Extract from " We are six dancers bold" published 2001

What is sword dancing?

Mention that one of your hobbies is sword dancing, and the usual first responses are 'do you often cut your feet? Or "do you wear a kilt?’

Throughout the UK - and possibly the rest of the world - Scottish sword dancing over crossed swords on the ground is quite well known. However, the English traditional sword dance is far less well known, even in the sword dance heartland of the North East of England.

There are two types of native traditional English sword dancing. Teams of five men using a short flexible, two-handled sword perform the Rapper dances of County Durham and Northumberland. Rapper dancing is fast, nimble and danced to lively jig tunes. Teams of six or eight men using rigid swords of metal or wood between 30” (76 cm) and 40” (102 cm) in length perform the statelier Longsword dances, which are mainly to be found in the County of Yorkshire. The dance is generally much slower and more precise in execution.

This account focuses on the Longsword dance tradition, in particular that originating from Greatham in County Durham.

Longsword dance is based on dancers working together in a circle - holding the hilt of their swords in their right hands and the person on their right holding the point. The dance comprises a number of 'figures'. Without breaking the circle, the dancers complete movements during which they either go under a sword held aloft by two of the dancers or over a sword held close to the ground. Each dancer generally completes each figure. The dance culminates in the making and displaying of the sword 'lock', with the swords interwoven in one of a variety of shapes.

With many of the dance traditions there was also an associated mummers’ play which formed an integral part of the performance. In the play one of the characters is ‘beheaded’ by the swords being ‘locked’ around his neck, and a quack doctor brings him back to life. A quack doctor being one who would, in earlier times, have been found at travelling fairs and shows offering a variety of dubious remedies supposedly capable of curing anything and everything.

It is arguable whether these plays have always been part of the performance or if they are a later addition to enhance the entertainment value, as similar ‘stand-a-lone’ mummers’ plays have recorded in many parts of the British Isles.

Most of the dance traditions, however, are now performed without their plays, but conversely, Ripon in North Yorkshire, had, until quite recently, sword dancers who had a play but no dance! Greatham is believed to be the only example of a dance and its play still being performed together.

The origins of the Longsword dances are obscure and a number of theories have been suggested since folklorists began to take an interest in the dances in the early part of the twentieth century.

One theory is that the dances were brought over by invaders and settlers from Northern Europe before the end of the first millennium. Certainly there are numerous examples of linked sword dances to be found throughout Continental Europe.

Until fairly recently it was also suggested that the dances are the surviving remnants of pre-Christian fertility rites. Since many of the remaining Longsword dances are performed during the darkest months of midwinter, it was supposed that the dance represented a plea to the gods to encourage the return of the sun. The death and resurrection aspects of the mummers play tending to add weight to these theories. This explanation is given less credence today and unfortunately there is no definite answer now available to us - even many of the surviving traditional teams can only say 'we do it because we have always done it’.

The Longsword dances were once quite widespread across Yorkshire, with twenty-four dances being recorded in sufficient detail to still be performed and upwards of fifty other examples noted. There are several traditional teams remaining, that is, teams that maintain the dance of their own town or village. Examples can still be found at Grenoside and Handsworth, both near Sheffield, Goathland and Flamborough.

There are also a number of ‘revival’ teams that formed in the 1960’s and 70’s to resurrect and save some extinct traditions from oblivion. Redcar Sword is one such side.


Greatham - The Village
The village of Greatham stands on a low ridge on the northern banks of the Tees estuary. To the north, and rapidly encroaching on its boundaries, stands the conurbation of Hartlepool, originally a small fishing and farming community, but with increasing industrialisation expanded to become a 'new town' of the 1850's. Two miles to the south is Billingham, also destined to become a 'new town', but in this instance, dating from the 1950's.

Greatham still remains a largely unspoiled rural retreat by-passed by not just the main road from Billingham to Hartlepool, but seemingly by history in general. The village does have however, in addition to a sword dance, two other pointers to a long and continuous history - a 'hospital' founded in the late 13th Century and a village feast dating from the 15th Century held in late June.

The Hospital is not a hospital in the medical sense but was established to provide food and shelter for "40 needy of the manors of the Bishop of Durham". A sister hospice, Parkhurst's Almshouses, was founded in 1761 for "6 poor widows or spinsters". Both are still in operation today.

The Feast today comprises of children's sports, darts and domino tournaments, a fancy dress competition and fete on the village green.

The population of the village more than doubled in the 19th Century, showing a growth from 442 in 1801 to 909 in 1901. The years between 1871 and 1881 were a period of stagnation with a population of fewer than 750 people throughout.

The village had always depended for part of its economy on the saltpans of the nearby Tees estuary, but in 1882 new hydraulic techniques enabled the exploitation of underground beds of salt and the area became a centre for the salt industry. The result was a significant influx of people, by 1911 the population had exceeded 1,000 for the first time.

The current population is in the region of 2,300 inhabitants and the village is typical of many that are situated on the outskirts of a large town. Amenities include three public houses, two churches, a post office, a number of small shops, the village hall and a primary school.



