Bampton Morris Day of Dance

Bampton's morris day is the spring bank holiday Monday at the end of May, next on Monday 31 May 2027. The village's three sides start dancing at about 8.30 to 9am and spend the day going round the pubs, the open spaces and private gardens until late afternoon, when visiting sides join them for the evening; the dancing ends by about 9pm and the music carries on in the pubs.

Three sides, one day

Bampton has three morris sides, each with its own squire, musicians and home pub. Bampton Traditional Morris Dancers dance from the Horse Shoe and Traditional Bampton Morris Dancers from the Talbot; both count themselves heirs of the old Bampton side, and the Victoria County History records a rival side forming after the First World War. Bampton Morris Men, formed in 1974, are based at the Morris Clown. Each dances its own route to its own timetable, so on the day you will meet them in different places.

The two older sides publish their schedules on their own websites (Bampton Morris Men have none), and on the morning the schedules go up in pub windows; at the Morris Clown you can photograph the schedules posted there. The Royal British Legion no longer produces a combined schedule or map. Without a schedule, follow the bells and the fiddle.

Getting there and parking

Bampton is on the flat land between Witney and the Thames, about 5 miles (8km) south-west of Witney. There is short-stay parking in the Market Square (up to four hours) and usually some space in Church Close beside the church; avoid Church View, which is too narrow. Thames Travel's 19 bus links Bampton with Witney and Carterton from Monday to Saturday, so check whether it runs on the bank holiday. It is a long day of standing and walking, mostly on pavements and grass, so bring a hat, water and cash for the pubs and the collections.

Where the custom comes from

Morris dancing in Bampton was once part of the Whitsun holiday, danced mainly on Whit Monday. When the spring bank holiday replaced Whit Monday in the 1970s the dancing moved with it, and the day lost its church connection but kept its place in the year. The Victoria County History traces the dance in Bampton to the early nineteenth century and probably the late eighteenth, and records it danced regularly at Whitsun by 1848; claims of an unbroken line of 300 years or more are tradition, without documentary support. More on the village, its church and its Downton Abbey streets is in the guide to Bampton.

In July, the Charlbury Riverside Festival is a free weekend of music by the Evenlode at Charlbury.