The team was formed in 1977 by a group of friends who met at a folk club. The hotel in which the folk club met, had in its former days, been offices to a pit known as the Addison. So the team took their name from this pit. The Addison stood on the banks of the Tyne at a place known locally as Hedgefield in the County of Durham (at the time). There was not much left of the Addison pit apart from the pithead winding gear, the focal point of any North East pit, so this was adopted as the team’s logo.
Some of our members have been with the team since the beginning – 41 years! The men perform the local rapper sword dance and the women perform clog dances in the Northumberland and Durham tradition. The team consists of about 25 members.
We practice on a Friday night at the Holy Cross Church Hall in Ryton village. Practice is from 20:00 till 21:30. We do not practice over the summer break i.e. the school holidays. If you would like to come along and have a go, contact us first to make sure we are going to be there, we may be on a dance out in a nice village Pub.
If you are a Musician and like playing jigs, waltzes and hornpipes for dance come along and give it a go.