Bedlington
Bedlington is a small town in south-east Northumberland, around two thirds of the way from Newcastle to Ashington. At least two different rapper dances are known to have come from here, although there is no known connection between the two.
Little has been documented about the earlier of the two dances, except that one of the dancers, Billy Raine, moved to Westerhope in 1906 and founded the team there, whose dance was collected by Cecil Sharp (who called it North Walbottle). Billy Raine may well have been the main force behind the Bedlington side, as they stopped performing at around the time he moved. Although nothing is known about the form of the early Bedlington dance, it would be fairly safe to assume that it was the same as or similar to the North Walbottle notation published by Sharp.
The later team was taught by the Muldouan family, and like the Amble dance, included processional figures as well as figures to be performed at each dance spot. The dancers would typically start at the eastern end of Bedlington's wide main street, and move progressively westwards until they reached the Red Lion pub at the western end. The dancers wore normal rapper kit, but had clogs with irons instead of shoes, as was common among the sides in the area. They performed to melodeon, or sometimes to the fiddle or pipes, but when inside pubs the musician often played the piano instead.
The dance was performed locally until 1926, but was collected by Brian Hayden and Bill Burgess of the King's College team in 1961. By this time, the remaining dancers had forgotten most of the figures that were once included in the tradition, so the notations are known to be incomplete. Notations were published by Bill Cassie in 1966 and later by Brian Hayden in 1979.
Further information
- Bill Cassie's notation of the Bedlington dance (PDF)
- A North-East Tour: Bedlington to Earsdon (from The NUT)