---

William (“Merry”) Kimber was a famous Headington Quarry morris dancer and musician, and a key figure in the English Morris Dance and Folk Music Revival of the early twentieth century.

He was born in Old Road at the foot of Shotover on 8 September 1872 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry on 25 January 1873.

William’s parents

• William Kimber senior (1849–1933) was born in Headington Quarry, the son of the labourer Joseph (Job) Kimber and his wife Frances (Fanny). His baptism is recorded in the parish registers of both St Andrew’s and Holy Trinity churches, as it took place just as the latter opened. He became a brick maker, and was also a morris dancer.
• Sophia Ann Kimber (1850–1931), who was probably related to her husband, was born in Horspath, the daughter of the labourer Thomas Kimber. She became a smock-maker.

William Kimber senior and Sophia were married at Horspath Church on 19 May 1872: William signed the register with a cross, but it appears that Sophia could write. William, who was their eldest child, was born just a few months after the wedding.

William Kimber lived at four addresses in Headington:

1. Huggins Cottage, Old Road (1872–c.1890)

 

When young William was born, William and Sophia Kimber were living at what later became known as Huggins Cottage at the south-east end of Old Road (left)

This part of Old Road was then deemed to be part of Shotover Hill Place, so is listed under Shotover rather than Headington in censuses.

The 1881 census shows the family still living in Old Road. William Kimber junior (8) was still at Headington Quarry National School, but was to leave the next year to start work as a bird-scarer, He had three younger brothers (two of whom curiously had the same forename at the same time, a fact confirmed by the parish register): Thomas Percy (baptised at Horspath as simply Percy in 1875), Arthur Thomas Montague (baptised at Quarry in 1877), and Arthur (baptised at Quarry in 1880). Another brother, Richard Thomas, had died aged six weeks in March 1876, and William’s sister, Ada Martha, had died aged 20 months in November 1880. William Kimber’s next and last sibling was another Ada Martha, born in 1886.

William was apprenticed to the building trade when he was about fourteen, and at the same time joined the Headington Quarry morris dancers. He first performed at the jubilee fête in Oxford in 1887; but soon after the side became inactive, and only got together for a “shake-up amongst themselves”.

---

2. Woodbine Cottages, Headington Hill (c.1890–1894)

By 1891 the Kimber family had moved to 2 Stone Cottages (now renamed 2 Woodbine Cottages) at the top of Headington Hill. William (18) and his two younger brothers Percy (16) and Thomas (13) were all now bricklayer’s labourers. (Meanwhile a family called Huggins was now living at Shotover Hill Place, which explains the current name of the Kimbers’ former cottage.)

---

3. Highfield/New Headington (1894–1908)

On 27 October 1894 at St Andrew's Church, William Kimber (22), described as a bricklayer of Headington Hill, married Florence Cripps (24) of St Ebbe's. She was born in Cold Harbour at the south end of the Abingdon Road, which was then in Berkshire, and was the daughter of Thomas Henry Cripps, a railway labourer and later a carman. She was living at 31 New Street, St Ebbe’s at the time of her wedding.

William & Florence began their married life in New High Street, but had moved to Lime Walk by 1896. They had eight children (of whom the first six were born in Highfield):

• Florence Annie Kimber (born at New High Street, Headington on 18 February 1895 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 21 April)
• Lilian Rose Kimber (born in Highfield, New Headington on 8 June 1896 and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 4 November)
• William Thomas Kimber (born at Highfield, New Headington in 1899 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 6 August)
• Dorothy Helen Kimber (born at Highfield, New Headington on 27 January 1902 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 4 May)
• Ada Kimber (born at Highfield, New Headington on 27 October 1903 and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 15 January 1904)
• Frederick Merry Kimber (born at Highfield, New Headington on 7 March 1906 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 3 June)
• Winifred Sophia Kimber, known as Sophie (born at St Anne's Road, Headington on 19 May 1909 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 4 July)
• Evelyn Mary Kimber (born at St Anne's Road, Headington on 25  March 1912 and baptised at St Andrew's Church on 5 May).

Re-formation of the Headington Quarry morris men in 1899

In early 1899 the Headington morris dancers were persuaded to re-form by Percy Manning and perform at the Corn Exchange in Oxford, and William Kimber was one of the dancers persuaded to rejoin them.

