Percy Manning Centenary Concert

Friday 24th March; St Andrews Church, Oxford; 8pm

Featuring Mike Heaney as Percy Manning, with guests Magpie Lane and Headington Quarry Morris Dancers

Click here for ticketsPercy Manning was the first proper Morris dance researcher. Everybody knows that the big revival began when Cecil Sharp met William Kimber and the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers on Boxing Day 1899, but not many know that that might never have even happened if Manning hadn't persuaded the side to re-form for a concert nine months previously.

This event recreates that seminal concert given by Percy Manning in 1899 where he celebrates the revival of morris dancing and 'exhibits' Headington Quarry Morris Dancers, their dances, songs and music. It is timed to coincide with 2017 being the centenary of Manning's death. It features the current side of Headington Quarry Morris Dancers and renowned local folk artists Magpie Lane.

As well as morris dancing, Manning collected a large amount of material relating to Oxfordshire history, folklore and customs, including local May customs and mumming. This concert is just one event of many in Oxford celebrating the Percy Manning Centenary including: exhibits/displays at the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of Oxford, educational activities and the publication of a book Percy Manning: The Man Who Collected Oxfordshire (Archaeopress).

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