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No-one
knows the exact origins of the Morris Dancers Ground, or how old it is but
it appears on the first OS map of Abram, published in 1846 along with
Abram Hall, the Baptist Sunday School and Maypole House Farm which was
named after the maypole which stood on the Morris Dancers Ground until at
least 1913. In the mid nineteenth century when a new pit shaft was sunk
nearby it seemed appropriate to name that after the maypole too. When the
railway lines to the coal washing sheds and the colliery brick works were
laid they were put down either side of the Morris Dancers Ground. This
colliery, The Maypole, was
the scene of a tragic pit explosion in 1908, seven years after the last
known traditional performance of the Abram Morris Dance, when 75 men were
killed.
The
Morris Dancers Ground
belongs to the people of Abram but over the years it has steadily fallen
into disuse. In 1922, when the dance failed to take place a local farmer,
Mr J T Rigby, wrote to Abram Urban District Council expressing his concern
lest the land be lost. Investigations by the Borough surveyor were unable
to trace ownership of the land before 1845 when it was in the ownership of
Dr Adam Chadwick. The tenants of the land at that time were Thomas and
William Lyon. Tithe rent was being paid by the Moss Hall Coal Company, but
further investigations by the Council’s law clerk failed to establish
any positive information about ownership so in July 1924 four concrete
corner posts were erected “on behalf of the young men of Abram”. The
ground was visited by representatives of the Council in 1932 on the
occasion of the annual inspection of roads.
On
July 29th 1968 William Wright, a former Chairman of Abram UDC and
son-in-law of one of the 1901 team, applied for Village Green status for
the Morris Dancers Ground, and this being undisputed became final on
August 1st 1972. Three years later the land was successfully registered as
common land and is now in the ownership of Wigan Metropolitan Borough
Council.
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In
1984 on the occasion of the revival of The Abram Morris Dance the dance
was once again performed on the Morris Dancers Ground. The concrete corner posts had long since
disappeared and the surface was more pit dirt than grass, but there were
two trees growing there and the Morris
Dancers Ground was still in reasonable condition for dancing on. |
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The dance has taken place on the last Saturday in June every year since
then but the last ten or so years have seen a rapid deterioration in the
site. |
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Its location at the end of Park Lane, well away from housing make it
a perfect area for dumping and burning out stolen cars, and the spoil
heaps just behind it attract more and more scrambler motor bikes which use
the area of the Morris Dancers
Ground as a convenient turning point. A few years ago the trees
were destroyed and the ground has became scarred by ruts up to 12inches or
more deep from the bikes, so much so that it was almost impossible to find
an area where the dance could take place. |
In
1999, we approached the land owners, Wigan Council to request their help
in restoring the site and once again “taking it from the waste”! The
local Councillors were very supportive and we started to apply for grants
towards the cost of the restoration which at that time was estimated to be
about £20,000. Our first successful bid provided us with a PC which is
now on permanent loan to the primary school, but shortly afterwards the
Shell Better Britain Campaign awarded us £1500. Wigan Council gave us £5000
from their Brighter Borough fund and we also received a number of smaller
grants from Morris teams, the local EFDSS group and several individuals
which took the fund up over the £7000 mark. We had hoped to have the
ground restored in time for the Centenary of the last traditional
performance in 1901. However, despite our best efforts the fund remained
static while the Morris Dancers
Ground continued to deteriorate and £20,000 seemed to be an
impossible target. The Centenary came and went and still the restoration
looked as though it might never happen.
We
had been working closely with the newly formed Abram Community Link and in
October 2001 new boundary signs went up on the
roads leading into the village featuring the team’s maypole, complete
with teapot! We hoped that these signs might help raise awareness of the Morris
Dancers Ground and lead to further funding but although they helped
raise the profile of the tradition the fund remained static.
Then
early in 2003 we found out that Metropolitan Training, an approved
training provider run by Wigan Council that delivers vocational training
in many occupations for between 400-500 trainees, could provide the workforce at no cost as part of
their training programme. All we had to do was provide the materials.
Following a site visit in January plans were made for
the restoration and work
began in May.
You
can read about the restoration work here. |
