The Rochdale Coconut Dance
Jack-in-the-Green track 16
On Easter Saturday, on the streets of Bacup in Lancashire, you can see one of the most exotic and bizarre of English traditions. The Britannia Coconut Dancers - known locally as ‘Nutters’ - wear white skirt and turban, knee breeches, stockings and clogs, and blacken their faces. As they dance through the streets of the town to the accompaniment of a brass band they strike together the ‘coconuts’ - small round blocks of wood strapped to their knees, waist and hands. Similar teams once existed in other Lancashire mill towns, but the tune played here is all that remains of the Rochdale tradition.
Although I've not sought out the article myself, the following information was included in an article by Anne Gilchrist entitled ' The
Lancashire Rush-Cart and Morris-Dance' in the Journal of the English Folk
Dance Society, 1927:
Dr Henry Brierly, a native of Rochdale, sends me the tune of a 'Coco-nut
Dance' which accompanied the Rochdale rush-cart in the 'fifties [i.e. the 1850s]. The dancers held half a coco-nut shell in each
hand, a half-shell also being strapped to each knee, and clapped the shells
rhythmically to this unvarying tune, played by the band. The dance was
stationary, but according to his recollection the coco-nut dancers preceded
the drawing-team of young men, 'prancing' in the procession. The tune has a
general resemblance to Mr Cecil Sharp's traditional versions of 'Country
Gardens' and 'Hunt the Squirrel'. I have seen no other record of this dance.
In common with pretty much everyone else on the folk scene, we play the tune "wrong". This is how it should go:
