The History of The Marlboro Morris Ale

Marlboro Morris and Sword put on the first Ale in 1976, and ran it for 20 years, handing it over to the Marlboro Morris Ale Association in 1996. For the first ten years both the men and the women of MMS put on the Ale; for the second ten years, after the men and women split into two teams, the women put it on. The Ale was modeled on Ales in England, where Morris sides competed for the honor of dancing (and collecting money) at the local fairs. In the early days, every U.S. team the organizers knew about was invited, including children’s and mixed sides. As time went on and more and more teams appeared, MMS developed invitation criteria centered on the idea of putting on a good show and encouraging good dancing among new teams. Young teams were always included so that they could see the variety and quality of older teams in order to build their own excitement.

About ten years into the Ale, following a trip by the women to England, MMS starting to invite non-Cotswold teams, realizing that adding molly, northwest, sword, border, etc. added to the variety and made a better show.

Much of what makes the Ale’s core remains: teams from many locations and in many traditions, touring Brattleboro and Windham County, camping, feasting, drinking, singing… some things have changed over the years. Here’s a short list of Things We Used To Do. How many do you remember?

• Dancers originally camped in the very sloping field just below the upper parking lot, and danced on the grass. The Marlboro stand was on the soccer field, and the Brattleboro stand was on the Common.
• Sunday morning had dance workshops led by other teams or visiting experts, discussions on leadership, music, and recruiting…
• More dancing on Monday! Games on the field, the maypole dance, packing everything up while having brunch, and ending in Wilmington at Poncho’s Wreck, dancing in the alley way.
• Teams cooked their own meals on the field, and Newtown held themed parties — 2001, A Space Odyssey; Hollywood, Vikings… 
• There were stands at all the local Windham County towns, even if the audience was one person and a dog.
• The feast was on Saturday night, and the first few feasts were pig roasts and pot luck, mostly supplied by MMS.
• The Sunday tours had no buses; people carpooled and went out to dinner at the end of the day.
• When we started to use buses it made more sense to have the Feast on Sunday.