Revival
Although the war brought an end to normal life, Reg Howes said that a few of the older members continued to attend Morris Ring meetings and that in 1947, the side was represented at the Thaxted Ring meeting.

By 1948, there were a few men in the district who had come together to dance Morris (and sword) at local festivals, but their efforts were uncoordinated and a full side could not always be mustered.

Grace Meikle, who had moved back into the area after the war, again took the initiative and, on 22 October 1948, wrote to all the local men known to have an interest in the Morris, inviting them to a meeting in Ewell with a view to reforming a side. The meeting was held a week later and ESMM was reincarnated with Robert Ash as Squire and Charles Rowse as Bagman.

Although Kenneth Constable did not attend this meeting he was invited back and played an active part as Foreman until his retirement in 1960. He also served a further 2-year term of office as Squire.

1948 - 1960

ESMM are lucky enough to have the log-book which Reg Howes started in 1948. This records every outing of the side for the next 10 years, including the names of the dancers at each event.The number of dancers was generally quite small and the names most frequently appearing at this time were Bob Ash, Cecil Capp, Walter (Wally) Wakefield, Charles Rowse, Reg Howes, Eddie Reavell, Fred Higgins (the musician - concertina), Cleeve Mason and Bert Aldis.

Music was sometimes a problem...if Fred Higgins was not available, or was required to dance, substitutes had to be found. For the Village Tour to Godstone and Bletchingly in May 1949 "the music was provided by Miss Whiteman and Miss Church-Bliss". At another event "a girl violinist also played" and on one occasion, "Mrs Ash played piano music amplified by loudspeakers".
The efforts of these few post-war stalwarts were rewarded in the early and mid 1950's by the arrival of new dancers and musicians some of whom were to be the backbone of the side for many years.

Cyril Frost turned out with the side in July 1949, Alf Bloxsome was at the supper in the Greyhound, Sutton in January 1950 and Wally Randall first played his fiddle for the side (and danced) in March 1950. Bob Davies also joined in 1950 to be followed by Martin Jolley in 1952, Ewart Arnold in 1953 and Dan Rothenberg in 1954. Important years indeed, especially for the music.

Besides Wally Randall, it was discovered that Martin Jolley could also play a very good fiddle, and ESMM also had Fred Hutt and Peter Jones who each played concertina as well as being dancers.
It was also discovered that Dan Rothenberg had a gift for fooling and he soon established a "Betsy" character who must have been captured in thousands of photographs over the years.

In addition, Dan has been an indefatigable and highly successful collector for the ESMM bag. With nerves of steel, he has been known to collect from people on (moving) public transport and has even been known to interrupt courting couples with a request for a contribution. An accomplished linguist, Dan has "collected in more than a dozen languages".

North Downs Morris Men
Some relief to the continuing problem of numbers came in the late 1950's by the formation of the North Downs Morris Men.The side was based in Caterham and initially learned their dances from Grace Meikle.

It was not long before Wally Randall started going to Caterham to teach them and, when Wally died, his place as teacher was taken by Ewart Arnold and a few other East Surrey men. The outcome of this was a very close relationship between the sides with joint tours and, for 1967 - 69, a joint printed programme which was handed out to spectators on their tours.

But North Downs were not destined to have a long life. Their numbers dwindled and eventually, in 1971 the few that were left, including Ira Butler, Joe Garnham and Dick Richardson started to wear the East Surrey colours, joining Dick Larque who had come over to ESMM a year or so earlier.

Wandle Valley boys' team
During the 1960's the main recruitment to ESMM came from a different source.

At the local primary school (Camden Road) a teacher named Mary Maynard (nee Archer) taught the children country and Morris dancing and a few of them were keen enough to go back to Camden Road to dance after they had moved onto their secondary schools. Mary thus found herself with a group of 12-14 year old boys anxious to dance Morris out of school hours. She provided them with baldricks and they called themselves the Wandle Valley Morris Dancers.

Mary sought the help of a number of people in teaching Morris to the boys. Brian Heaton and Hugh Rippon (both involved in EFDSS local and national activities at the time) contributed . More importantly though, Mary contacted ESMM and suggested to Wally Randall that they should be "apprenticed" to East Surrey.

