11:30AM, Friday 04 January 2019
Morris dancers slapped their faces with red and black paint and donned extravagant outfits for a Boxing Day performance.
Datchet Border Morris spent just over an hour performing on The Green, and the fair weather meant about 200 people came to watch.
Dressed from head to toe in jackets with ribbons and rags tied to them, and with their faces painted, the dancers put on a show and collected money for charity.
Keith Walter, of Datchet Border Morris, explained that in the pre-1600s, poor people would take part in the dancing as a form of begging. As begging was illegal, they would paint their faces to hide their identities.
He added that the Datchet Border Morris Dancers paint their faces red and black as they are the colours of Buckinghamshire, the county Datchet belonged to when the group was formed.
He said: “It’s just something to watch after Christmas, getting out of the house after a day of stodging around and eating lots of food.”
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