15 years ago, Morris dancer Ben Dauncey set the phenomenal world record of Morris dancing the longest distance in seven days.
The route, which saw Ben Dauncey Morris dance from Tunbridge Wells to Snowshill was a gobsmacking 146.25 miles and with the record still well intact, closing in on 20 years, CommunityAd caught up with Ben to relive this majestic Morris world record…
Can you give readers an indication into your own background in Morris dancing?
I was a child of the Morris! Crisps outside the pub with a bottle of pop, my father and my uncle were both dancers starting in their twenties; my father danced in a London team called the Ravensbourne Morris Men, and my uncle was from a team in Worcester, the Faithful City Morris men.
I started in the Morris at the age of seven, not as a dancer but as a musician playing button accordion, spending a lot of time learning the tunes from Peter Franklin, a friend of my father’s, and going out with my father dancing on warm Tuesday evenings and summer nights.
I can remember some very happy times dancing at spring and summer fairs or doing tours of the villages and towns of the Tunbridge Wells area and right up to Bromley and Caterham.
What made you come up with the idea for this world record?
At this time, a man called Jim Bartlett had taken inspiration from a long dance done by William Kemp in 1599 from London to Norwich. Jim took on a distance of 110 miles, deciding to dance from Bromley to Worcester, he was after helpers and my dad decided to be the cook for the event. I can remember riding over the hills with Jim and coming into Worcester at the end. There was a torch lit procession and as we came into Worcester, the atmosphere and everything must have changed and inspired something in my young head.
I had always joked that one day I was going to try and do a dancing journey of my own and fast forward a few years later, at the age of thirty-eight, whilst singing the New Year in with a few Morris men in a country pub, I made a bet to attempt this world record.
I didn’t realise at the time but making a bet was exactly how William Kemp had started his dance after get into some gambling problems. In a bid to resolve them, he made a bet that he could dance from London to Norwich in nine days!
Anyway, that is how the idea for the world record started. The record was really a way of getting people to say “okay, you can do it”. I just wanted to do the journey with my friends and add to the history of what is one of England’s true traditions.
Looking back on the record, what were the toughest parts and most enjoyable moments?
This challenge was also a way to get the council to let us have a rolling road block with bells on! But it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
I had a friend in the Morris, Richard Cowley, whose father was an ultra-marathon runner whom I had decided would make a great trainer. Richard had said that he thought it would take about two years to train properly for this and so the bar was set training every other night.
We had started gathering a group of people together whom were going to be the crew and as we went through the training period, I could tell that people were not sure if I could pull it off. We had drove the route several times and the enormity began to sink in of just what I was undertaking.
Finally, the day had come and we all met at the Royal Oak Pub where a large gathering of people had come to see me off from Pembury Road. We danced a few dances then formed up on the road. There was an air of, stop the modern world because the old world insists you listen, and time rolled back 300 years! The drums and music started and off we went.
My heart was racing although I was calm knowing that this journey was always meant to happen in my life. In front of me, Adian and Steve drove my old Land Rover and behind me was our support vehicles as we danced through the countryside.
By the end of the day, we had travelled about thirty-one miles and ended the day in Purley where we stayed the night in a Scout hut. Over the next seven days, it got harder and harder to get up and put the miles in and unfortunately, the miles came down and down each night.
During those 7 days, how long would you say you were Morris dancing for daily?
We averaged a daily toll of 22.2 miles at Purley and I felt all of them but on my second to last day, six days later, we came through the Mulvern Hills.
As I danced through, the pain and calm came over me and something told me that the Golden Valley was looking over me. I think that was the point when I realised that it was not going to be long before I would have to stop.
What made you choose the distance from Tunbridge Wells to Snowshill?
The world record shows that the distance is from Tunbridge Wells to Snowshill, however my goal was to dance from Tunbridge Wells to Worcester, ending in the same place as Jim.
As we approached Snowshill, though, I had developed a problem in my shin and my team had convinced me it would be a good idea to stop as they were worried that I had fractured my right shin.
I asked them to find the closest point where we crossed into Worcester, this was at the bottom of the hill just past a manhole cover and that was where the journey ended.
The record has held its place for 15 years! How proud are you of that and would you ever have another attempt to try and beat it?
Although the record has been held for fifteen years, I would love to have a go at beating it if I had the right people around me and the very important support of my wife.
I would have another go to finish what I had started but maybe a different route, maybe by footpath and not over seven days.
What are you currently up to now and do you still love a Morris dance?
Although I am not dancing at the moment, Morris dancing is very close to me and I have since had two kids and hope that they will one day understand the magic of the Morris!