Budleigh Past and Present

Less than six months ago, they were worrying about becoming extinct because young people are too embarrassed to take part. But Budleigh’s Gala Week showed them still very much alive and kicking, impressing us with their athletic and colourful street-dance and clearly inspiring an enthusiastic audience of toddlers with the joys of stick-bashing and hankie-waving. The Exeter Morris Men, the oldest established group of its kind in Devon, wearing their black top hats and distinctive green waistcoats, are a familiar sight in villages and seaside resorts of South and East Devon during the summer months. They were nonetheless a novel spectacle, especially against the sunlit backdrop of the Otter Head’s red cliffs on a calm summer’s evening last week on 28 May. Younger members of the Budleigh audience watching the show certainly had no inhibitions about joining it. But last year the Morris Ring, an association representing over 200 Morris troupes across Britain, including the Exeter Morris Men...