For hundreds of years Englishmen have donned colourful dress, hitched bells to their knees and danced around waving handkerchiefs in celebration of ancient and half-forgotten rites.

Now, even as Squires across the land summon their dancers to prepare for revels in car parks, shopping centres and market squares, the morris men of England face extinction because the younger generation regards it as rather embarrassing.The Morris Ring, which represents 200 troupes, issued a dire warning yesterday that morris dancing could die out within two decades.

The average age of dancers is advancing. Young people view the donning of coloured rags, bells and boots and dancing to accordion music as old-fashioned, or even silly.

Charlie Corcoran, Bagman of the Morris Ring, said: “There is a distinct possibility that in 20 years’ time there will be nobody left. It worries me a great deal. Young people are just too embarrassed to take part.”

The organisation has begun a winter recruitment drive.

The origins of morris dancing are disputed. First recorded in England in the 15th century, “morris” may be a derivation from the French morisque, meaning dance, though many believe it arrived from Morocco via Spain. This may have lent the practice its name (from the word “Moorish”).

Others trace the dances to ancient fertility rites or martial exercises, or see them as a popular variant of the clowning of court jesters.

Today there are four English troupes that can trace their history in an unbroken line back to a popular upsurgence of folk traditions in the 18th century.

In 1899, a time when morris dancing was on the wane, Cecil Sharp, the celebrated collector of folk song and dance, saw one of these troupes, the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers, perform on Boxing Day.

He noted their distinctive music, and would later travel the country recording the various morris traditions, and in 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society, helping to spur a revival.

There was a second revival after the Second World War – and another in the 1970s. Brian Tasker, 62, Squire (leader) of the Morris Ring, began dancing in those heady days, at the age of 25.

“It was seen as a cool thing to do,” he said. “Young people were marching with CND, Bob Dylan was at his height and folk dancing was part of popular culture. Every town had three or four folk-song clubs. A lot of people arrived in morris dancing then, but they are now in their fifties and sixties.”

Mr Tasker thinks that today’s young people are more self-conscious – and easily deterred from morris dancing. “They try it but they are often teased by their fellows,” he said. “I feel the costume morris dancers wear doesn’t help. If you modernised our costume you might attract more interest. Right now it’s just not perceived as a young person’s activity.”

John Russell, 71, a retired airport worker who began dancing at the age of 11, saw his old troupe, The Beaux of London City, disband in 2006. “We just couldn’t get the people in and we were all getting too old,” he said.

In one small town in the Cotswolds there is a “side” that bucks the trend.

The Chipping Campden Morris Men have a history dating back to 1732, and count among their dancers fathers and sons from the town. One of the musicians is aged 8; others are teenagers or students at university, and all gather to dance at the Cotswold Olympiks, the annual summer event where the strongest and bravest of the region test their mettle in shin-kicking contests and tugs of war.

Alex Cranke, 21, who danced throughout his teens and is now a student at Bangor University, told The Times: “I have had comments [from other young people] I suppose, but I have always thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s good exercise and it’s a really nice tradition to keep up.”

Case study: Father and son

‘We take the dancing seriously, but not ourselves’

Tim Sexton, 57, Squire and Fool of the Chipping Campden Morris Men, introduced his son, Paddy, to the side.“I joined in 1981 and when my son Paddy came along we thought it would be a good idea to dress him up. At the age of 4 we had him pulling a cart at the Scuttlebrooke Festival.

“Paddy is quite a traditionalist, he has a British flag above his bed and he’s interested in British history. This feeling of Englishness, a lot of people mock it. A lot of people will mock morris dancers, but I say to them: ‘You try it, see how long you last’. It’s far more vigorous than a lot of people realise.”

Paddy Sexton, 22, trainee history teacher, said: “I have been dancing properly since I was 7. It was pretty much a question of putting on funny clothes and following your dad around. Whenever someone gets married and has a kid we are all hoping it will be a boy, another dancer. It’s a long-term game. When I started I was lucky to have friends doing it. I had a bit of trouble in school. Kids took the mickey. As we grew up people got used to it. Young people do sometimes find it embarrassing. As a country we tend to cast off our traditions. You take the dancing seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously. People are so self-conscious now, about not doing the same thing as everyone else. I love it and hope to be dancing when I’m 60.”

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