MAY Day will be greeted in the

traditional way in Otley - at sunrise on the Chevin.

The town's two Morris sides - the Buttercross Belles and Otley Wayzgoose - will start the dancing season off on Tuesday, May 1 with a traditional dance at Surprise View.

It had looked like the ceremony - called the dancing in - would have to be cancelled because of the foot and mouth crisis, but following the reopening of footpaths on Otley Chevin, it will now go ahead.

Jennie Hooper, squire of Otley Wayzgoose, said: "It now seems that Morris dancers will be able to dance in the dawn after all."

She said Morris groups all over the country traditionally climbed the tallest hill in the area to see in the dawn and the start of the dancing season.

"As well as dancing there are

usually seasonal songs, we will

however be able to resist the antics of other Border Morris sides who insist on greeting the dawn glad only in a hat and holding a stick."

After the dawn dancing, the

maypole opposite Otley Civic Centre will be decorated with flowers.

"We have never missed a year, even if most of the side are elsewhere we make sure a member of the side is in Otley to deck the maypole site."

Jennie added it used to be

traditional to place green bowers from the Chevin the day before May 1 and to place them over the doorways of people you loved.

"This part of the tradition lapsed in the moral climate of the late 19th

century when too many courting

couples took advantage of the

tradition to spend a night together under the stars."

And it was about the same time that Otley Maypole also stopped being used.

"Even though the maypole was reconstructed after being destroyed by lightning, it has not been in use for the original purpose," said Jennie.

Meanwhile, Morris dancers will be dancing at a temporary maypole on Tuesday evening in the Market Place at 6pm and outside the Bowling Green at 6.30pm.

And they are hopeful it will be the last time they will have to use a

temporary pole.

With the support of the town

council and other groups and

businesses, they are hoping to get a grant from Local Heritage towards the setting up of a permanent

maypole site on its original place in Manchester Square.

A tree has already been donated by the Farnley estate and it is planned to make the whole area a focus for Morris dancing - without removing any of the parking places.

An exhibition of the scheme is due to take place at Otley Civic Centre in June.