Wheal Sophia?

Wheal Sophia is a group of keen Morris dancers who entertain and delight audiences at a range of functions in towns and villages within a 15 mile radius of Exeter, although weekend events can be outside this area or even abroad when the opportunity arises.

No one knows when and where morris dancing originated but it possibly began in medieval times as court entertainment and then was taken up in various parts of the country, particularly by rural workers in the Cotswolds. During the industrial revolution people moved from the countryside to the Lancashire and Cheshire Cotton Mills and there the North West Processional form of Morris developed.

Born in 1989 out of casual meeting at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, Wheal Sophia came into being with the clear ethos of performing North West Morris to a high standard. We perform these traditional dances in a vigorous style.

Our name refers to a less than successful copper mine dug into the southern slopes of Dartmoor in the mid 19th Century. Our emblem is taken from the Tavistock Penny Token, a coin used to pay the miners so that they had to spend their wages in the mine shop where, needless to say, the prices were higher than those in the town.

Practice sessions are held weekly on Tuesdays from 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm in the Dorothy Holman Youth Centre during the months of September to April. New members are welcome as dancers, if they are fit and have a good sense of dance rhythm, or as musicians, if competent on the fiddle, accordion, melodeon, brass or reed.

Contact: 

Lucy & Adrian Wynn

e-mail:    (or use the Contact form to the left)