In 1965 in the middle of my GCE exams I went to a Ring Meeting in Wells, Somerset with Chingford Morris Men. Nowadays taking a break like that in the middle of exams would probably be frowned on but it wasn't a problem then. On the Saturday tour I was fascinated to see a team in strange kit (which included red socks and clogs) doing dances which were nothing like anything I'd seen before and they seemed to be much longer than the dances I was used to, The team was Manchester MM and this was my first view of NW Morris. I was fascinated by these alien dances at the first stop on the tour. At the second spot we realised that the dances were quite long and at the third spot we realised that when Manchester MM did their spot we'd have quite a long time in the pub before it was our turn again. Later on during the massed display outside Wells Cathedral I was amazed to see Manchester dancing Cotswold dances wearing bell pads with their NW kit.
The leader of the team at Wells was Julian Pilling and shortly afterwards, during a Morris weekend at Halsway Manor he taught the Colne dance which Chingford later added to their repertoire.
On moving to Wigan in 1973 I joined Manchester Morris Men as it seemed logical to dance Lancashire Morris if I was living in Lancashire and since first seeing them it had been an ambition of mine to dance with them. I danced with Manchester MM until I founded The Rumworth Morris in 1976 but only finally left when Rumworth first danced in public in 1978.
In late 2019 Manchester Morris became a mixed side and was renamed Manchester Morris Dancers. You can visit their website here