The Hoddesdon Crownsmen

Dave Pearse, Woodside's near perpetual Foreman, has a wide experience of folk dance in many forms, along with his wife Sue, who is also a Morris dancer. They are keen ceilidh dancers, and Dave has been involved with folk dance groups of some nature since the sixties, though Sue is obviously far too young to have been dancing since then. There is, however, one particular traditional dance tipple upon which Dave is known to imbibe on a more than just regular basis. That particular tipple is the Hoddesdon Crownsmen, and Dave explains a little bit about them and their favoured mode of dance below.

The Crownsmen are a Rapper Sword side, founded in 1971; one of the small band of long-established Southern sides, such as Thrales Rapper and East Saxon Sword, and are based in East Hertfordshire. We perform throughout the year, mostly around Hertfordshire and Essex, specialising in traditional styled dances, based on those originally danced in the North East of England.

Originally danced by coal miners, the Rapper dance is performed by five men who are linked together by the two-handled flexible steel-bladed swords, which they twist and turn to make intricate patterns. The swords are thought to have originated from the steel blades used to scrape the sweat and grime from the pit ponies after their toil in the mines. Though who, how or when it was ever conceived to form the dance, no one seems to know for sure. The dancers are often accompanied by two characters, known as Tommy and Betty, who bring an added note of humour to the proceedings. I have had the honour of playing the important role Tommy for the Crownsmen since as long as anyone can rembember!

Many Rapper sides take part in an annual competition, which takes place at different venues around the country, being organised by a host team chosen the previous year. The competition is known as DERT, the Dancing England Rapper Tournament, and as well as being a challenge to Rapper's finest, it is also the biggest gathering for sides to socialise, debate and show off! Hoddesdon are regular entrants of the competition, which this year, 2007, was held in Nottingham, hosted by Whip the Cat. Link here to see some pictures of Hoddesdon at the event, or on the picture above to enlarge the image, which was taken at the 2004 competition in Bath. More pictures of the Bath event can be found here.

We dance in black breaches, white shirts and socks, and our signature colours of black, purple and gold are quite distinctive, if nothing else! We perform three dances of our own, plus the Beadnell tradition from Northumberland. Rapper sides, particularly long standing community sides, are not renowned for a wide and varied repertoir, sometimes specialising in a single dance assocaited with their local area.

I am not the only member of Hoddesdon to dance more than one form of performance folk dance; Our musician also dances Lancashire step clog, drumming out the various rhythms of the looms of the old mills. And our diversity does not stop their either, the Crownsmen also perform a mummers play from the village of Sixpenny Handley in Dorset, with its ritualistic enactment of the death and resurrection theme of the earths annual fertility cycle - I play the very effective Doctor, who brings life back to the fallen.

Rapper Sword is a very different form of dance to Cotswold, and being involved in two very different dance sides is an enjoyable way to fill anyone's leisure hours. I thoroughly recomend it!

Related Links

Hoddesdon Crownsmen (Herts Direct)
Rapper On-line
The Nut on the Net
Frank Lee - Rapper Sword Maker (and Melodeon Legend!)
Old Hob's DERT page