Ilmington is a village in the South Midlands of England, on the border between the counties of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire. The local town is Shipston-on-Stour and further north is the town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Many villages in the South Midlands – Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Buckinghamshire – had morris teams between the 17th to 19th centuries which are generally referred to as “Cotswold Morris” by the 20th century revival teams. The popularity as entertainment in the villages seems to have declined after the 1860s in many locations, leading to various revivals during the following century.

In Ilmington it is documented that there was an active morris team in 1805, 1860s, revived in 1886, 1887, 1897, from 1907 to 1919, and again from 1974. However it seems likely that there was a team with continuity in tradition from at least from the late 18th century until the late 19th century. Arguably the 1907 team had continuity in one member from the previous team and several sons of previous dancers.

My interest in the Morris team dates from the early 1970s when our family moved to Shipston and made contact with the old fiddler ‘Harry’ Sturch plus some interested local people, which resulted in Paul Bryan, Stan Jones and Chris Green (my father) restarting Morris dancing in Ilmington in 1974. I joined the team in 1976.

See my article PDF: Ilmington Morris Part 1: 17th to 19th century