History

A brief early history of Sytchampton Folk Dance

Club 1974-1995

Incorporating Sytchampton Folk Dance Team

Preface

Welcome to this brief, early history of both the Sytchampton Folk Dance Club and the

Sytchampton Folk Dance Group – yes, they are different, but completely tied in to one

another….read on. What it is not about is all the periphery bits and pieces like who joined

when, the weekends away, Eric’s walks, carol singing, working with local organisations etc.

It’s about establishing the framework of this wonderful and well-respected club.

This history is compiled by the co-founders of the club, Joe and Margaret Hodgson who,

along with Pat and Jeff Oakey set up the club. Please note that all dates are double verified,

i.e., our own sources and then by at least 2 other sources. Unlike Wikipedia, if we cannot

verify a date, we don’t use it!! We thank all those who were there at the beginning for giving

us their time in producing what we hope is a short but definitive early history of this thriving,

friendly club.

The early years

So….’in a galaxy far, far away’……..in the spring of 1973, Margaret asked me if I would call

at a dance for her 18+ club at Cutnall Green. It was there that we first met Pat and Jeff. The

dance was successful and, as a result Pat contacted me to see if I would run a dance for

their local church in that autumn. Again, it was successful and two further dances followed in

1974 (There were more but they cease to be part of the story.).

In spring 1975 Margaret and I broached the idea of a club at Sytch to Pat and Jeff. Contrary

to all other spurious dates this was the birth of the idea, and it is generally accepted that the

club came into being with a first meeting in September of 1975. The subs were 30p per

session and membership was 50p!!

The club began with no musician, only records, and many of the members, believe it or not,

were local – not many realise that. Our record deck was fitted in an old washstand (with delux

castors!) and fed into a FAL Phase 50 amp with 2 Wilmslow Audio 12” speakers. As time

moved on the membership grew via the local grapevine and interestingly through people’s

work and family. Soon our membership brought in people from the Black Country and South

Birmingham, as well as Kidderminster, Stourport, Droitwich, Worcester and areas around.

The club was embraced by the village hall committee and the then twice-yearly dances

funded the local church at one and the village hall at the other. The caller was yours truly

with the effervescent ‘Barry’s Best’ playing. (see photo below!)

Early Days……Barry’s Best (in the old hall),

possibly one of the first dances

In 1978 it was decided that this large club needed a committee to run it and a constitution.

This was duly set up with me, Joe, as its first president, Jeff Oakey as Chair, Pat Oakey as

Treasurer, Richard Seymour as Secretary with a small committee of just 4 others.

Interestingly, as early as late 78, the committee were informed of disquiet amongst some

dancers who complained to a committee member that many were not listening to the caller

and generally chatting at inappropriate times!!!! In 1995 we had another complaint to the

committee about excess chat during dancing!!!

The constitutions’ principle aim was,’….to teach and learn folk dance irrespective of its

source….’ (I hope that this basic aim has never changed!!) and indeed I can remember a

couple from Droitwich (Peggy and Roy) doing international dance evenings.

At the first meeting affiliation to EFDSS and to the West Midlands Folk Federation was

agreed and, later, Bromyard Folk Festival (at which Sytch members have been stewards

since Noah was in nappies until the present day.)

The club originally met fortnightly (but not for long) with myself and Richard Seymour

alternating the calling. Interesting when you look at the names of the early callers that took

on the role when Richard moved on, they were all local - Bill and Barbara Kinsman, Ken

Smith, Dick Hodges, Moose Cope, Val Rees, Sheila Mainwaring, Dean Clark and so on.

There were between 6 and 8 Saturday dances annually, arranged with me on the podium

bringing in outside bands. 100 tickets were printed and, ‘HOUSE FULL’ was a common

sight in those early days.

I think our record in the early days was set in 1979 with ‘Arden Folk’ playing and we had

around 120. We have a ticket for this one (below), from John and Eve – their first

‘performance’ at Sytch……just look at it for a moment….8 till Midnight….

...Bar…..Ploughman’s Supper….all for £1.50!! (At this juncture, minutes confirm 61

members eligible to vote. Not bad for such a young club.)

The only real exceptions were the summer dances and in the early 1980’s when folk in the

UK was in the doldrums. This is well documented in the minutes of the time when some

committee members asked for an earlier resolution of meeting weekly to be dropped

because of static/dwindling attendance. Again, true of many clubs at this period.

So, setting a chronology:

First meeting about the club at Pat and Jeff’s house in spring 1975 and first club meeting in

autumn of the same year, this is confirmed by a dated photo of the 20th Anniversary dance

with Alterations playing in 1995, the 40th anniversary was a year out (who cares!). So, in

September 2025 the club is 50!!

