Appeal to uncover long lost names and faces of Hartlepool village's unique tradition
An appeal has been made for information and photographs of a unique Hartlepool folk dance believed to date back to the 1800s.
A leading member of the group that performs Greatham Sword Dance in the village every Christmas is appealing to Mail readers to help fill in blanks of its history.
The Redcar Sword Dancers group have put on the Greatham dance every Boxing Day since 1967.
Before that it was performed on and off by local villagers with the last known staging by a school boy team for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.
But Brian Pearce, who has been part of the Redcar Sword Dancers since 1968 when he was 21, said: “I’m trying to put together a history of the sword dance from the people that did it in Greatham.
“I’ve got lots of information but there’s never any photographs. People might have something in their family bits and pieces.
"I thought I would concentrate on the later teams that revived the dance. There’s quite a bit of interesting history.”
Brian, 78, has managed to unearth two photographs of a schoolboy team believed to have been taken around the year 1935.
One is a copy of a press cutting apparently of the Greatham Feast which sees the village celebrate the feast day of St John the Baptist every June.
But Brian has been unable to track down which newspaper it came from.
The names of the boys pictured are Tot Stainthorp, John Stafford, Albert Bell, Ted Snowden, Les Nevin, George Richardson, Desmond Pout, John Maughan, Ron Kirkby and Joe Young.
It also includes Tom Armstrong, the last leader of the men's team that ceased dancing in about 1925.
Another photograph appears to show the same group of boys but with possibly Charles Howard, the local school master responsible for the revival in 1935.
Charles and and Tom Armstrong also led the later revival in 1953 for the coronation.
A detailed version of Greatham’s dance, believed to be unique to the village, was first recorded in 1935 by an American, James Madison Carpenter, when he was was touring the UK seeking folk songs and plays.
He was informed that the play had been acted for 100 years.
Anyone with any new information or photos can contact Brian by email at [email protected]