Plan B Forum

One of the country’s most distinctive Morris dancing troupes is proud of its efforts to preserve an English tradition going back at least a century and a half.



Now it fears its days are numbered after council bureaucrats mounted an undercover operation to prove it breaches health and safety rules. Members of the Britannia Coconut Dancers group blacken their faces and dress in skirts for an annual festival in the Lancashire town of Bacup.

Leaders of the troupe have been presented with a dossier of evidence – including surveillance photographs taken by officials posing as spectators – showing how crowds at this year’s event spilled on to the road. The parade, traditionally held on Easter Saturday, was almost cancelled when Lancashire county council demanded safety measures costing £1,600, only to back down after a public outcry.

Now it has emerged that the event was secretly monitored, and the troupe has been told that in future it will have to pay for road closures or participants and spectators will have to stick to the pavement. Yesterday leaders accused the council of trying to stamp out the tradition and said the demands were impractical.

The group’s treasurer, Neville Earnshaw, said: ‘If we had to stay on the pavement, we will be dancing into lampposts and bus stops. People will end up with no front teeth. It’s going to be more dangerous.’ Known as the ‘Nutters’, the group has paraded in Bacup every Easter for the past 110 years, although Morris dances have been held there since at least the mid-19th century.

The dances they perform are actually Folk Dances and the custom of blackened faces may reflect a pagan or medieval background which was done to disguise the dancers from being recognised by evil spirits afterwards, it may also reflect mining connections.