Molly Dancing

Before my Blog went 'pear-shaped' I had drafted this post but the system wouldn't actually post it for me so, now I've got the thing to work, I'll post it now...
Last Saturday, I popped my head out of the front hatch and saw what I thought might be a 'local character'. You know the sort, someone who selects the most garish clothes from various charity shops and takes great pleasure in declaring to all and sundry that they 'are who they are'. So I didn't give it much more thought - until another one went by and then another, then a small group of them, and then a larger group. Could it be an official outing from the Mad Hatter's Appreciation Society? Or the annual gathering of the Doo-Lally Foot-Tappers Club? I was intrigued.

So, when the next one came past, I asked him what it was all about. He said they were all Molly Dancers; like commando style Morris Dancers! Anyway, they were having 'a bit of a do'  at the Cutters and he suggested I went along to see them. So I did.

Well, what fun! Dressed in a wide selection of dresses, coats, hats and dangly things, they drank, danced, chatted, sang, laughed, played fiddles and squeeze boxes, drank some more, danced some more and so on. With much more gay abandon that any Morris Dancer could summon up, they really enjoyed themselves and gave a great performance to the small but appreciative audience.

To give you a flavour of the atmosphere...

Anyway, plucking up enough courage to talk to one of them, I asked what it was all about. Apparently, Molly Dancing is an East Anglian pastime, which surprised me as I had never heard of it in my 59 years. It's like Morris Dancing but much less formal. It stems from the agricultural past and emerged in the cold period after Christmas when work on the fields was often scarce so, apparently local men would call at a farmers door, ask for work and when told there was none available he would go away and tell all his mates. They would then come back later, the worse for drink, dressed in various costumes and often with garish make-up or even blackened faces and would dance on his nicely manicured lawn to really upset him.

Now, how true this is I don't know but it's good excuse to get drunk, have a song and dance, and to get dressed up in ladies clothing! I wonder why people don't practice this nowadays.