Mr Hemmings Day of Dance took place on Saturday, and attracted ten different teams, and so was one of the biggest ever – even bigger than the World Cup quarter finals. Les Badcock, the leader of the Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris Dancers, does a lot of the organising, and helped put together this big event.

It took place on the same day as the Yeah Baby charity music festival, so there was a lot happening in town. and it was hot, hot, hot and the dancers were glad to find a bit of shade at the Abbey Gateway.

The troop in green are The Oyster Girls, a clog dancing side all the way from the Isle of Wight. They crossed the sea to be here. Many thanks to them.

Dancers also found a cool shady area under the old County Hall. Pictured here are Masons Apron, a group originally from the Masons Arms in Headington, who have migrated to Long Hanborough over time.

Mr Hemmings Traditional Abingdon Morris Dancers was formed in 1978, with local men who had previously danced with the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers.

In the last two years the Mr Hemmings group has opened up to women.

Another group on the day were the Garston Gallopers from East Garston in the valley of the race horse – a sport followed by Royalty.

Other groups included Bampton, Lepton Morris, Three Horse Shoes Morris, Ashnah American Tribal Style Belly Dancing, Mabel Gubbins: Rapper sword dancers and Stroud Morris. Stroud Morris are pictured above in the green and red jester tights – the green is for the hills, and the red for the famous red Stroud cloth.

P.S I have just requested my internet host to add a SSL certificate onto this site in moving with the times. The internet host will have to migrate it to a different server to make that work. If there are any problems in the migration the blog will move temporarily to twitter @abingdonblog.

At lunchtime on New Years Day there was dancing in the undercroft of the County Hall in Abingdon. The Old Speckled Hen Morris dancers,

and the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers were dancing.

The old year had died on December 31st, and January 1st was a new chance to dance and bring life to the new year. There was more dancing at the Broad Face and music for most of the afternoon.

There was an old custom in Abingdon to roast an ox in Ock Street at midsummer and distribute the meat among the poor. In the year 1700, this being done, a fight ensued between men from ‘up’ town and ‘down’ town for possession of the horns. The men of ‘down’ town won, and it became a trophy they still hold to this day. Their leader was declared the Mayor of Ock Street.

In modern times there is an election for the Mayor of Ock Street – none of the fighting of our forebears. Those ox horns from ‘1700’ are on show. After the election, the Mayor of Ock Street celebrates his victory by drinking from an applewood pint drinking cup, and is then carried in procession by Morris Dancers around Abingdon’s Ock Street.

The only qualification for having a vote is that you must live in Ock Street, or the adjoining courts. There are two candidates this year: Harry Knight – The previous mayor, and Duncan Brown – The reigning mayor. The election of the Mayor of Ock Street will be this Saturday.