The earliest known image of Morris Dancing is the “Betley Window”. It is a stained glass window which dates to around 1515. It is not known where it was originally installed but at one time it was at Betley Hall in Staffordshire and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. As you can see, costumes have changed over the the years but the one thing that has remained constant throughout is the bells.

The records seem to suggest that Morris dancing was concentrated in the major cities of England and then spread out to the surrounding countryside and then died out in the cities; to become a popular rural entertainment. It reached a peak of popularity in Elizabethan times. Later it became a victim of the Puritans and the Cromwell era. Up until the Industrial Reolution it was still widespead across many parts of England but the latter, with its migration of the population from the countyside to the towns, brought about a dramatic decline.

By the end of the 19th Century Morris Dancing had disappeared completely from everywhere except the west Midlands and the Northeast. It was rescued from total oblivion by a handfull of late Victorian enthusiasts who recorded the dances and the music and taught it to as many as would listen. The last century saw a huge revival.