Benfieldside Morris Men

Benfieldside was formed in 1963 as a school folk dance group at Benfieldside School in Consett (hence the name), and in the intervening 40+ years has established itself in the North East presenting morris dancing and the Tyneside Rapper Sword dance. The original membership was confined to people living in and around the village of Benfieldside, but over the years, has spread and now draws members from all over the North East of England. We have not however lost the community feel and still meet in a village hall, (although not the same village). The team meets on Wednesday evenings during the winter to practise and then during the summer months we go out to perform at local fairs and functions, and also travel further afield to meet up with other morris sides at larger scale dance events. Over the years we have represented England at Festivals throughout Great Britain and Europe, have co-hosted three international festivals in Derwentside and visited France,Germany, Luxemburg, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Slovakia and the former Soviet Union. In July 2007 we travelled to the Skagen Festival in Jutland, Denmark for a very wet weekend, whilst in 2008 we represented England at the Folkdancenet conference in Hungary. Several members joined dancers from other local sides to dance prior to the national screening of "Morris - life with bells on" in September 2009.