Gate to Southwell

We were very pleased to be at the final Gate to Southwell, a revival of a medieval procession from Nottingham to Southwell Minster.  The day starts in the Market Square in Nottingham, and the dancers process to Sneinton.  They then travel by bus to various places, assembling in Southwell to process to the Minster for a short service.  There is more about the day here.

Here we are in the Nottingham Post!

Here are some photos.   Our thanks to Steve and Liz from New St George for joining us.

Steve, Liz and Sue

Everyone

Arriving at the Minster

Dog and Gun, Walton

First dance out of the year, with guest musicians (thank you, Bill and Rowena), and an audience of several people and a dog (thank you, also!).

More about Little Explorers Activity Club

First, you can read about our visit on the Little Explorers Activity Club blog.  It wasn't easy to see what the children were doing when we were dancing, so it's lovely to read about their reaction.  I am sure I speak for all the dancers who were there when I say it is really wonderful to have had such a positive effect.

Arabella Carter-Johnson has kindly sent some photos - you can see many more on the Club blog - and here are some:

Beginning a dance

Ending a dance

Pauline making sure everyone knows what they are doing in "Shepherd's Hey"

Dave Simons, our musician

Little Explorers Activity Club

We had a lovely time this morning as guests of the Little Explorers Activity Club, a club for children on the autistic spectrum and their families.  We danced in bright sunshine, accompanied by Dave on the fiddle and Pauline on the CD player, and then some club members joined in.   Thank you to Little Explorers for having us - you can see more about what they do on their website, and also on Facebook.  Here we are in action (some photos we took):

Have a try at Morris!

There are two chances to have a go.   The first is next Monday, the 19th August, when we are dancing at the Swan in our home village of Braybrooke.  If you would like to try your hand at Morris, come along and join in!

The second chance is at the village hall in Braybrooke, in October.  Check the diary on this site for the details.

Lutterworth Carnival

A very hot day at Lutterworth Carnival.

And a photo of some of the Triumph motorcycles present, with some classic cars in the background.

Bridge 61, Foxton Locks

First, the remains of the Inclined Plane at Foxton, an amazing lift built at the start of the 20th century to lift canal boats from one canal to another, bypassing the also amazing series of locks.  The locks survive and are still used, the plane was dismantled, although there are plans to rebuild it.

This shows the level at which boats entered the lift, to descend the plane to the canal below.

Now, some photos of us dancing on the towpath outside the Bridge 61 pub, and of our friends Hips N Haws, who joined us for the evening.