Sword dancers keep tradition alive

The sound of clashing steel resounded in villages of Rotherham as the Grenoside Sword Dancers undertook their annual “traipse” on Saturday.

Folk performer and broadcaster Mike Harding was among the crowds gathering at Wentworth, Scholes and Thorpe Hesley who were treated to a performance to mark a famous 100th anniversary.

In 1910, folkorist Cecil Sharp recorded the group’s routine as part of a project to watch and write down all the traditional sword dances of England.

The route took the dancers to the George and Dragon, Wentworth, the Bay Horse Scholes and Trinity Centre, Thorpe Hesley Parish Church.

The visit to Harley had to be cancelled as all possible dance sites were ruled out by the icy conditions.

Braving the snowy surroundings the team, along with guests the Newcastle Kingsmen Rapper team, the Thorpe Hesley Junior School sword team and the Wath Morris Men, visited the villages of Wentworth, Scholes and Thorpe Hesley.

The teams, wearing colourful costumes, performed longsword dancing, rapper dancing and Border morris dancing, as well as traditional folk songs in the village pubs.

Crowd favourites were the Thorpe Hesley school pupils, who had been taught the Longsword dance by a member of the Grenoside group during eight sessions since last September.

The traipse commemorates teams of quarrymen who toured the area’s big houses in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The quarrymen earned little money in the winter if the ground was frozen so they walked to places like Wentworth House to entertain the local gentry and their guests at Christmas parties.

Collections were taken and split between the team members to help the family income.

Each man could earn between 30 and 35 shillings in the six weeks between Christmas and the end of January.

At the end of this year's traipse, in a tribute to the work of Sharp and others who kept the tradition alive, the dancers performed a sequence known as “To Slay a Bullock” for the first time.