….a word about the Sytchampton Folk Dance Group – aka Folk Dance Team

In the same year of establishing a constitution (1978), it was felt that, once the club had

been running for a while, a small but hardy group would like to take their learning a step

further. Initially the basic idea was the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’. It was open to the whole

club.

In order to do this a group of about 20 folk would meet for 2 hours for a Sunday workshop

each month. Again, we danced to records with some help from visiting musicians willing to

give up a Sunday afternoon. It fully embraced the new constitution with regard to ‘teaching

and learning’.

So what did we learn?…..English stepping …rant….jig stepping….the 2 hornpipe steps, the

idea of timing, that is keeping it altogether, using the music……body awareness…..partner

awareness…set awareness. All I asked in return was that the group danced as much as they

could. They eagerly embraced this by going to Friday and/or Saturday dances at other

venues.

Whilst I did most of the teaching, other ‘guests’ did join us. I well remember a number of

wonderful Playford afternoons, Manx sessions, Morris, sword (long and rapper)….and who

will forget the dulcet call of ‘car park Eric’ every time we danced ‘Goddesses’. Eric could

never remember where he should be and so we all reminded him each time! (And no, we

weren’t sending him out to the car park, just reminding him to have his back to it!)

It wasn’t long before the group was asked to perform stuff at fetes and such like….so, more

learning because we went straight for the hard stuff – sequencing!

Where did we dance?…..

local fetes – the first outing was to Ombersley fete on National Folk Day 1979– Barry

Poultney from Barry’s Best our first musician....and here’s a picture to prove it, himself

on the back of Jeff’s pickup!

Stratford,

Worcester,

The Morgan Rally, Malvern

Bedworth (Folk Festival)

Black Country Museum and Dudley Zoo

Droitwich

Redditch needle museum

Powick Hospital (Thank you to Ginger, one of the residents, for making it all worthwhile)

An array of ‘stately homes’ including….Dudmaston Hall, Hagley Hall – the never to be

forgotten entering the arena after the horse and hounds brigade! (No prizes for

guessing what was on the ground!)

Bromyard Festival – not only as a dance team, we also led workshops.

Town and Country Show at Stoneleigh and,

The wonderful ‘dancing holidays’ together….Weston Super Mare, Bourton on the Water

etc.

The overall list is much longer. I don’t think anyone refused us a licence to perform and

remember it was a marvellous advert and did bring others into the club. We also received

numerous letters from folk organisations and the general public, telling us of our ‘high

standards’.

Barry/Jeanine and team at Ombersley

The cherry on the cake, so to speak, was a request from Droitwich Council, via the

aforementioned Peggy and Roy, to join them on a twinning visit to Bad Ems in Germany.

This meant us dancing alongside a local team from the village of Frücht. Please remember

that many of our team had never been abroad. For that first visit in 1987 our musician was

again, Barry Poultney and to say it was an instant success would be an understatement. We

could even boast we actually danced ‘on’ the Rhine…. Dorset 4 Hand Reel. Then, for many

years we had visits there and on alternate years, they came here. Some of the links still

exist between surviving members of the Sytch group and German friends.

We often exchanged gifts and the 2 most memorable gifts were when the club

commissioned a painting of the 2 teams performing in Hereford. There was a print in the hall

at Sytchampton and, because of our non-dance visits to Frücht, Margaret and I know that

the original still graces the village hall there.

In return the German group presented us with a full traditional dancers’ costume which,

when it made its first appearance was on a mannequin, named by me Brünnhilde after the

Wagnerian heroine. Where is the costume now? I don’t know, all I know is that it was

presented to and belongs to the club and was exquisite and I guess, quite valuable. Glass

case in the hall somewhere? That’s where it should be!

Now, we have to add a word about our own costume – I think we went through 3. Trust us,

trying to get everyone to agree was always a nightmare. Men, no sweat…britches, white

socks, white shirts…there was only one issue…….yellow shirts…..wasn’t there Jeff?!!

As for the ladies we got lots of ‘green doesn’t suit me’, ‘my bum will look big in that’ and so

on but, we got there in the end!

Musicians of course were crucial, and we had some pretty good ones. For most of the

teams’ life we had Pete and Moira and Brian. In the early days we had Barry Poultney,

Jeanine Saba, Ian Sears, Mac Gaskins, Malcolm Hopper, Barry Lewis, John Patrick, Tom

Woodward – if I’ve missed anyone, sorry!

