Plough Monday for CMM

Plough Monday, the traditional start of the new agricultural year, falls on the first Monday after Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas (6 January). In 2017 Plough Monday is on January 9th.

It’s also the day for local Plough Monday events all over England, and especially in East Anglia. In 1977 CMM revived the Cambridgeshire Molly dances which had been performed years ago in Comberton and other local villages. During the day we perform those local dances in villages around Cambridge, and in the evening we visit Balsham as guest of The Balsham Ploughmen, where we change back to Cotswold morris.

The Cambridge Molly dances sit somewhere between Cotswold morris and English Country dance. They’ve formed a basis for all sorts of colourful developments over the years (see Seven Champions, and Gog Magog Molly for instance). However, CMM do Cambridge Molly in the form in which they were first collected, without all the extra hullabaloo. To see what we do, have a look at the following Youtube Videos, courtesy of George Bennett, CMM’s answer to Cecil B DeMille.

Here’s Cross Hand Polka

And Birds abuilding

And the Special

 

Finally, a couple more you can watch on Facebook: Birds abuilding and Six-hand Reel