Chippenham Morris were formed in 1978 through a chance meeting in a pub.
John Coleman and Hans Jensen met Tubby Reynolds who knows a lot about Morris
and who had started other Morris sides. They decided to start one in Chippenham.
There is no known Morris tradition in Chippenham, though there may have been morris teams in the surrounding villages which have long since died out. Hans and John were married to school teachers, who encouraged some of their pupils to join. Along with some other friends, they made up Chippenham Morris and several, including John, are still dancing with us today.
The Morris prospered and added several different Cotswold traditions to their repertoire. In 1987 we were joined by the last four members of Bath Spa Morris when their numbers grew too few to continue. Two have since moved to pastures new but the other two are still with us today. Numbers have grown over the years and there are now around two dozen dancers and musicians. Click here to see members past and present.
We developed a taste for travel and to date have danced at several international events, several in France, in Rouen, Brest and smaller places including Chippenham's twin town La Fleche. They have also danced in Rome, Helsinki, Szeged in Hiungary and Roscommon in Ireland.
If you would like to see us dance, check our events page for
details of when we are performing.
