King Stone - King Stone Mummers

The Dances
The following text was originally published by Cecil Sharp in 1912. The Winlaton Sword Dance The Swalwell Sword Dance The Earsdon Sword Dance

The Earsdon Sword Dance The Earsdon guizards perform in public on Christmas Eve, and they hold the reputation of being the best sword dancers in Northumberland. Mr Armstrong, the Captain, danced with them for forty years before he retired and took his present position. He told me that old-fashioned people always call them "Morris dancers." He explained the derivation as being that the dance was originally brought to the Border country by bands of outlaws and sheep-stealers, called "Morris (Moss) troopers" who came from the North and settled down as miners in Northumbria. Mr Armstrong's memory goes back a long way, he was able to give me a good deal of information respecting the changes that have taken place in the dance during the last fifty years. The Bessy, for instance, used to wear a hairy cap, and when the Nut was about to be tied, the dancers would sometimes call out "We'll hang the Betty"; whereupon, Betty would step into the centre of the ring and the swords would be locked tightly around his throat, while the dancers "stepped" in the way described in the text. Mr Armstrong also sang to me an older version of the Captain's song and gave me the words of a dramatic interlude which used to follow it. As these are of great interest, they will be printed together with the version at present used. The performers are a Captain, a Bessy, and five dancers. They are accompanied by a musician, who plays a fiddle.		Above: Earsdon, 1906 Notation Introduction Fig 1: Single-Guard Fig 2: The Nut Fig 1: Single-Guard Fig 3: Three-and-Two Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 4: Turn-In Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 5: Follow-We Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 6: Changy Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 7: Tumble Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 8: Figure Eight Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 9: Raffally Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 10: The Prince of Wales Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 11: Doctor Cook Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 12: Fixy Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 13: The Old Fiddler Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 14: Doctor Parry Figs 2 & 1 The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 15: Waves Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 16: Double-Guard Figs 2 & 1: The Nut and Single-Guard Fig 17: Face-Up Fig 2: The Nut Form up in line and exhibit Nut.