Redcar Sword Dancers getting ready to entertain Hartlepool village with traditional Boxing Day performance

The Greatham Sword Dance has been performed in the village by Redcar Sword Dancers, in their distinctive red tunics, every Christmas since 1967.

Villagers and visitors will once again gather to watch the dance outside the gates of the Hospital of God, in Front Street, on Tuesday, December 26, at noon.

It will be the 57th annual performance by Redcar Sword Dancers, who were originally formed with the express purpose of reviving the tradition that had last been performed by a village schoolboy team in 1953 for the late Queen’s Coronation.

The dance itself is an ancient tradition dating back to at least the early part of the 19th Century.

It tells the story of a clown who loses his head but is revived by a travelling “quack” doctor.

The performance lasts around 20 minutes and people are invited to join the dancers before and afterwards in the Bull and Dog.