Nampwich Fair

Nantwich Fair ~ P. Shaw

Nampwich Fair ~ Hume Nampwich Fair

Nampwich Fair or Nantwich Fair ~ P. Shaw is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1726 in The Dancing Master, The Third Volume, 2nd ed.. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (website) in 1964 and published in Another Look at Playford. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain twice over.

The first Man Sett to his Partner, then both cast off and take Hands round The second do the same Then the first Couple cross over and go the Figure of Eight between the second Couple into the second Couple's Place Then Right Hand and Left with the second Couple

The tune was published by Playford (John Young) with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume.

The animation plays at 113 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily (no music plays during this slow set). Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, lead, figure eight, rights and lefts, cross go below (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=NampwichFair

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1964 by Pat Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.