Many centuries ago, when man (and hopefully woman!) lived in such places as Kents Cavern and Chudleigh Caves, there were a group of men who had great empathy with nature and were thought to have special powers. They performed secret rituals and were revered by all. They held many of the secrets of ancient Celtic life, passing them down through the generations of their kind by word of mouth.
Unfortunately, their diet of pork scratchings and pickled onions had its problems. Once people started to get the idea of personal hygiene and cleaning out the caves, their problem was exposed. They were banished to Dartmoor; where on a bleak, but windy hillside, they hoped their gassy difficulty would be blown away.
This place became known as Grimspound and for many years the people lived here keeping their ancient rituals alive, especially after a few pints in the Warren House Inn or the Rugglestone, if they had strayed into the next valley. Some of these rituals were dances and those that were not can still not be spoken of. All were wild and mysterious.
In the dances the men wore dark costumes and their faces were covered in the black smoke from peat fires that stuck to the sweat from their exertions. The dancing was vigorous, with limited structure.
After many years, the people of Grimspound, having adopted a more varied and socially acceptable diet, abandoned the settlement. They moved to Widecombe, Chagford and in fact anywhere that they found more hospitable, so long as they could get a good pint. They took with them their knowledge of the old ways, but because they were not living together, the rituals were not practised.
But such knowledge is not lost. It has survived as folk memories amongst their descendants. A group of such descendants chanced to meet in Combeinteignhead, and after a session of Janners Bitter and pickled onions these memories were triggered.
Grimspound Border claim a blood link to the Celtic ancients of Grimspound and the rituals they practice today are those that were then. As ever, you may only witness those rituals that are dances.
The circle of life is not broken. The mystic knowledge of the past is still with us in the present.
We, the dancers of Grimspound Border; hope you enjoy our dancing but urge you not to press us to reveal some of the secrets of the old ways we still keep sacred as they are held in trust from our ancestors, only for those from our line yet to come. Such is the natural power of these rituals that we feel sure you will not begrudge us a drink in return for our toast to your good health, but let us end such conversation there.
Over time it has become necessary for our dancers to disguise their true identity through the costume and the blacking of their faces. In this way each member of the group is able to go about their normal modern day business in the usual way, but when they come together as Grimspound Border they are free of that existence and in the costume of their ancestors the power is unleashed.
Whatever the truth behind the story above, Grimspound is an ancient hut circle on a western facing slope on Dartmoor, a wild and barren area of moorland in Devon, England. The atmosphere of the place has inspired this team of morris dancers to try to re-create the way things could have been for the people who lived there in terms of their rituals and their approach to life. The morris dance team was formed in 1994 from a group of ex-Cotswold style dancers and a few friends, some of whom were also Rapper Sword dancers. Right from the outset they all set out to dance with vigour and in an uncompromising "border" style that celebrated "maleness". There was to be a balance between the rude (but never totally crude) and the dark side. There would always be an audience for this entertainment, but it must entertain others, not just the dancers. Today the team survives after splits and various changes of personnel because it still does have an audience. New dancers will always join a team that can identify it's audience and keep those people entertained by what it does. Although we say that our style of dancing is a border morris style, we are not from the Welsh/English border area and so many of our dances are now our own, using figures and movements from that style (with a few ideas of our own) to create something that is unique to us.