GREENSLEEVES MORRIS MEN ...... Dancing since 1926 ......

1926 - The Start

It is not quite clear how the Club came to be called Greensleeves, but the name must have been chosen either by Cameron (the first squire) himself or by him in consultation with the other four original members before the side started meeting for regular practice. The constitution of "The Greensleeves" as given in the log is unorthodox, but the Club could then be described briefly as consisting of men, members of the English Folk Dance Society (E.F.D.S.), who met regularly and danced English Morris and sword dances. "They are amateurs and have no coach, the motto being 'Destruction not Inscription' ( a Spoonerism for 'Description not Instruction').

This Constitution was amplified in a letter written by Cameron on June 8th 1926, to a potential member "....the idea is to have a private club consisting of men who do not habitually demonstrate for Headquarters, but do know their business up to a decent standard. The theory is that a really good team can be made up of unpretentious individuals if they practice constantly and regularly together ... We do not teach technique to individuals; that is done in the Society's classes. we train teams. At present, anyone who has progressed through all the grades but is not constantly performing in shows for H.Q. find himself at rather a loose end. A private club such as ours ought therefore to be a godsend. The team will find plenty of outlets for its energies, but the idea is that practices are the main thing, shows and competitions merely incidents."

The first active meeting was held on January 15th 1926, when G.Green, W.Green, J.Heaven and Radcliffe met at Cameron's flat, whence they adjourned to St. John's Mission to practise Sleights. After this they went to Reeve Hall for Country Dance practice with the Lumps of Plum Pudding. This first tentative link with the ladies' team was to develop into a close association lasting for more than thirty years. Each team preserved its independence but joined the other for country dancing. Both names have connections with the Morris. Wryesdale 'Greensleeves' is a dance for three men, nearly always 'guyed' for show purposes, while 'Lumps of Plum Pudding is a name given to several Morris Dances and well known to most Morris Men as a Morris Jig.

Club costume originally comprised bell pads and baldrics in colours of own choice, white flannels, white plimsolls and no hats. Green armlets were worn for the first time at a demonstration in Bethnal Green in November 27th , 1926. For sword dances, bells and baldrics were taken off and leather shoes substituted for plimsolls. Incidentally, bells were always worn at the weekly practices, because it seemed to be of use to the musicians.

During 1927 the Club began to study a sword dance from the small island of Papa Stour in the Shetlands. Cameron, whose family estate was the Isle of Bressay, 'found' the dance, collected all the information about it and brought it south, first of all to Greensleeves. The unusual, perhaps unique, characteristics of the dance are the long and flexible swords, the presence of seven dancers, the fascinating seven pointed star made by the double locking of the swords, and the unusual tune to which the dance is done. It is performed to this day at the annual Shetland festival of Norse origin, called Up-helly-aa (but not by Greensleeves).

The last practice before the summer break of 1929 brought something of a shock in the form of a statement from Cameron who

"...confessed that he was about to leave London and live at home in Shetland, and as that was seven hundred miles away, regular attendance on Fridays would be difficult. It would obviously be a pity - to put it mildly - if this, the only club of its kind in London, were to cease to exist, but the scarcity of men and the difficulties in the way of such as there are make its maintenance difficult."