Cardiff Valleys tour

CARDIFF MORRIS VALLEYS TOUR SAT 25th APRIL​

Sweyns Ey Morris were invited by our great friends Cardiff Morris to participate in their annual tour of the Valleys. It’s a Mystery Tour where the destination is only known to a couple of Cardiff Morris worthies and the coach driver, so, having driven from Swansea to our pick up point in Cardiff, consternation started showing on the faces of the Sweyn’s Ey contingent when the coach went speeding westwards on the M4, back towards Swansea!

Speculation was rife on our possible dance venues and ranged from Swansea Marina to Caerau and Maesteg, but when we turned off at the MacArthur Glen Designer Shop Village junction, that speculation changed to include the Next Shop, or the Radley Handbag shop! We didn’t know about the existence of the Ty Risha pub hiding away discretely at the back of the Glen’s glitzy shopping mall and its hundreds of shoppers and this proved to be dance spot number one of the tour.

Teams who mustered full sides included hosts Cardiff, who impressively fielded two sets of 8 for their Nantgarw & Litchfield dances and on one occasion fielded 18 dancers for a Cotswold dance, Isca Morris, Sweyn’s Ey with six dancers, plus representatives from Bedcote Morris and White Hart Morris. A lot of the dancers and musicians who were there are old friends we’ve known for many years.

Paul had suggested, somewhat jokingly, that it would be nice if we could get through the day’s tour without doing any Adderbury dances. Nigel determined that this was definitely a possibility as the six available dancers ( Alex H, Alison H, Ben, Claire, Nigel & Paul, Kev as musician) had a good knowledge of several dance traditions, and so it was that we performed Banks of the Lea Badby, Country Gardens Fieldtown and our very own Curly Boar. Some of us joined in the massed dances of Vandals and Balance the Straw. The car park had a bit of an alarming slope which started to tell after a couple of dances. Beer was Marston’s Pedigree.

After about an hour and a half our coach driver whisked us further westwards along the M4, again promoting speculation as to the next spot, and then took the Porthcawl turn off. Phew! But then he headed towards Pyle, so it was bets on that we were heading for Maesteg! The relief was tangible however when coachy took the turn off to Kenfig and stopped by the ever excellent Prince of Wales with its wonderful Bass Ale, served swiftly & directly from the barrel. The Prince was also our lunch stop and we were royally accommodated for this in the hall that had been used in Medieval times by the Circuit Judges administering justice in the Margam Abbey district.

We gave a good account of our dancing as the limitations of space meant that only six dancers could deploy, so this did not favour Cardiff but most certainly favoured us! We did Grenadiers Fieldtown, Rigs of Doom & Speed the Plough Bampton and Greensleeves, plus Upton Sticks & Valentines Fieldtown as massed dances.

The Angel close by was our day’s final destination. A lovely pub with expansive views westwards. If you closed your eyes to the steel works and the urban sprawl that out of necessity supported it, you quickly realise the area was once a place of considerable beauty that attracted the monks to build their abbey at nearby Margam.  Beaux Badby, The Rose Tree Bampton & Constant Billy Headington were our show dances, with Sherriff’s Ride and Banks of the Dee being massed dances.

Whilst both the Prince & the Angel are pubs we’ve danced at before on our evening tours, it was good dancing at them in the relaxed atmosphere and warmth of the afternoon and when quite a few people were there to watch us. They could have only been impressed by what they saw.

It only remained for us to drive back to our cars at Cardiff, before driving all the way back westwards to The Brit at Cwmafan, which was acting as our muster point before going to another evening gig at Bryn Betws in the hills around Pontrhydyfen, but that’s another story, to be told by another…

Great day had by all who were there.
Musician: Kev Howcroft, 
Dancers: Alex Heney, Alison Howarth, Ben James, Claire Musselwhite, Nigel Howarth, Paul Tarrant.
Photographs by Paul , but Nigel Britton took some at Ty’r Isha.