Right: Illustration accompanying the reported in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 18 March 1899

The photograph below by Henry Taunt shows the dancers outside the Chequers that year
(Historic England CC73/00641):

On Boxing Day 1899 there was a significant meeting between William Kimber and Cecil Sharp which led to the revival of morris-dancing in England. Cecil and Constance Sharp and their three young children were spending Christmas with Constance’s widowed mother, Mrs Dora , who lived at Sandfield Cottage (where Horwood Close is now). In the spring of that year the building firm of Knowles & Son had done some work on her house, and William Kimber had been the foreman of the gang. On Boxing Day 1899 the Headington morris dancers, with Kimber on the concertina, came to this grand house (which was anything but a cottage) to try to earn some money, as the bad weather had led to a shortage of building work.

Sharp saw the dancers performing “Laudnum Bunches” with Kimber playing the concertina, and asked Kimber to come back the next day to play the tunes while he wrote them down.

Above: Plaque unveiled by William Kimber on the wall of Sandfield Cottage in 1959, sixty years
to the day after the meeting with Cecil Sharp. When the house was demolished just six years later,
the plaque was moved to the side of the house nearest the entrance to Horwood Close

Below: another photograph of the Headington Quarry morris men in 1899

Cecil Sharp became interested in collecting morris dances in the Midlands, and he would lecture on them while Kimber demonstrated the dances and played the concertina (often losing bricklaying jobs as a result). His fame grew, and he danced at the Royal Albert Hall, the Mansion House, and in front of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at the Chelsea Hospital.

The 1901 census shows William and Florence Kimber living in Lime Walk, Highfield (in one of the two houses that were demolished to make way for Lime Court) with their first three children.

---

4. Merryville, 42 St Anne’s Road (c.1908–1961)

In about 1908 “Merry” Kimber built a house for himself which he named Merryville (right). It was the very first house to be built in St Anne’s Road, Headington, at the west end of Quarry parish.

In 1921 the house was given the number 34, but the street had to be renumbered in the 1930s when it became more built up, and it is now 42 St Anne’s Road.

Kimber also built a number of local houses, including Nos. 2, 4, 6, and 8 Gathorne Road (then called Alexandra Road) in about 1912.

He remained here for the rest of his life,

In 1922 Kimber was presented with the gold medal of the English Folk Dance Society at a music festival held in the gardens of New College, Oxford, with the professor of music, Sir Hugh Allen, presiding in a smock and a garlanded top hat.

William Kimber’s parents both died at 88 Divinity Road in 1931: Sophia (80) in April, and William senior (82) in August.

The 1939 Register shows William Kimber, described as a bricklayer, living with Bessie at 42 St Anne's Road.

From 1946 Kimber taught morris dancing to boys at Headington Secondary School. In October 1958 he cut the tape to open a new street in Quarry named after him: William Kimber Crescent (OX3 8LW). On Boxing Day 1959 he unveiled the plaque shown above commemorating the momentous meeting at Sandfield Cottage sixty years before.

Merry Kimber’s last appearance with his morris dancers was on Whit Monday 1961, and on 26 December that year he died at “Merryville” at the age of 89. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church, and at his funeral his coffin was carried by six Headington Quarry morris men in their morris regalia.

His effects came to £2,328 14s., and his executor was his son Frederick Merry Kimber, who was a printer.

---

Grave of William Kimber

Right: William Kimber’s grave in Holy Trinity churchyard, showing a concertina on top of a pair of bell pads (worn by morris-dancers around the shins) 
© Trevor Coppock, 1994

The man in the picture is Charlie Kimber (1912–1999), who in 1994 was Churchwarden of Holy Trinity Church. He was the son of William Kimber’s first cousin Richard.

 

The open scroll which acts as a headstone reads:
WILLIAM (MERRY) KIMBER
Father of English Morris
1872–1961

The south kerb reads:
In loving memory of Florence
wife of William Kimber
died Septr 12 1917 aged 47 years

The north kerb reads:
Also of Lilian Rose their daughter
died Oct 26th 1918 aged 22 years.

Morris dancers at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee street party in St Andrew’s Road in 2002.

Headington Quarry morris dancers' website