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| email: Woodside Morris Men |
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| Sunday 23 March, 2008 |
The club's early years saw it develop relationships with a number of other London clubs, such as Westminster and Hammersmith, with dancing out tending to be at specific events, or weekend tours, and even the odd Wednesday night tour of pubs. Yearly visits were made to Kent, where Woodside would tour around Dover, Hastings, Deal, etc., with other clubs. Woodside were also a regular feature at many Ring Feasts, which were hosted and attended by sides from all over the country, and consisted of a day of dance, with an evening of feasting and dancing. By 1965, links with the parent folk club were more or less broken, and in March that year a letter was sent to members informing them that next Wednesday’s meeting would be taking place at the Railway Club in Watford. Of course, this was only a temporary arrangement, and the letter reassured everyone that Finchley would remain the Club’s base. By July however, Watford had become Woodside’s new home; an arrangement made possible through one of the Woodside men being a member of the British Rail Social Club. Initially this didn’t have much effect on the Club’s activities, but soon Feasts and other events started to gravitate towards the Watford, Hemel and Rickmansworth area. In the early 1970s, Woodside faced a number of dilemmas which, for a while, threatened the club’s very existence. First of all, the Railway Club chucked them out, when it was discovered that Woodside’s railway man had moved away some considerable time ago. For a while, the Club tried a number of other venues, including Chayter School and the Red Lion at Apsley, but by 1973 the Club reached its lowest ebb. Throughout the whole of that year, the Club only met on one occasion, the AGM, and in that time it was only the will of a number of key members that kept the side together. Circumstances soon came to the rescue though. Back in Watford, the Pump House Arts Centre was being developed, and one of its main purposes was to provide accommodation for clubs such as Woodside. With the prospect of finding a new home, Woodside members became active in preparing the Pump House for opening, and also built a relationship with members of the Pump House Folk Club. Within a few years, Woodside had gone from near extinction to having possibly the strongest membership in the club's history. During this ‘revival’ period, Woodside started to dance more regularly at local pubs. As with now, the backbone of the side ’s year consisted of Wednesday night practice in winter, and Wednesday night pub tours in the summer. All seemed to be going swimmingly, but then a split occurred that saw a large number of members move on to form a separate Morris side. |
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Morris Dancing is an aerobic form of dance which provides healthy exercise and social activity. Woodside's Foreman, Dave Pearse, is an expert instructor, having trained Morris Dancers, both new and experienced, for over twenty years, as well as being a folk dancer of nearly four decades' experience. During the Winter, Woodside Morris Men meet at 8.00pm on Wednesday nights in the Colne River Rooms at the Pump House Arts Centre Watford. You would be most welcome to come along. |
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www.woodsidemorrismen.com
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