Morriston Victorian Day Saturday 23rd November 2024
 
Sweyn’s Ey Morris, along with several other choirs, singers, brass bands, craft groups and historians, visited Morriston in the midst of Storm Bert. Last year we were lucky to perform for this event in glorious sunshine, but it wasn’t quite like that this year! We had to perform in the St David’s Church hall which was great as it was warm & dry, and we gave a display that included British Grenadiers, Speed the Plough, Lads a Bunchum, Valentines, Vandals and Bonnie Green. 

Our main musician Sian was sadly absent (get well soon x) but melodeons were dusted off and played for the occasion. 

Following our performance, we visited the Red Lion for a light lunch, ale and a chat whilst the rain hammered down and the wind howled outside. A good day out, this late in the season.
Thanks to Claire & Erin for taking the Photos.
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Yesterday was a sunny, dry evening which gave us opportunity to visit these two city centre pubs in what will be our penultimate Thursday evening dance out. We started at The Brunswick which keeps good ale and provides a quiet road outside to dance upon. We were able to muster ten dancers and two musicians who performed to several people from the pub who came outside to watch. 

​We danced British Grenadiers, Banbury Bill, Valentines, Vandals, and the ever bouncy Nightingale!

The Westbourne is a short walk away and has a large apron of closed road to perform on, plus it sells Ale in the form of Abbot. It also has lots of light in the area which was to prove useful, and a very good chippy, but more on that later!

We performed a set lasting thirty minutes and which included Sheriff’s Ride, Badby Black Joke, Hunting the Squirrel and Valentines and also Bonnie Green Garters which concluded our set. It was lovely to be told by a group of people that they had seen our tour broadcast on Facebook and had come down to see us and enjoyed the performance. Means so much to us getting that kind of feedback. 

We stopped dancing as darkness cast its veil over us, and we drifted, funnily enough, to The Brunswick where we were roped into a Music Quiz where we gave a good account of ourselves, scoring 32/40! Well done Team Sweyn! Alex D brought back some fantastic chips from the Chippy to provide much needed sustenance. Great evening for the side!


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We danced at this splendid pub, hidden back from the main road on Mynydd Bach Common near Llangyfelach, on a grey evening that threatened rain and had a chill in the air more like you get at the end of September. Storm Lillian was only a couple of hours away, so we were very lucky to get out to perform.

We had a strong side out and performed for about an hour in the front of the pub to a number of people who were coming and going from there,and stopped to watch. We got some good feedback from these people which is always good to hear. Someone, within the side, mentioned that Alex’s dancing abilities were almost balletic, which caused someone else to retort that maybe he should join Sadlers Bells!

Paul managed to lose twenty pounds! We are not talking weight, we are talking cash, with a loose note seemingly flying out of his pocket during a dance. Sadly no sign of the missing money was seen again.

When the light finally faded, we called it a day, (or is that a night?) and entered the pub, tasting the very fine Gower Gold and Marston’s Pedigree. A good place to dance.
Pics by Paul & Claire & a rogue pic by Geoff of my £20 note!

Poor weather has led to a few of our recent dance outs being cancelled, so with a great forecast for Wednesday & a shabby forecast for Thursday, we switched days and were blessed with some fine sunshine last night.

We danced at Swansea castle where Geoff was reunited with his hat and bells which were lost and found at Evesham Folk weekend, and which ended up at Sidmouth Festival! We were sorry to hear that dancer Alex H had broken his arm again following a tumble off his bike! Get well soon Alex but please consider a safer pastime to cycling, like potholing!

We met two ladies who work for Wales Air Ambulance, the charity we donated all the money we collected during our Christmas Tours when we performed the Gower Mummers Plays in the area. They were pleased to see us and took some pics of us, as did an ex-serviceman (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) who watched us and claimed we had made his evening! 

The No Sign Bar in Wind Street was our next port of call with several people watching and applauding us from seating areas by other pubs. The high points here were British Grenadiers and Y Gaseg Eira a Welsh Morris dance from Nantgarw, and also the excellent ales that the No Sign were selling. The Gower Gold was lovely and fresh!

A short walk to The Queen’s Hotel, in the Marina quarter provided further good ale and an audience who enjoyed our set which included too many dances to list here, which were performed until the light finally faded. 

So a great evening which saw us perform with ten dancers and our musician Sian.

Here’s pics of the evening taken by Paul and those of Y Gaseg Eira taken by Claire. 

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This gig was rained off, sadly.

We were able to dance two relaxed sets at this popular area, wonderful, sea side location, entertaining the many people dining in the restaurants at the Piazza. With two musicians and ten dancers we were able to give a very good account of ourselves before concluding our dancing at 9pm and venturing over to the White Rose for a beer and a bit of socialising in the beer garden out the back. Beginning to feel that maybe the summer is nearly over and we will probably not get many more dance outs on a Thursday evening! It was good to see Ken Bond again after an absence of a few months.

There was a slight worry when the side, already much depleted due to holidays and illness and broken bones etc found another much needed dancer having to back out last minute due to a family crisis. Sadly these things sometimes happen, and miraculously, the six dancers who were able to make it gave a good show of themselves. It was good that Erin was able to attend.

The main feature of the Carnival is the long parade from Southgate to Pennard School field where the side gave a display. Well done folks!
Photos by Roger Bayliss.