Hoxon Hundred returned from their annual holiday on 29 July. We always holiday the first week of the school holidays. Sometimes we stay on camp sites or in bunk barns in England but on occasions have had super times abroad. Within the last ten years we have spent a week in Rouen in France, dancing and sightseeing and meeting the local dignitaries. A week in Normandy at a small dance festival organised by some former members who have set up their home in France. We had a wonderful coach holiday in Germany discovering the wonders of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. We usually have terrific weather.

Things were a little different this year when we spent a week in Holland. Sadly the weather was cloudy and a bit on the damp side, and we compared the De Steppe holiday lodges to a prison camp – we wondered what had happened to these strict Health and Safety EU Regulations. Our nearest small town Baarle Nassau was pleasant and friendly with many cafés and restaurants with outside seating.

We danced on three days. On Monday we went on an interesting boat trip of the Biennendieze river and rivulets which run under the town, later dancing in the main square. Tuesday we were welcomed to Orischot by the councillors, unfortunately the weather was not as welcoming and we danced to a small audience. Our best day of dance by far we spent in Heusden, a pretty town with at least three small harbours, surrounded by dykes and a river. The town square edged with cafes was busy and the
dance surface good. Very nice surroundings….or so we thought until we got home and found out there had been one of the biggest drugs raids ever made in Heusden within the last month.

Cotswold Morris

This most recognised form of Morris dancing with handkerchiefs, sticks and bells, has been around since time began and celebrates the rites of spring, the growing of the barleycorn and the prosperity of English country life.

Garland

Danced by ladies, Hoxon Hundred’s Garland dancers distinctively create patterns and movements with garlands of summer flowers.

North West

Bright, full of energy and danced by men and women together, the heavyweight marching style originated in the industrial North.

Step Dancing

Hard soled (wooden) clog step dances. Technically exacting, skillfully executed movements produce percussive effects.

Rapper Sword

A complicated ribbon of two ended swords, twisted and interwoven into amazing patterns; it’s a tradition from the coal miners of old.

Border Morris

Raucous, charging and swinging, these energetic dances originated in the Welsh borders where the miscreants wore tattered coats and blackened their faces to disguise themselves from those they annoyed.

On Feb. 10th the Hobby Horse (featured in the Feb-April Mardles ) was invited to Cecil Sharp House to join in EFDSS''s 75th anniversary celebrations of the merging of the dance and song societies to form the EFDSS

This year is also the 80th anniversary of the very first folk dance festival to be held in the Royal Albert Hall this event was therefore called The Return of Albert
Four members of Hoxon Hundred Morris accompanied the horse to Camden.

The morning was spent looking at archive material and EFDSS magazines of various events stretching way back in time.
In the afternoon there was a tea dance with displays from various teams that have been associated with the Albert Hall events over the years. The Humberside Egg Dance was very interesting being performed by two blindfolded dancers who had to dance along two rows of eggs (probably hard boiled, the eggs that is) without treading on them let alone bumping into each other. It was very skilfully performed.

The horse, ably ridden by John Grayling and allowed to roam at will during appropriate morris displays,was much admired. Unfortunately the maker Peter Spenceley was not well enough to attend the occasion.

The celebrations continued into the evening but the horse was tired and was returned to its new Suffolk stable.

Hoxon will let the horse loose at various events during the summer so beware and be ready to feed it with money.

The fine basket-work Hobby Horse by Peter Spenceler, featured on the front cover and in Tim Power's feature in the November 2006 issue of Mardles, has found a new Stable.

On Boxing Day 2006, at the Dolphin Inn in Wortham, Tim handed over the reins of the Hobby Horse to Ron Ross, Squire of Hoxon Hundred. After more than twenty-five years of confinement in Hamish & Lila Frasers attic in Waldringfield, during which period the Horse came out only once a year for the anniversaries of Douglas Kennedys birthday, the Hobby Horse will now be able to gallop out on Wednesday evenings with Hoxon and also trot along to a few of the Summer festivals and Hoxon Holidays.

Hoxon Hundred are based in the Suffolk village of Hoxne and have been performing Cotswold and Border Morris dances for over twenty years along with North-West Processional and Garland dances, Rapper Sword and Clog step-dances. All of these traditions were displayed at the Dolphin, and, respecting the time of year, Hoxon also sang Carols and performed a Mummers play. Then followed a music & song session (including Mardles rambling session reporter, Dave Cooper) with sandwiches and mince pies, good beer and a proper pub fire. Well done Hoxon and the Dolphin!

Peter Spenceley wrote to Mardles “ see the letters page “ to say that the first outing of Hoxne Hundred & the Hobby Horse would be at the Dolphin.

The Hobby Horse was with the ˜Whirligigs™, a London dance group led by Marjorie Fennessy, on their visit to Angers in central France. "This was in 1955", said Mike Isaacs, a past member of the group who provided the photo of the Whirligigs with the Hobby Horse in Angers. However for many years the Horse lay in the attic at Cecil Sharp House until found and refurbished by the Fraser's in 1980. Its current revival came about because Heather Bexon wanted to borrow a hobby horse for a ˜folk day™ at Hillcroft school, and heard about the Horse at one of the Fraser™s events from Tim Power, who also lives in Waldringfield. After the folk day, Hamish & Lila decided to pass the Horse to a group who would make more use of it, and Mike Bexon suggested Hoxon Hundred, being a well-established side performing a good variety of dance traditions. And so it came to pass!

Thanks to Mardles, the Horse has once again come to the notice of the EFDSS. Hilary Blanford, wife of the original Mr Mardles, invited the Horse back to Cecil sharp House in February 2007 to attend The Return of Albert, a re-creation of the London Folk festivals at the Royal Albert Hall in the 1960s and 70s. This may well be the first of many such outings, because the (now) Hoxon Hobby Horse is one of only a pair. Peter Spenceley made a similar horse for the “Beau of London City” Morris side a few years before making the Hoxon horse, but the Beau side disbanded last year. So what became of the first one? Will they ever meet again? Whatever else may happen, I hope that Hoxon will carry on the ancient tradition, and that the Hoxon Horse will provide an element of extra entertainment for their audiences for many years to come.
Maybe one of the sides handymen will be able to adapt the horse to eat money, like the Kentish “Hooden Horses” and the Broadstairs dragon, “Clarence”, so that the horse can earn his keep, and pay for any necessary attention from the local basket-makers.
On behalf on Hoxon Hundred I extend grateful thanks to Peter Spenceley and Hamish and Lila Fraser for allowing the side to care for what is indeed a Morris masterpiece.