The boys attended ESMM practices, but the venture was not entirely successful and the Wandle Valley boys, now becoming young men, continued to exist separately, but with assistance, from ESMM with Tony Cottle as (informal) Squire and Keith Gamble as musician (accordion).

For a number of reasons, including studying and exams, the discovery of girls, and the collapse of the ceiling of the upstairs room of the pub where they practiced, the Wandle Valley side broke up and from 1964 onwards, a number them joined ESMM. First came Tony Cottle and his brother Roy, to be followed later by Keith Gamble, David Bell and Bob Hobley. Finally came Peter Bradley who had started his Morris at Camden Road but had not continued with Wandle Valley.

Woodcraft
Another evangelistic venture undertaken by Wally Randall in the late 1950's, with the help of another ESMM member, Roy Horner, was to teach Morris to the Woodcraft Folk boys in Mitcham.

As a result, in 1960, Ron Nunn joined the side. As well as dancing, Ron plays English concertina and, with a short interlude to travel the world, has been one of the side's main musicians for over 40 years.

More recent recruitment
Over the last few years, recruitment to ESMM has tended to come from personal introduction by current members and, occasionally, from interest shown by men watching our performances during the summer.

Dancing itinerary
For many years, ESMM have had a full programme of summer dancing sites. Apart from our Boxing Day outing, the programme usually starts with a full day tour on the May Day Bank Holiday and goes through to the first or second week of September.

As previously mentioned, since 1958, the programme has included a weekend tour of Kent and East Sussex, based at Rye, over Spring Bank Holiday weekend to which guest sides are invited. Greensleeves Morris Men have a permanent invitation to this weekend and other sides recently attending include Barnsley Longsword and Bedford MM.

Other highlights of our dancing calendar over the last few years have been a day on the canal courtesy of Ron Nunn and his narrow boat, and a tour of Wandsworth and Putney courtesy of Young's Brewery with the team being transported on one of their famous drays.

We are also regular attenders of Ring Meetings and weekends of dance organised by other sides.

Our dancing horizons have not, however, been limited to the UK. In 1974 our first overseas foray to Copenhagen was organised by Tony Harber and this was followed by other very successful trips to Apeldoorn (1977) and Vienna (1978). We have also struck up a relationship with L'Aubade de Quercy a folk dance troupe based in Gagny (near Paris). We have been their guests for a weekend of dance in 1996 and 1999 and they have also been our guests in Sutton on a couple of occasions.

1997- 1999
1997 was a typically eventful year of dancing with weekends away as guests of Barnsley Longsword and Ravensbourne who this year celebrated their 50th anniversary.

On a sad note, we said farewell to Tony Dowland who died on 20th May 1997. Tony joined ESMM in the early 1970s and was a loyal and helpful member of the side. At his funeral in Headley parish church, ESMM, in kit, performed a guard of honour and the service included an arrangement of Morris tunes (Young Collins, The Rose, Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, Bonny Green Garters) by some of the East Surrey musicians [Ron, Dave Stewart, Dick and Bob] . This medley was a highlight of the service, along with the vicar's accidental demolition of the hymn notice board! Tony was cremated in his ESMM Morris regalia.

We also said goodbye to Miriam Rothenberg who died in November 1996. Miriam was associated with the team (through Dan) for over 40 years and was especially loved by the children of both ESMM and Greensleeves MM. Her simple funeral service was attended by many East Surrey Men, wives and children.

Just at the end of 1997, on 6th December, Dan passed away. He was a full and active member of ESMM right to the end and was looking forward to our "Christmas sing-song" at the Lord Nelson. His humour, anecdotes, collecting prowess and above all, the "colour" he brought to ESMM will be sorely missed. This is the link to Dan's obituary which appeared in the Spring 1998 edition of the Morris Ring "Circular".

On a much lighter note, arguably the quote of the year (according to Bob Davies' "Bagman's Report"):

Woman on passing us, at rest, after our performance to a private function in Westerham: "Thank you. That was excellent, wonderful, I enjoyed every minute of it."
Bob Hobley: "I bet you say that to all the boys!"

1999 was a similarly active year. In May ESMM spent a Sunday in May doing countless "takes" of The Willow Tree (Bucknell) for the BBC at Outwood Windmill. Some 5 hours of work was edited down to about 2 minutes of finished product that was broadcast on a children's show ("Words and Pictures - The Dancing Hen") in September.

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