HORBURY ST. PETERS
| FIGURES OF THE DANCE |
| Changes | Clover-leaf | Chain | Waves |
| Ring the Bell |
Steeples | Final Figure |
Created by the team around 1998 when faced with six dancers and the option of doing Cotswold. Figures derived in the main from church terms. St. Peters is the parish church as designed by John Carr the locally born architect and one time mayor of York. St. Peters is also the church where Sabine Baring-Gould, composer of the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" was for a short time rector. Hence "Horbury – Home of Onward Christian Soldiers".
St. Peters is the parish church as designed by John Carr the Horbury born architect and one time mayor of York. Carr had the church built as a gift for his home village at a cost of £8,000 in 1790. Much to Trefor Owens despair the church was built on the site of the old Saxon St. Leonards church. It's not that the demolition of the church itself caused the despair. But Trefor feverently wanted to establish a rush cart dance for Horbury. Rushing festivals are the survival of cleaning out the old rushes used to floor a church, cheaper than carpets and heating, and bringing in fresh cart loads. The last cart load being an event to celebrate with music and dance. But with a nice new church coming before the concept of Northwest Morris was even a twinkle on the horizon any hope of establishing a traditional link was way off the beam. It didn't stop Trefor writing a "Horbury Rushcart" dance though. The concept of two pairs of dancers swapping places over the length of an extended set, with one couple dancing backwards, in four polkas, formed part of this dance. The other two pairs? Well they swapped places going sideways across the expanded set. What I could best call "a free and frank exchange of views" between dancers and dance master mean that the dance as envisaged by Trefor never saw the light with us. But I've seen suspiciously similar figures being danced so maybe Trefor found a home for bits of the dance.
St. Peters is also the church where Sabine Baring-Gould was for a short time rector. Sabine Baring-Gould is probably well known to folkies as the collector of many West country songs whilst he was the squire (and parson) of Lew Trenchard. Less well know perhaps is that he wrote the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers". This was by local legend a tune to be used in a Whitsun procession from Horbury Brig (now Horbury Bridge) down by the river, up to Horbury St.Peters church. Probably a vestige of the rushbearing argued Trefor.
And finally for the romantics out there Sabine Baring-Gould fell in love with a mill girl, Grace Taylor, whilst in Horbury. As the son of a wealthy family and member of the land owning gentry Sabine paid for Grace to be educated in the polite ways of society so that they could marry and Grace could take her place as the squire/parson's lady. George Bernard Shaw was entertained at Lew Trenchard by the Baring-Goulds and shortly after his visit wrote "Pygmalion". Which as we all know was the basis for the hit musical "My Fair Lady". Ahhh!