Greatham - The Sword Dancers

Greatham, being on the northern side of the River Tees, is in County Durham and therefore on the margins of the Yorkshire longsword tradition. We have often pondered on where the dance may have originated. Could a link be established with a dance tradition south of the river? Or is Greatham a unique isolated survival of a custom that once stretched much further north? The present level of knowledge of the ancestry of the known participants would suggest a ‘not proven’ verdict on both counts. Certainly there is a tenuous link with a village in North Yorkshire, but the majority of the Greatham dancers all appear to have been from established local families.

The existence of a dance tradition in the village was discovered by chance in 1935. An American collector, James Madison Carpenter, was touring the United Kingdom seeking folk songs and mummers’ plays and was recording the Hunton (near Richmond, North Yorkshire) play from a resident of the village and a visitor from Greatham prompted his informant when he hesitated. Following on from this, a few days later Carpenter visited Tom Armstrong, the leader of the Greatham dancers, to record the play and brief details of the dance. Carpenter’s main interest was in mummers’ plays and folk song and he neglected to make any record of the Hunton dance at all!

According to Carpenter’s notes, Armstrong informed him that the play had been acted for 100 years. If this is correct, then the play element of the tradition would date from the first quarter of the 19th Century, but no evidence is available to either prove, or disprove, this statement.

Unusually, for collectors in those days, Carpenter made notes regarding his informants and the names of other participants. Thus we have a unique 'snapshot' of history whereby the names of a complete team are known and the parts that they played. Armstrong informed Carpenter that he last took part in 1922 and it is assumed that the names that Armstrong supplied are the team from that year. The latest Census records currently available, 1881 and 1891 have been used to try and identify the most likely inhabitants and their origins. The ages given are what they would have been in 1922.

King - Thomas Armstrong. Age 52, born 1870 in Greatham, learned the dance from Christopher Day (or Dee?) and Joseph Stephenson in 1892

Mr. Sparks - C. Hardman. Not found in Census Records for Greatham in 1881 or 1891.

Mr. Stout - J (ohn?) (W) Tinkler. Age 63, born 1859 in Greatham.

Mr. Wild - H (arry?) Frank(s). Age 52, born 1870 in Greatham.

Squire's Son - Robert Taylor. Not found in Census Records for Greatham in 1881 or 1891.

Prince and Doctor - Ralph Young. Age 53, born 1869 in Greatham. Not in Census Records for Greatham in 1891.

Clown - Joe Thomas. Not found in Census Records for Greatham in 1881 or 1891.

Clown - Metz Musgrave. Age 58, born 1864 in Greatham.

Musician - A (lbert?) (W?) Right. Age 50, born 1872 in Greatham.

Part played not recorded by Carpenter - George Tinkler. Age 55, born 1867 in Greatham.

The ages of these men in 1922 led me at first to doubt that I had found the right people. Most of the names are fairly common, but there is only one ‘Metz Musgrave’ in the Census Records. Could it be that there was no interest amongst the younger men of the village to continue the tradition? Is this evidenced by the need for Ralph Young to dance and also do the Doctor’s part? Or were places in the team jealously guarded, as, after all, it was a source of beer money during the week following Christmas?

The two men who taught Armstrong and possibly the other members of the team, since they are mainly of the same age group, Christopher Day (or Dee) and Joseph Stephenson would also appear to be local people. A Joseph Stephenson aged 45 and born in Greatham is included in the Census Records for 1891. There are several ‘Dees’ but no ‘Days’ in the Records for 1891 amongst who is a Christopher Dee aged 55, born in Billingham. Billingham in 1836 was a small rural community bordering on the parish of Greatham. This may not be the correct Dee however as Armstrong stated that Dee was 65 years old when he taught him.

Apparently the custom was only enacted sporadically in the years after 1922 and it was 1953 before the Greatham tradition next came to the attention of the folklorists. The schoolmaster, Charles Howard trained a team of schoolboys, to perform as part of the Coronation celebrations, following Armstrong’s verbal instructions. This revival became known to Dr Norman Peacock of Leeds University and he recorded the words and a full version of the dance from Tom Armstrong. The results of his research were published in the journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in 1956.

The play associated with the Greatham dance is very similar to a number of others and it seems likely that they share a common ancestry. As previously mentioned, it was the similarities with the one from Hunton that led Carpenter to visit the village. Lines and verses are also echoed in the plays from Ampleforth, Bellerby and Sowerby, all in North Yorkshire. It has been suggested by earlier researchers that they are the corrupt remnants of texts sold by itinerant hawkers in the 18th Century to the then equivalent of today’s village dramatic societies. In a less literate period than today, the words would most likely have been passed on by word of mouth with the inevitable result that over the years there has been an understandable divergence from the original scripts.

It is unfortunate that no photographic record has been brought to light of any of the old Greatham dancers’ performances or even those of the schoolboy team of 1953. Efforts to trace the descendants of the men named in Carpenter’s notes and members of the teams from more recent years have, so far, proved unsuccessful.





