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.”