Everyone gave up a considerable amount of time without complaint. Well, not a lot!

We survived the folk doldrums facing clubs all over the country in the early eighties.

Eventually, we had to accept that after a really good run, of which we are immensely proud,

the team folded. It became harder and harder to pull the team together – age, other

commitments, all took their toll. And so, in 1995 the curtain was drawn over a really exciting

venture that did Sytchampton club no harm at all – a wonderful group of ambassadors.

….and now on to the Saturday dances

First – a tale of 2 halls……….

The Sytch hall you see today hasn’t always been there. Originally it was a wooden structure

(an old chicken shed!) If you imagine the door at the end of the toilets, (next to the

bungalow) you entered there and, at the bottom of the steps, went straight into the hall.

If you used the old entrance today, you would go down the steps and turn left into the current

hall. The current hall was constructed parallel to the old hall. The reason I am mentioning

this is that it answers a question – where do the boots on the Sytchampton logo come from?

The new hall originally had thermoplastic tiles which sweated from the heat of all the dancers

(we danced so enthusiastically!). This necessitated the spreading of sawdust on the floor

during the interval to mop up all the excess moisture and stop us falling over. Due to this,

we called ourselves ‘Sytchampton Sawdust Stompers’ hence the boots on the logo. This is

officially in the minutes of a committee meeting and so is still the official name of the

Wednesday club unless it has been changed at a later committee meeting! (I don’t think we

ever danced with boots on although we have danced in the rain with plastic bags over our

shoes!)

Eventually, thanks in part to the funds generated by the dances, the village hall was able to

make a number of improvements. (eg. a wooden floor).

So…on we go…….the club established that the profit made by any dances would go directly

into hall funds and only weekly club fees would go into club funds. Originally there were 6 to

8 dances a year with me calling each time with a different band. What you need to

remember dear reader was that in the late 70’s and on into the eighties you had choice. On

a Saturday night you would have the choice of two or three dances to go to….so we were

new kids on the block and ‘hey ho’, generally full. We had a semi-permanent ‘House Full’

notice and people just kept coming. I think we were lucky…..folk dance was on a high. At

this sort of time most bands and callers were out both Friday and Saturday with festivals in

the summer.

Here’s a few facts:

We only cancelled once in the years I was calling (weather).

I only missed two (mumps and the only time ever I was double booked.)

Hall not available – we moved to Ombersley.

Christmas dances were ALWAYS ticket only and full – extra entertainment Father

Christmas….Faithful City Morris…singers (I think that’s where we first met Eve and

John), Cuckoo Oak, Pete & Stevie Geoghegan and, of course, Pete and Moira

We dropped the summer dance in the mid 80’s because too many people were away

and, like many clubs, numbers dropped. I seem to remember that we also dropped the

Jan/Feb dance as well as that was the likely time of bad weather.

For me, the greatest joy had to be bands who wanted to come to play at Sytch Saturday

dances…….these are bands from the early days…..People flocked from all over the West

Midlands and further afield (we also used to get a lot of caravanners/campers.) One couple

travelled from Swindon to many of our early dances!

The Saucerers

Boys of Oakhill

Bidford Band

Arden Folk

Weston Country Dance Band

Four Leaf Clover

Barry’s Best

Fools Jig

Alterations

Country Custom

Dampiers Round

Patchwork

The Falconers

etc., etc.

…..in conclusion

I haven’t gone any further than 95, which, sadly, was the end of the Dance Team. Our last

outing was to Bedworth Folk Festival in November of that year. Around that time our lives

took a major change and Margaret and I began to slowly pull out…..back to Uni for me as

well as a new full time job – in fact a new career and a new place to live!

For a while I returned for Christmas dances, always with the wonderful Boys of Oakhill and

then we quietly removed ourselves as we settled into life in Bromyard.

I am going to finish with a short piece I have never forgotten. I booked myself on a course in

Birmingham in the early nineties, led by one Jan Willcox, wife of the leader of the Ranchers,

who said this, not particularly to me…I paraphrase:

‘You know all has gone well when you leave a club you started and nurtured and it’s still

going today.’

Keep going Sytch – the club has a firm place in Midlands’ folk history and both of us are

proud we kicked the first ball! We look forward to our invitation to the 50th anniversary.

Thanks…….

Our thanks to:

Pat and Jeff Oakey

Eric and Mary Brant

Barry Poultney

Anita Fenton

John and Mary Perkins

and to John and Eve Evans for their encouragement throughout.

Our thanks must also go to our small group of proofreaders and checkers.

of copying.