Woodside Morris Men - Life in Watford

Life in Watford

One of Woodside's members was an employee of British Rail, and also a member of their British Railways Staff Association, which had premises just off the St Albans Road in Watford. This member was able to arrange a favourable rate for using one of the rooms on a Wednesday evening, for reasons of practise.

As well as the side moving to the area for rehearsals, they also started to gravitate their other activities, such as feast evenings and days of dance, into the surrounding towns and villages.

At this time, Woodside were still very active in the Morris Ring, and the profile of events that were participated in was dominated by days of dance, and Ring meetings. The countryside surrounding Watford was ideal for hosting other teams for club events and the move to a more suburban area meant less competition from the wealth of London sides. Woodside became involved in local community events, even appearing at the assembly rooms of the Watford Town Hall, an internationally recognised recording venue for major orchestral and operatic projects. All this activity in and around the side's new home didn't prevent Woodside from continuing to dance at some of their old haunts in London, a legacy that is still apparent today.

Relationships changed with the London sides, which was as much to do the change in membership as it was to do with the change of base, and Woodside looked to form new bonds with teams based outside of London. Just as the side were settling in comfortably to their new environment, disaster struck, albeit on a rather minor scale.

In 1969, having discovered that Woodside's British Rail employee member had long since parted for pastures new, the Railway Club decided that the accommodation agreement was no longer appropriate. Woodside Morris Men promptly found themselves without a home. A few new venues were tried stop gap, but eventually, by the end of the year, an agreement had been made with the Hertfordshire County Council Divisional Education Officer to set up camp on a long term base at Chater School, Watford.

The side moved on and it was business as usual, for a while, when the side moved to the Red Lion in Nash Mills, near Hemel Hempstead. Unfortunately this era saw a dwindling membership, which in turn lead to a reduction in funds, which are usually raised through membership, collections at dance outs and fees for performances. It became difficult to maintain the side, culminating in the team failing to meet throughout the whole of 1973.

Throughout this period, it was down to the determination and correspondence of then Bagman Mike 'Lank' Broughton, that the team continued in even this notional form. Lank was a dancer of many years experience, he had seen William Kimber perform at the Royal Albert Hall, and had danced in Watford on the Queen's Coronation Day - though which Queen he has never disclosed. Lank had joined Woodside when they moved to Watford, and if it had not been for his involvement, it seems likely that Woodside's history would have ended c 1972. Having struggled to raise a side for a number of events in that year, there was no choice but to suspend activities until new membership could be found. Lank already had a plan that he suspected could change the club's current bad fortune, and although the side did not meet during 1973, the Bagman was not idle.

Lank's hard work paid off, and salvation came to the team, providing not only a new base of operations, but also a ready made pool of members.