Bells, sticks and hankies in Hertfordshire since 1972.
Morris dance names can sound like riddles, pub jokes or old field notes — and often they are all three. We pick through titles such as Bacca Pipes and Bean Setting to see what they reveal about memory, place and the versions a side like St Albans Morris Men chooses to keep dancing in 2026.
Burst mode won't save you — Morris rewards the photographer who bothers to learn the figures. A friendly guide to shutter speeds, sightlines and St Albans light, plus the etiquette that keeps you welcome at the next pub stop.
A missing dancer doesn’t have to mean a cancelled stand. Behind every St Albans Morris Men outing is a quiet system of shadowing, swapping and squeezing the set — and it says a lot about how any community group can plan for the unexpected.
A melodeon can drown out most things, but it cannot drown out teamwork. Here is how St Albans Morris Men read nods, stick taps and a raised hanky mid-dance — and what spectators can watch for when the next set begins.
A St Albans primary school gym, a box of short sticks and thirty pairs of bells: what actually happens in a 45-minute Morris workshop? We look inside our 2026 schools programme — and why passing on the tradition means letting children have a go, not putting it behind glass.
A Saturday morning of Morris dancing can look beautifully free: bells, sticks, a patch of pavement and a few tunes. Behind the hankies, though, is a real annual budget covering insurance, hall hire, kit repairs, fuel and more. Here is a plain-English look at how the money works for St Albans Morris Men in 2026.
Heading to your first St Albans Morris Men public dance? Here’s a warm, practical guide to applause, photographs, curious children, muddy dogs and the questions worth asking when the bells fall silent.
Most photos of St Albans Morris Men are taken on home ground, but the side's calendar is stitched together by early starts, guest spots and return invitations. Here's what an away day actually involves — and why the road matters to the tradition.
The festival season is over, the hankies are folded away and the evenings are dark by half four — which makes it the perfect moment to look inside a Morris side's workshop months. Here's what St Albans Morris Men get up to between the last autumn dance and the Boxing Day bells.
Morris dancing can look like a wonderfully chaotic business — bells, sticks, hankies and a fiddle all going at once. Behind the noise, though, a side has a few traditional jobs that keep everything moving. Here is a plain-English guide to the squire, bagman, foreman, musician and fool, and how a Hertfordshire side like St Albans Morris Men actually gets things done.
A British forecast can turn a carefully planned dance-out into a pub gathering in minutes. This is how the side weighs up wet steps, soggy hankies and safety, how you can check for changes, and why calling off a stand is part of keeping the tradition going.
Every dance-out ends with a rattle of coins and a quiet question: where does it all go? Here is how St Albans Morris Men choose charity partners, cover the real costs of keeping a side on the road, and why your spare change is only one way to help.
From the postcard-perfect green beside St Albans Cathedral to supermarket car parks and commuter station forecourts, the side has never been fussy about a stage. Here is a lively tour of the places where the bells have rung — and what those spots say about a changing city.
Thinking of asking St Albans Morris Men — or another local side — to dance at your wedding, village fete or festival? This no-nonsense guide covers the questions to ask, the space you need, the timing that works and the small details that turn a good booking into a great one.
There is no audition, no secret handshake and no need to own a single bell. We joined a Tuesday practice in autumn 2026 to see what really happens when a complete beginner walks into a St Albans Morris Men session.
Before the bells start and the sticks clash, the tune is already doing the heavy lifting. We look at the musicians behind St Albans Morris Men — the instruments they play, the calls they follow and why a good tune is as essential as a good step.
When a Morris side hosts an ale, the whole town gets a weekend of dancing, music, food and a fair amount of singing. Here's how the tradition works, what happens across the two days, and how a first-timer should approach it.
Morris dancing gets filed away as a nostalgic curiosity far too often — a bit of olde England wheeled out for the summer fete. It isn't. Fifty-four years of St Albans Morris Men, and a national scene full of new dancers and new tunes, say otherwise.
Every 26 December the city turns out in force to watch us dance. Then we disappear for eleven months. A case for making Morris a normal, everyday sight on St Albans' streets in 2026 — for the shops, for the dancers, and for everyone who secretly fancies a go.
Ever stopped at a Morris stand and quietly wondered what you're actually looking at? A tour of the bells, sticks, hankies and badges that make up a dancer's kit — and what St Albans Morris Men's own regalia says about more than fifty years of dancing in Hertfordshire.