JOIN US
Madder Mill Molly are a mixed gender team dancing the Molly style of Morris dancing, we welcome new dancers and musicians no previous dance experience is necessary.
We are an adult group but teenagers accompanied by an adult are also welcome.
MMM are a non profit group and are aim is for our members to learn and perform dances in public both locally and around the country. Practices are free until new members are competent to dance or play in public then a minimal monthly subs will become payable to cover running costs and hall hire.
Practice runs from Autumn to Spring with the occasional practice in the Summer
When you become a full member you will need to supply your own kit we have kept the kit simple so it can be purchased cheaply online and we do have some items available i.e. bowler hats and braces.
The team will resume practice in the Autumn, we hold our weekly 2 hour practices in Carshalton and monthly 4 hour practices in Balham, new members are welcome to attend either or both
Weekly practices are held on Wednesday evenings 7:00pm - 9:00pm
at
The Garden Hall
Sutton Ecology Centre
Honeywood Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NX
The Hall has parking on site and is just a short walk from Carshalton Station and local bus routes
Monthly practices are held on a Sunday 12:30pm - 4:30pm
at
The Music Room
St Mary and John Divine
Balham High road, London SW12 9BS
Just 2 mins walk from the station, limited parking at the venue and
parking also available in surrounding roads.
You are welcome to come along and try without any need for commitment
Please contact us to express an interest or find out more.
PRACTICE DATES
Weekly practice dates for Carshalton 2026
Contact us for dates, now the dance season is upon us we will be practicing less frequently
Monthly practice dates for Balham 2026
Monthly practice resumes in the Autumn
OPEN PRACTICE
HOME
CARSHALTON
BEATING THE BOUNDS
Saturday 30th May 10:30 onwards
New for 2026 we will be perambulating around Carshalton, where we will be marking hostelries and places of interest, including the last existing boundary marker.
On Friday 15th along with 4 guest teams we danced to support Duncan on his 200 mile record breaking dance along the Thames.
On Saturday 15th a few of MMM met Duncan at the Southbank to support him on the last leg of his amazing feat.
Green Man of the New Forest Festival, Burley
Our 2nd visit to this lovely festival, it's so nice to be in such beautiful surroundings.
Hastings Jack in the Green
Our first time dancing at this event and we had a great time at the seaside
London Marathon
We didn't run it but we danced for a very long time alternating with Old Palace Clog who had invited us to join them.
It was a great day and fabulous atmosphere, we all had a great time dancing and cheering on the runners.
What a great day the sun shone and the new locations were great dance spots. We all did lots of dancing and the tourists especially really enjoyed the entertainment.
A busy weekend Saturday we danced at Belostra
On the Sunday we we were celebrating a signifcant Birthday of one of our lovely musicians.
Friday 27th was our only event of the month we danced at The Dog House Beddington our favourite Micro Pub
This month we had 2 events our 4th Wassail in Beddington Park
and a day out in Greenwich as guests of Greenwich Morris Men
First event of the year was our Plough Sunday tour of Carshalton at the begining of the month.
At the end of the month we were in Ely for the Ouse Washes Day of Dance and annual meet up of Molly teams.
COMING UP
MMM will be partaking of their first ever beating the bounds as there is only one boundary marker left in central Carshalton we will be including places of interest.
We've had lots of lovely event invitations for 2026 already, there's much checking of calendars for availability. We've already got three events in our diary for 2027.
Check our diary for confirmed events for 2026
WHAT'S HAPPENING
For May 2026 we are reviving an old tradition of Beating The Bounds. We'll be giving it a 21st Centuary twist as beating small children is now frowned upon rightly so. A full itinerary and details will be published soon.
The link is available on our media page
RECRUITMENT
If you are interested in Molly dancing and would like to come along and have a try please contact us for details.
Enquiries are welcome from both musicians and dancers (no previous dance experience necessary).
PLEASE CHECK OUR DIARY FOR UP AND COMING EVENTS
We are now taking booking for 2026 and the calendar is already looking good
Why start a Molly team?
While out at an event (dancing a different style of Morris) we saw a Molly team dancing, fell in love with the style and became eager to learn it. The Molly tradition has its origins in East Anglia/The Fens and although there are many teams in these areas, when we started looking we found that in the South/South East there are very few teams. These turned out to be not mixed teams, too far away for us to join or have remained true to the Molly tradition of dancing for only a few weeks during the winter (originally the ploughboys danced to earn money in the winter months).
With no local team to join, we finally realised the only way forward was to create our own team. We wanted to start a mixed gender team that would dance throughout the year. With this in mind we decided, like the more modern East Anglia Molly teams, not to keep to the custom of just dancing in the winter until Plough Monday.
Why Madder Mill?
We live, and practice, in the vicinity of the River Wandle, so we decided that a team name associated with the river would be appropriate. After much research we discovered that in 1790 there was a madder and snuff mill on our part of the river. We didn’t much fancy the ‘snuff’ part given the modern connotations of the name, but the madder and mill parts went well with the word Molly. As a bonus, the madder root was used to make red dye, so this made choosing a team colour really easy.
