Lionel Bacon descibed Bampton as being as a living tradition originally performed on Whit Mondays. He wrote that it as "Fluid with some variation as between sides ... and over the years." The major source of information was Billy Wells, one-time Fool and fiddler. There was much minor variation of tunes - Wells was a skillful "decorator" and favoured a slow tempo. The music had been by fiddle during the twentieth century but was formerly pipe and tabour. The dances numbered about 33, a good many of which are identical except in tune. Wells "found a lot of dances" - adding new tunes from various sources to old dances, and possibly inventing new dances. Apart from The Fool's Jig, there were no stick dances.
The dances and tunes as listed in A Handbook of Morris Dances
- Highland Mary (MDT)
- The Quaker (Jour 1956, ALP)
- Brighton Camp (The Bride in Camp, The Girl I Left Behind Me) (MDT - under Eynsham, ALP)
- Jenny Lind (EDS Autumn 1969)
- Jenny Lind (RD from Arnold Woodley)
- Johnny's So Long at the Fair (Jour 1956, BC)
- The Furze Field (Michael Blanford)
- Johnny's So Long at the Fair (ALP)
- Glorishears (MDT)
- The Maid of the Mill (MDT)
- Bobbing Around (Bobbing Joe) (MDT)
- Step and Fetch Her (RD from Arnold Woodley)
- Step and Fetch Her (Schofield)
- Constant Billy (Boy) (MDT)
- Flowers of Edinburgh (MDT)
- The Webley Twizzle (Jour 1956)
- Under the Old Myrtle Tree (CJS MSS)
- The Rose Tree (Jour 1956)
- Banbury Bill (Jour 1956)
- Country Gardens (RD from Arnold Woodley)
- Shepherds' Hey (MDT)
- Shave the Donkey (RD)
- Bonny Green Garters (MDT)
- Princess Royal (jig) (MDT)
- The Nutting Girl (jig) (Jour EDFS, 1928 - under Fieldtown)
- Speed the Plough (intr. 1975)
- The Nutting Girl (Bampton alt C music Rollo Woods)
- Lumps of Plum Pudding (jig) (MDT)
- Old Tom of Oxford (jig) (EDS 1951)
- Jogging to the Fair, Jockey to the Fair (jig) (EDS 1951)
- The Flowers of Edinburgh, The Fiddler's Jig, Knuckle Down (RD from Arnold Woodley)
- The Fool's Jig (MDT) key of A
- Bacca Pipes, The Pipe Dance (MDT)
- The Fool's Jig (MDT) key of G
- The Nutting Girl (RD)
- The Forester (RD, for tune see Fieldtown)
- Lumps of Plum Pudding (RD)
- Old Tom of Oxford (RD)
- Trunkles
- Webley Jig
MB III (2nd ed); Dr. Arthur Peck's booklet (ALP); EDS Sept 1951; Journal EFDSS 1956, 1957; RD - material from Clive Carey 1913, Arthur Dixey and others, and personal observations; my own film 1934, 1937 (Lionel Bacon) {The major source of both Sharp's and ALP's information was Billy Wells, one-time fool and fiddler}
"A living tradition: Whit Monday. Fluid, with some variation as between dancers, between sides (at present, 1973, there are two), and other the years."
The Traditional Bampton Morris Dancers (a.k.a. "Adams's team", prev. "Woodley's team")
The Bampton Traditional Morris Men (a.k.a. "Daniels's team", prev. "Shergold's team")
The Bampton Morris Men
150 years of fiddle players and Morris dancing at Bampton, Oxfordshire, an article written by Keith Chandler for the Spring 1992 edition of Musical Traditions, provides a wealth of detail of the evolution of the Bampton sides and the musical background that shaped them.
