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
18TH APRIL 2026 - 10:30 - 16:30
MMM and eight other teams from North, South, East and West representing a variety of traditional Morris dance styles will be performing in London this weekend.
All Teams
Paternoster Square, EC4M 10:30 - 12:00
Teams alternating between locations
Southwark Cathedral 13:30 - 15:10
Shakespear's Globe 13:30 - 16:10
Bankside 13:30 - 16:10
The Old Thameside Inn 13:30-16:10
The events are starting to pick up this month, Saturday 12th found us dancing at the fabulous event run by PaganFuturefests.
Sunday 13th we got dance and celebrate the significant Birthday of our lovely musician Caroline.
(Photos to follow)
Friday 27th was our only event of the month we danced at The Dog House Beddington our favourite Micro Pub the.
Despite the weather being tempremental we managed a few dances. No photos we were all dancing.
The first was our annual Wassail on Saturday 21st, we were so lucky the weather held out and despite the plethora of sport another Wassail was enjoyed by all. We would like to say a big thank you to Trefor from South East London Pagans who performed this years blessing and to all those who came along and joined in. All monies raised was passed to the Beddington Park Bird Feeder Project where it will be put to good use at the very popular inclusive bird feeding station in the park
On Sunday it was a trip to Greenwich as guests of Greenwich Morris Men. It's always a great day dancing with loevley teams by amazing historic buildings with the skyscape of London as your backdrop
Our last event of January was our now annual pilgrimage to Ely for the Ouse Washes Day of Dance in memory of Mark Jones.
It's a great day when many teams come together to celebrate the Molly style of Morris dancing, each team with their OWN unique interpretation.
We started the year with our 3rd Plough Sunday, a big thank you to All Saints Church and all the venues who let us perform our play. Alas the heavens opened so we were unable to perform in the park this year.
The day was rounded off perfectly with a performance by the Sandilands Shanty Men.
2026 is off to a flying start with our open practices in Balham and Carshalton in full swing.
Visit our join us page for full details
Hercules our Hooden horse has had his debut as has our new broom dance.
COMING UP
Everything is in place for our our Day of Dance Saturday 18th April
Then we will be getting ready for the 200 miles event in May.
We've had lots of lovely event invitations for 2026 already, there's much checking of calendars for availability.
Check our diary for confirmed events for 2026
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Our first new dance for the 2025/2026 season The Pentagram has had it's debut, it was originally inspired by a creative moment back in May at the Burley Green Man Festival and further prompted by an idea from one our newer dancers with an interesting dance figure. We also have another special 'Winter' dance that's almost ready to get off of the ground, no need to worry about music for this one!
Some of our current dances are available to watch on our YouTube chanel.
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.
