JANUARY - The start of the New Year, 2012 already!!! Has seen us perform at the Killingworth Castle, Wootton, Oxfordshire. This is the opening of the New Season for Morris, Rapper, Mumming, Wassailing and of course Ale-Tasting. Also new dates have been added to our new Calendar link (see Itinerary above).

And a very special thanks go to all those of you who donated to Our chosen Charity, The Katharine House Hospice, Adderbury.

DECEMBER - Lots of dates to be posted here with regards to the Mumming Season. It has started already with the Christmas Market @ Woodstock's Oxfordshire Museum (see below), will continue with the first performance in December at the Killingworth Castle in Wooton (see above), then continue on for the next month until Boxing Day at the Bell Inn, Charlbury, where we will perform with the Charlbury Morris in their annual 'start the year festival'.

SAT 26^th November - Masons Apron Wassail
19:30-22:00 @ Rossevelt Road, Long Hanborough. KSR are looking forward to Masons' excellent event.

SAT 26^th November - Oxfordshire Museum - Christmas Market
12:00-14:00 Park St, Woodstock. King Stone will perform their famed Mummers play at the museum and surrounding town centre.

There was an absolutely fantastic crowd at the Christmas Market held by the Oxfordshire Museum. We gave four performances for the assorted shoppers and vendors, two in the gardens at the rear of the museum and two in-front of the museum near the "hurdy-gurdy" man and the stocks. The crowds, including the children, helped us along with the pantomime jokes and donated generously to our chosen charity, the Katherine House Hospice in Adderbury.

FRI 11^th November - Rock of Gibraltar, Enslow
This will be a rip-roaring evening of traditional music, song and dance with various local sides performing for all to see, so do come along and have a good time. Stamatas, the Landlord, is very supportive of the Morris fraternity.

Cracking session at the Rock of Gibralter last night. Thanks to our friends Mason's Apron (North West Clog), Wychwayz (Border), Huzzaz (Belly), Owlswick (Cotswold) and the local session musos. Next up, Vicky Arms, 9th December!

SUN 23^rd October - Chipping Norton Apple Fair
11.00-15.00 At the CN Community Orchard
King Stone will wassail the apple trees.

The day dawned with a dark and lowering sky but, travelling to the Chipping Norton Community Orchard, the sun broke through the clouds and shone on a tapestry of green, yellow, bronze and red leaves. We processed from our HQ (The Red Lion), marching to the beat of a drum and a whistle playing a merry jig. Along the way we were greeted by a goodly number of people, as soon as the Chipping Norton Town Mayor arrived, we commenced the entertainment. An address was given to the people and to the apple trees a wassail to ward off the nasty bugs and spirits with yelling and wailing and clapping of hands. To show thanks for a good harvest and to show respect for the trees we toasted the principle tree and then offered toast and cider to the branches and roots so that the next harvest will be abundant and nourishing. Finally, we led the people in a dance around the tree before retiring to drink of the harvest cider and to eat bread and cheese.
(See Gallery for images of the wassail.)

SAT 1^st October - Chipping Norton Annual Autumn Fair
12:30 - 13:30 Chipping Norton Town Hall.
We have been invited to perform a couple of dances for the Annual Autumn Fair in the historic North Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton.

On a beautiful autumn day that put most of the summer to shame, Chipping Norton Transition Group held a fair at the Town Hall. It was quite a busy affair with local produce (mainly seasonal from the locality), arts and crafts such as pottery, jewelery and woodwork, demonstations of beekeeping and caring for fruit trees, the community orchard pressing apples and cider making, and entertainment from the local folk club, including our own Pete & Pen and also Peter Standing, oh and not forgetting King Stone Rapper!

KSR danced Winlaton and Off the Beaten Track accomapanied by Liz on whistle and Peter on bouzouki. Linda Ludwig, who was a pupil we met on our trips to Gifhorn in Germany, joined us as "Great Big Whalloping Tom", she is now studying at Oxford Brookes so we expect she will be joining us from time to time. Liz was sharing her time of pottery demonstrations with playing for us, so had a busy day. The dancing was well received and we finished the day by doing another dance in front of the steps of the town hall in beautiful sunshine.

THU 29^th September - Witney Methodist Chapel
19:30 - 22:00 Witney, Oxfordshire.
Workshop for a ladies' dance group. Anybody willing to learn Rapper Sword dancing is welcome to come along as well.

The workshop was a great success. The ladies of the Methodist Ladies Group were a fantastic bunch, willing to give it a go never mind the results.

To start the evening, after a round of tea and coffee, we gave a short talk about the history of Rapper, then we gave a exhibition dance, before splitting into groups to express the various acts of our rapper dance. One group went off with Peter Allum to learn the "Calling On Song" and another group were taught a few basic figures from our demonstration dance by Linda Ludwig assisted by Pete Bareham. The 'nightingales' soon returned having learned the words to the introduction song and while we were waiting for the dancers to get the figures just so, Peter Standing took us through a ceilidh style dance called the Circassian Circle. That was absolutely fabulous and the ladies really enjoyed dancing it. Once the sword dancers and singers were happy we concluded the workshop with their "Calling on Song" followed by the first two movements of the "Winlaton" dance.

Well done to the ladies who performed so admirably.

SUN 18^th September - Didcot Railway Centre
11:00 - 15:00 Didcot, Oxfordshire.

The recent event at Didcot Railway Centre was a good success. The weather held out for the most part. Interesting historic tour of the railways and engines. More images will be posted in the gallery when acquired.

KSR @ Didcot GWR Museum - 18/09/11
Here we are, standing with a backdrop of 4079 'Pendennis Castle , 5051 'Drysllwyn Castle/Earl Bathurst' and 6023 'King Edward II' (the latter painted in blue). Earlier in the day, we had a ride in a GWR diesel railcar with its distinctive swooping lines at the front and rear, and we were fortunate to have our own tour of the signal box, learning how they are operated. The smells of smoke, mixed in with steam, and old fashioned diesel fumes, was intoxicating. Another engine that we saw several times during the day was a steam railcar that had been restored from its conversion from a steam railcar to an autocar, there must be some kind of irony there.

Occasionally, a tank engine, 2-6-0T no. 5322, appeared drawing two coaches, letting off clouds of steam with such a fearsome hiss that it scared some young children and a dog. It was seen later pounding up and down on another line.

In between times, and rain showers, we danced at various places on the site with a final flourish in the cafe. There were no sightings of Thomas, he is probably up at the North Pole helping Santa and his elves preparing for Christmas.

SAT 27^th August - Towersey Festival
The Three Horseshoes.

There was a good showing at the Towersey Festival, Thame on Saturday. The weather held out for a good period and the many and varied acts put on a good showing. The event was ably choreographed by Owlswick Morris and there was enough ale flowing to keep everyone happy.

16-20 June 2011, Gifhorn, Germany

Following our first visit in 2007 we had the pleasure of returning to Germany once again to attend Gifhorn's Schutzenfest. And, for a second time, we were kindly invited to give a rapper workshop at a fantastic local school --the Humboldt Gymnasium. Images and video clips can be found in our gallery.
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