The Redcar Sword Dancers and the revival of the Greatham Tradition

One bright, cold December afternoon, a troupe of young men dressed in red, beribboned jackets arrived unannounced at the village of Greatham. It was Boxing Day, 1967, the beginning of the revival of an ancient tradition.

The story really starts in the May of that year, when Colin Mather having discovered Norman Peacock’s article on the Greatham dance, canvassed other members of the Cutty Wren Folk Song Club in Redcar about the possibility of staging a revival. There was an enthusiastic response, despite the almost total lack of any practical knowledge of even the rudiments of sword dancing! The ages of these new recruits to the world of sword dancing ranged from the late teens to the late twenties, coincidentally echoing the ages of Armstrong and his fellow team members when they first learned the dance.

Using Peacock’s article as their ‘bible’ and the precision of the Loftus Sword Dancers as their role model they began to practise and a team was born.

The team’s first musician, Dave Wood, soon left the side to take up a staff post with the English Folk Dance and Song Society and was replaced by twelve year old Robin Petch on fiddle. Robin was joined by his mother, Hetty, (always called ‘Mrs.’ Petch or ‘Mrs. P’ by the team members) who continued to play for us until 1989 having given twenty years service to the team. Mrs. Petch was then in her late seventies!

It was during the early years that the basic dance tune supplied by Tom Armstrong was added to. Mrs. P supplying the ‘Dingles Regatta’ element and Ian Rodgerson, I believe, was responsible for the ‘Harry Cox’s Schottische’ section.

Our uniform follows the description given by both Carpenter and Peacock, comprising red military style jackets decorated with ribbons and badges and dark blue trousers with a red stripe. The King’s jacket is black and more ornate than the others with gold braid in addition to the ribbons and badges. The first King’s jacket was a Royal Flying Corp bandsman’s jacket, which dates it to no later than the end of the First World War when the RFC became the Royal Air Force. It was used by Redcar Sword until 1991 and then replaced by a replica, as it was starting to become fragile with age. The other dancers were also fitted out with new jackets at the same time. The clowns wear an assortment of old ragged clothes and hats and the costumes can vary from year to year. Both clowns also ‘black’ their faces using the soot from a burnt cork. The Doctor is smartly attired in top hat and dinner jacket and carries a bag containing his instruments and the ‘cure’.
The swords are made of steel, 39 ½ inches (1004mm) long (inclusive of a 4 ½ inches [115mm] wooden handle), 1 inch (25mm) wide with a thickness of 1/16 inch (1.5mm). The tip of the sword is slightly tapered and rounded at the end with a hole for the attachment of ribbons. Incidentally, this is something that we have never done. The same swords have been in use throughout the life of the team.

Since that first Boxing Day, Redcar Sword Dancers have returned to Greatham every year on 26th December to continue the tradition, performing in the early years on the edge of the village Green itself, but by the mid 1970’s we had moved across the road to the Hospital gates. For a number of years, the performance at the Hospital gates was followed by one inside the Smith’s Arms but it was decided to discontinue this in 1999 as the pub was becoming too crowded and it was difficult to find sufficient space to dance. The spiritual home of Redcar Sword in Greatham is the Hope and Anchor - initially chosen, no doubt, because it is the first public house that you come to on entering the village from the direction of Billingham! - The team meets there before going up to the gates to dance at 12 noon and returns afterwards to enjoy a good singaround.

In addition to keeping the Boxing Day tradition alive, we have over the years danced Greatham at many different events both at home and abroad. Venues have ranged in grandeur from the starkness of Northallerton Gaol to the opulence of the Royal Albert Hall, London.

A feature of the sword tradition in the North East of England is the dance competition. Two competitions are still in existence, Darlington and Whitby, both under the auspices of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Redcar have competed, successfully, at both venues and on one or two occasions even managed to beat a team for whom we have the greatest admiration and respect – Loftus Sword Dancers.

We have also had some success in teaching other sides the Greatham dance. In 1975, Stevenage Sword invited us to give a workshop, following which both they and East Saxon Sword took up the dance. Both teams still include it in their repertoires, although there are now some discernible differences in style.

An attempt was made in 1974 to train a village team following an approach from a resident, David Sandwick. Six teenagers were found who had an interest in learning the dance and a practice session took place in the Village Hall. Sadly, David died the following week at the tragically young age of 32 and in the absence of some-one else in the village to lead the project, it did not continue.

Redcar Sword has been fortunate over the years in having had a fairly stable team. Four of the present side have been with the team for more than 30 years, and we are still able to call on ‘old boys’ should the need arise. One year an ‘old boy’ drove up from Dover on Boxing Day morning just to see the dance!


In conclusion, I would just like to say that we have all got a great deal of pleasure over the last thirty-odd years performing Greatham, and hope that we have given some! At the same time we have taken our responsibility for keeping the tradition alive seriously and tried to give it the dignity that it deserves. I hope that we have succeeded in this aim. Long may the dance continue!

Like to know more?

An extensive bibliography of publications featuring sword dance can be found via the Internet on http://www.efdss.org/library/sword.htm