On 2nd January,
2009 Towersey Morris lost its dear old founder, Denis Manners. He was
88, still loving life and humanity, though missing his wife, Sheila,
who had died the previous summer. She had first become his girlfriend
in 1946, sixty two years earlier.
Denis’s involvement with
the Morris started when he lived in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, in the
1950’s. He soon joined Oxford City Morris, which was becoming revitalised
after some years when its only activity had been its Squire dancing
a jig on Magdelen Bridge on May Day each year, just to keep the side
in existence. Soon after, Denis himself was Squire, a post he held for
seven years.
Denis, Sheila and their children
moved to Towersey, where Denis built his home, “Long Odds” right
next to The Three Horseshoes and brought Oxford City there to dance.
“The local yobbos”, as Denis always called them, laughed at the
dancing and Denis told them they’d have the right to laugh if they
could do better. Quite incredibly, Denis’s charisma, personal magnetism
and goodwill caused these young lads, not to sneer some expletive laden
rejoinder, but to become the founder members of Towersey Morris Men,
and Denis to become virtually a second father to them all.
It may be that Denis was such
a great Morris man at least partly because he was so much more than
a Morris man. Not only did he have his lifelong interests in socialism
and the peace movement, (a belief he only suspended to take up arms
against Nazi Germany), but he had thrown himself wholeheartedly into
Towersey village, with its ruinous, toiletless village hall. After one
of the legendary “Long Odds” weekend breakfasts, where guests were
quite likely to outnumber the family, Denis, Louis Rusby and
Roy Bailey
(yes, that’s why almost every
Towersey Village Festival has him headlining
a concert or two) slipped through the gate that Denis had installed
between his garden and The Three Horseshoes and sat down to consider
the problem. “We should hold a festival to raise funds.” said Denis,
and so they did. Didn’t they just. Denis ran it for the first twelve
years, by the end of which time it was a national institution, and of
course it’s going from strength to strength to this day.
As age made convenience more
important to them, Denis and Sheila moved into Thame, where they were
living in 1998, when Denis was awarded the MBE for his services to Morris
dancing. Though not a great believer in the honours list, he felt it
was partly a recognition of the Morris’s place in English tradition,
and also that it would be churlish to turn it down. Buckingham Palace
though, was not a place he intended to grace with his presence and he
opted to be invested by the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire at Thame
Town Hall. With Towersey leading, all the Morris sides Denis had been
involved with danced his limousine (chauffeured by Nigel Cox, current
Bagman of Whitchurch) down the High Street. Dancing before, dancing
after, the wonderful Morris tunes, it was a huge celebration of what
Denis meant to us all. The Lord Lieutenant loved every minute and talks
about it to this day.
In 2006, Denis, Sheila and
Jenny, their daughter, moved to Nottingham to be close to the main body
of the family, though he visited Towersey several times a year, including
the 5.30 a.m. dancing the Sun up on May Morning. Of course, August Bank
Holiday weekend was always spent at
Towersey Village Festival, where
Towersey, the first Morris side he founded, (he also founded
Crendon Morris Men)
danced every year, and although the last of his yobbos had ceased to be
active in the Side, he never missed the chance to catch up with us.
Roy Bailey, Denis’s great
friend, and the patron of
Towersey Village Festival, sings a song with the lines,
“And the only measure of your time on this Earth,
Is the love you leave behind
you when you’re gone.”
If that be true, Denis William
Manners was without doubt a great man indeed.