Henry Taylor of Longborough
Henry, colloquially Harry, was born in 1843 at Longborough to Stephen and Elizabeth Taylor. His father was a morris dancer. As a young boy Harry used to risk a thrashing by playing truant to watch the morris. At that time the local sides were accustomed to meet at Stow-on-the-Wold to compete. Until 1852, the last in which morris dancing took place at Dover's Games, this included the right to dance "on the hill". Only one side was allowed there and they gained the privilege of selling the yellow Dover's favours, what we would call today rosettes. The last year a meeting was held the dancers came from Longborough, accompanied by one or two older Chipping Campden men, according to the manuscript history written by John Horne of Campden in 1898. The team consisted of six dancers, a fool, a fiddler and a hand with the money box.
From the introduction to a paper by Roy Dommett on Longborough Morris http://www.great-western.org.uk/dommett/longborough.pdf
The dances and tunes as listed in A Handbook of Morris Dances
1.Hey Diddle Dis MDT
2.London Pride (also referred to as Stourton Wake), MDT
3.London Pride CJS MSS
4.London Pride CJS MSS (from Mason)(Also know as Old Meddon of Fawsley)
5.Country Gardens CJS MSS
6.Country Gardens RKS MSS
7.The Old Woman Tossed Up CJS MSS
8.The Old Woman Tossed Up CJS MSS
9.The Banks of the Dee, or Old Morris RKS MSS
10.Greensleeves MDT - see Bacca Pipes (Headington)
11.Highland Mary CJS MSS
12.The British Grenadiers CJS MSS
13.The Gallant Hussar CJS MSS
14.Staines Morris EDS, Spring 1967
15.The Maid of the Mill CJS MSS
16.The Maid of the Mill MDT (under Ilmington)
17.Young Collins MDT
18.Young Collins CJS MSS
19.Constant Billy CJS MSS
20.The Cuckoo's Nest Jour 1930
21.Swaggering Boney or Travel by Steam MDT
22.Old Trunkles Jour. 1930
23.Old Trunkles CJS MSS
24.Saturday Night CJS MSS (from Benfield - Bledington)
25.Saturday Night CJS MSS
26.Belle Isle's March CJS MSS
27.Princess Royal MDT
28.Princess Royal CJS MSS
29.Jockey to the Fair CJS MSS
30.Jockey to the Fair RKS MSS
31.'The Sherborne Jig' CJS MSS
32.Shepherds' Hey CJS MSS
MB IV & V; Jour EFDS 1930 (RKS); News May 1925 (Arthur Heffer); TM; RD. RD's additional sources are the MSS of Sharp, Blunt, Butterworth, Carey and RKS, and local inquiry. Harry Taylor (HT), one-time forman of the Longborough side, was the main informant to collectors at Longborough.
