.

Whole Hey: the top two pairs pass right shoulders, turning the easy way into it.

Shooting: The dancers stood upright, as if firing a shotgun, which they would know all about, and never crouching, which would be dangerous to the person.

The following is based on transcriptions of the Sharp and Blunt mss and not on previous publications such as Lionel Bacon's book.

BLUEBELL OF SCOTLAND - doubles stick hold

BRIGHTON CAMP - doubles stick hold

(COME LANDLORD FILL THE) FLOWING BOWL - doubles stick hold

Normally they sang the figures without dancing.

Pattern: can use different striking patterns inspired eg by Blue Bell of Scotland

HAPPY MAN - Four Part Song - doubles stick hold

Normally sang and tapped sticks. Would clash across "to close" at end of lines.

End dance with a repeat chorus performed faster.

In the "High" hold the sticks in both hands, stand pointing left shoulders to each other, evens facing up, odds facing down, and raise sticks well above heads horizontally and parallel to the files. When striking the dancer makes an overhead movement pivoting right hand over left, so as to strike down with his tip on to his partner's butt.

POSTMAN'S KNOCK - Two Part Song - doubles stick hold

Adderbury tapped only, Wootton danced foot-up and half-gyp, foot-up with singing, stand facing an tapped without singing, ad lib.

Because of the tune stretching in the last bar of the sticking to make the B music nine bars long, it is often stretched further by adding two more strong beats for a tenth bar and doing two extra taps.

End dance with a repeat chorus performed faster.

ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND - doubles stick hold

They only sang and tapped before the club dinner, outside they might dance. This was a typical formal song before army mess dinners.

Collected with tapping through the A musics as well.

(SWEET) JENNY JONES - alternately doubles and singles stick hold

Figure order as Washing Day.

Sang on the last foot-up in the last chorus.

Collected both in 3/4 and apparently in 6/8 time.

Step : in 3/4 time pause on 4th step (etc) with weight on both feet.

WASHING DAY - alternately doubles and singles stick hold

Danced for as many as available. Figure order : foot-up; half-gip; sticks across diagonals in fours; foot-down.

file adderbry.wri