Gower Heritage Centre- Cider Making for Our 60th Anniversary Weekend in 2026

It’s always a complete delight to dance at the Gower Heritage Centre, however this year we have been in such demand that nearly every request made we’ve had to turn down, already having something else in the diary.  But on Saturday we made a Very Special Exception and piled down to The Mill for a spot of dancing – and cider making!

Sweyn’s Ey is unbelievably excited to be celebrating their 60th birthday next year – yes that’s right, the side has been going for sixty whole years (who’d have thunk it)  – and the fantastic Mr Richie Saunders has agreed to make a special cider on our behalf, to drink on the Big Day.

This last week saw various members of the side swinging by the Heritage Centre at different times to drop off their contribution of apples for the cause, which were washed on Friday and pre-chopped ready for the pressing on Saturday.  Each of us that wanted to then donned a heavy-duty apron and scary-looking gloves, and had a go at filling a ‘cheese’ with pulp.  Lowen, my son, got to press the magic button that started the squeezing of the press, whilst we all stood by and watched the lovely fresh juice pouring out.  Some of us glugged a bit of it immediately, whilst others grabbed a pint (or three..) of last year’s vintage from the Heritage Centre shop.

At some point we even got to do some dancing!  With the brook coming up higher and higher at a rate of knots in response to the heavy rain that fell all morning, we danced under cover in the main courtyard with an engaged and fun bunch of visitors and locals.  We even got a few people up for our standard ‘volunteer’ dance (Brighton Camp, Adderbury), and there were fun tunes played by some of our musos in the break.  I’ll leave it to someone else to list the rest of the dances we did, as the time flew by and I cannot remember a thing!

Massive thanks to Richie and all at the Gower Heritage Centre for hosting us, making us cider and generally just being fabulous cheerleaders for Sweyn’s Ey.  We really appreciate all support keeping this traditional practice alive, and we were particularly grateful to Sylvie who kept bringing out batch after batch of homemade Welsh cakes throughout.  They certainly gave us energy to keep on jumpin’.  Yum.

Look out for our Birthday Bash weekend in early June next year, as we’ll be dancing across Gower over a whole weekend, alongside several other sides.  And come see us sometime before then – possibly our next public outing will be back at the Heritage Centre in January, blessing some of the very trees that contributed to our cider!
Post by Di Clark Pics by Erin & Claire.

​Bridgend Town Centre, Saturday 13th September 2025

Today we danced in Bridgend Town Centre, which looked hardly unlikely earlier on due to intense rain showers. The sun came out and we danced to the good people of the Town who stood and watched us. Photos taken by Claire & Alex H. show how it all went.

​King’s Head, Llangennith Saturday 6th September 2025

The side undertook to dance at an all day charity event being held at the wonderful King’s Head at Llangennith on the far side of Gower. There were about nine dancers and two musicians able to turn out to dance for about 45 minutes on the patio in the front of the pub. Dances done included Lads a Bunchum, Step and Fetch Her, plus a set of Brighton Camp for around half a dozen members of the public who wanted to have a go at Morris dancing! This was a lovely day, and one of the last events of our year (we are in Bridgend on Saturday!).

Photos by Alex and Erin.

This was the final Thursday evening dance out of our season, and it was a bit of a drive out to Penycae, but certainly a worthwhile trip. The pub is large, boasting an amazing bar complete with around 8 handpumps for ales and ciders. Jemima Pitchfork and Wye Valley ales were on tap, plus several ciders. This pub is also an excellent eating venue and it boasts a campsite too. The side started dancing around 7:50pm performing to a small group of watchers that included the injured archivist Paul Tarrant who was visiting the pub with caving friends who were saying Farewell to a friend,  leaving the area for the fleshpots of Manchester. Both Paul and Claire took some photos before the evening got too dark. It looked like Hunt the Squirrel was done plus a whole load of others! When it got too dark, people came in to the pub to enjoy the beer, cider and have a chat. Maybe we should dance at this pub one Saturday as it is a good one!