Custom · Thaxted
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Bells, sticks and, at dusk, a slow dance of antlers.
See it clearly
The street dancing around the Guildhall and church is free to watch. The Morris Ring and Thaxted Morris sites list each year's dates.
Thaxted: each spring, hundreds of morris dancers fill this street, and at dusk the antlers come out.
In 1911 Thaxted's radical vicar Conrad Noel encouraged a morris revival, and the Thaxted Morris Men became one of the oldest revival sides. On 11 May 1934 dancers met here to found the Morris Ring, the national body for men's morris. Every Spring Bank Holiday weekend sides from across Britain and beyond tour the surrounding villages. They then gather in Thaxted for massed dances beneath the church and the medieval Guildhall. As the light fades, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance closes the evening, danced slowly up the street with antlers. The 99th weekend ran from 29 to 31 May 2026.