Photo of the Alderley Edge Morris Dancers  c.1902   (from the Manchester MM Archives)

Films of NW Morris dancing, pre WW2

The Morris Ring   -  (added May 2015)

The Morris Ring  has recently gained permission to show some film that it acquired in the late 1970s

• Over Peover, Cheshire (1938/9) 
  

The Morris Ring Archive has films of  the Over Peover Rose Queen, in Cheshire,  from 1938 & 1939.
The film features :-
1938 - Over Peover Morris Dancers  (Time 00:31 to 01:20)
1938 - Peover Magpie Morris  (Time 02:00 to 02:35)
 1939 -  Over Peover Morris Dancers  (in colour :  time 7:45 to 8:00) 
 
 

British Film Institute (BFI)   -  (added December 2013)

The BFI has films available, taken in the North of England by Mitchell and Kenyon.  

D.Broomhead has advised me that several films feature NW morris teams ; in chronological order, these are :-

• Carnival Processions in Birkenhead (1902) 

          The date is  possibly 21st June 1902, which makes this the oldest known film of morris dancing
          The team might be Father Nugent’s Refuge Morris Dancers and Refuge Boys Brass Band.
          Time : 00.31 to 01.17

• Lytham Club Day Carnival ( 26th June 1902)

          Probably Lytham St John’s School Morris Dancers (Mixed)
          Time 02.55 to 03.30

• Coronation Festivities at Accrington ( 26th June 1902)

          Leyland (Royal) Morris Dancers - 
          Time : 06.27 to 07.07

• Leeds Lifeboat Procession and Sports at Roundhay Park ( 5th July 1902)

          Horwich Morris Prize Medal Morris Dancers (walking)
          Time : 04.25 to 04.44

• Leeds Lifeboat Procession and Sports at Roundhay Park (1902)

          Horwich Morris Prize Medal Morris Dancers (walking) – Time 08.28 to 08.41
            * Oddly this is also dated as being 1901 elsewhere but it seems to be the same procession in both films but from a different spot.

•  Bootle May Day Demonstration and Crowning of the May Queen (May 1903)

          Morris Side 1*. Time : 01.16 to 01.31
          Morris Side 2*. Time : 09.10 to 09.50 and 12.33 to 13.05
            Notes provided these links are :-
                 * Oddly, News paper reports for the day only list one morris side.
                 * Morris Side 1 may be Father Nugent’s Boys Refuge Morris Dancers as he also ran a Boys Refuge Brass Band
                    and a boys brass band is playing for them in the procession.

• Knutsford Royal May Day Carnival (1st May 1904)

          Crewe Prize Morris Dancers
          Time : 00.23 to end

• Leyland May Festival (1905)

          Leyland (Royal) Morris Dancers 
          Time : Start to 00.32

• Crewe Hospital Procession and Pageant (1907)

          Probably Crewe Royal Morris Dancers 
          Time : 06.07 to 06.45

• ​Carnival Morris In Macclesfield in 1933  
  Time : 03:36 to 03:56

British Pathe

British Pathe has video footage which includes morris dancing, at  http://www.britishpathe.com/

D.Broomhead kindly supplied links to various May Day and Rose Queen events, as follows :-

• Heaton Park Rose Queen, Manchester  1926
• Knutsford May Day 1926
• Knutsford May Day 1928    (the first 20 seconds of this footage shows the start of the May Day procession, with the Cranford Prize Troupe of Morris Dancers, followed by the Cheshire Lines Railway Prize Band : source of information = May Day Programme, courtesy of Knutsford Heritage Centre)  
  [ NOTE  Further research carried out in June 2014 shows that it is not the Mobberley Prize Morris Dancers, as previously thought. ]
• Liverpool May Day  1927
• 'Merrie England' carnival, Chester  1932​ 

North West Film Archive

The NWFA has several archive films of morris in the North-west.  Search for "morris dancing", and similar terms, at http://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk/