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Isca Morris Silver Jubilee Family Weekend
As part of their twenty fifth anniversary celebrations, the Isca Morris held a very large family weekend of dancing with 17 groups travelling from all over the country to celebrate in South Wales.
The Saturday Massed Spot
The public celebrations began with around 200 dancers and musicians congregating on Caerleon Ampitheatre on Saturday 8th September from 9.30 a.m. until 10.30 a.m. Caerleon (or Isca Silurum) means literally the Camp of the Legion. Here in Museum Street are the remains covering some 50 acres where 6,000 troops of the Roman 2nd Augustan Legion moved from the Rhine and established a stronghold in AD80 to subdue the Silurian inhabitants of the region. During the three hundred years of Roman occupation, Caerleon was the most important centre west of the River Severn. The primary defence was a square of stone ramparts five feet thick enclosing an area of some fifty acres. Within this curtain of wall, pierced only by four gates, one to each wall, was laid a geometric pattern of roads and barracks, cookhouses and stables and in the centre of the fortress lay the headquarters of the Legion.
Around the walls grew up a civil settlement with villas, wharfs and brickworks. Outside the South-Western gate, the Romans in the 1st Century dug a great oval amphitheatre some 267 by 222 feet big enough to seat nearly 6,000 men. Here gladiators fought with men and beasts in the same area where each May 1st the Isca men welcome the dawn.
Displays continued with the performers joining one of five coach tours and performing at the following locations:
| 11.15 a.m. to 11.45 a.m. | |
| Cripple Creek Inn, Bryngwyn | Hen and Chickens, Abergavenny |
| Nags Head, Usk | Punch House, Monmouth |
| Star Inn, Llanfihangel Tor-y-Mynydd | |
| 12.30 p.m. to 1.00 p.m. | |
| Crown Inn, Pantygelli | Fountain Inn, Trellech Grange |
| Lion Inn, Trellech | Ostrich Inn, Newland |
| Red Hart, Llanvapley | |
| 2.45 p.m. to 3.15 p.m. | |
| Boat Inn, Penalt | Horse and Jockey Inn, Llanvihangel |
| Horseshoe Inn, Mamhilad | Star Inn, Mamhilad |
| Wain-y-Clare, Cwmoody | |
On Sunday 9th the dancing continued between 11.45 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. with all the groups dancing outside the Golden Lion in Magor with the main square closed off to traffic for the dancers.
 | Adlington Morrismen - A Cotswold side hailing from Cheshire |
| Alford Morris - A mixed cotswold group from Lincolnshire |
| Belles and Broomsticks - A lively ladies group from Guernsey |
| Brisingamen - A ladies group based near Stockport |
| Broadwood Morrismen - Another Cotswold style group from Sussex |
| Dog Rose - A group of young male dancers hailing from Yorkshire |
| Fleet Morris - A ladies group from over the border in Hampshire |
| Greenwich Morrismen - The millenium wonders with their own Cotswold style |
| Isca Morris - The local hosts and weekend organisers |
 Ripley Morrismen display their newest female "male" members | |
| John O’Gaunt Morrismen - A group from Lancaster performing North West Clog plus local stave dances |
| Old Speckled Hen - Another lively street clog group, this time a mixed team from Oxfordshire |
| Queens Oak Morris - A ladies group based in Northamptonshire |
| Ripley Morrismen- Cotswold dancers from Ripley in Derbyshire |
| Sweyns Ey Morrismen - One of the two other Welsh morris men's sides based in Swansea |
| Sergeant Musgraves Dance - A fresh face mixed clog group from Nottinghamshire |
| Treacle Eaters - Ladies clog dancers from Somerset |
| Winkleigh Morris - A mixed grouping from Devon |
Further details of the Tours made by the dancers are available by selecting one of the choices on the top left of this page. Pages of photos and details of other previous weekends are also available from these menu choices.
Our oldest former member and musician, the late Harry de Caux, enjoys the spectacle in Magor as he approached his 90th Birthday
