The Morris Federation

May Day Dawn Awakening often involves hills, bracing weather, suitably-charge coffee in flasks and of course the Morris!   Rampant Rooster are no exception (www.rampantroostermorris.co.uk)  and for many years we  have greeted the dawn in our local town of Dorking, Surrey by dancing on the top of Box Hill – famous for bikers, zig-zags and the Look Out viewpoint for miles around.

 As usual we met at 5 a.m. and, despite the dark and early morning, welcomed other Morris sides from slightly further afield :  Spring Grove, Marlings and Ewell St Mary (who brought a ready-made audience of intrepid ramblers to come and watch before rambling off).

 After the traditional processional danced from the car park to the Look Out we took turn about to dance as dawn awakened and the sun shone.   Although a bit parky, it was fair and sunny this year.   We have danced in horizontal rain and lowering cloud, so this year was a great delight to see the sun actually come up.   It was a great introduction for our nine new people who have now been `blooded’ into a Morris May morning.

 After the obligatory annual group photo at the viewpoint, with the panorama of Dorking spread out below us, at 6.45 we trundled down the hill to be warmly welcomed by John and Naomi at the Black Horse with steaming hot beverages (beer  for the more hardy of us) and a great English fry up.   Our publican hosts are staunch supporters of the tradition – rare in these parts – and also provided breakfast for another local side Buckland Shag who had greeted the dawn in their traditional way around their village pond.

 Rampant Rooster also took part in the May celebrations at Rochester Sweeps on Saturday 3^rd May – again, a tradition we have supported for years – and enjoyed a great day’s dancing in warm and sunny weather