About us
Rivington Morris are a Women’s team of North West Morris Dancers. We practice on Wednesday evenings at Ladybridge Community Centre near Bolton, not far from Horwich. We welcome women dancers and musicians of any gender. We practice most Wednesday evenings 8:00pm till 10:00pm – new members are always welcome, see Join Us.
These demure cultured women hail from near Bolton in Greater Manchester. Their clogs have been heard as far afield as Sidmouth, Germany, France, Holmfirth, Wigan, Accrington and Blackrod Carnival. Hundreds have looked on in awe and marvelled at their stunning stepping, precision, music and reinforced foundation garments. On-lookers have been heard to say “Rivington have that certain indefinable something that Northern teams have …” or “Make room – these Women take no prisoners”.
Do not refer to these women as ‘ladies’, or you may encounter one of their infamous ‘Clog Butties’.
Twee they are not … see for yourself!
Our straw boaters, red skirts, white tops, and purple sashes have been seen at most major folk festivals over the years. In keeping with the North West tradition, Rivington also dance in annual carnivals in towns on the Lancashire plain e.g. Longridge, Horwich, and Adlington.
Our Dances
Rivington perform dances from the North West Clog Morris Tradition and have developed a reputation over the years for energy and precision.
The team dance around fourteen North West dances, most of which were collected from women who danced them in various Lancashire mill towns in the first half of the 20th century. The tradition arises from the mills where many teams grew out of the individual areas; hence the dances from Blackburn, Preston, Little Lever and so on.
One dance is named after the lady it was collected from – Auntie Marie’s Dance; Auntie Marie was 84 years old when she taught the dance to the team, she said she could remember dancing it as if it were yesterday!
Other dances have been written by team members since this is a living tradition and it moves on; so we have Rivington, Sally’s dance, Astley Bridge and Adlington written by members past and present.
History
Rivington Morris was formed in 1977. The initial members originally practiced in the playground of Rivington School, hence the choice of name (Rivington is a village on the north west outskirts of Bolton). Outdoor practices were rather impractical and were soon followed by stints in other spots in Rivington including Rivington lower barn (now a café). Eventually the team found a long-term home in Blackrod village, close by, and nowadays practice in Ladybridge Community Centre in Bolton.
The original members actually danced Jockey to the Fair and the Abram Morris Dance at their initial practices.
Jenny Potts, our founder, then researched North West dances, which were born out of the industrial areas of Lancashire & Cheshire, when each town had their own Field/Carnival Day and processed around the town.
Jenny came across the notation of ‘Ashton’, which became the first dance the team danced out, and also defined our kit colours of red and white which are Ashton town’s colours. Jenny also collected ‘Churchtown’ which is the team’s main processional dance.
Photo (1979): Jenny Potts (second on the right) was the founder of Rivington Morris and its first Leader. Kathy Sheridan (front (left) was our Leader in the early 1980s.
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