NEWLY-WEDS joined in with morris dancers as they danced their way around Odiham to celebrate St George’s Day.

The aptly-named Graham and Lisa Morris, from Southampton, deliberately held their wedding reception at The Waterwitch pub, in London Road, to coincide with the procession.

John Ellis, bagman of the Hook Eagle Morris Men, said his troupe had no idea about the reception, but they danced and posed for pictures with the happy couple.

He said: “It was really brilliant for someone to take the trouble to find some morris dancers. If more people did things like that, life would be more interesting.”

Around 60 dancers from five troupes started the annual procession through the village on Monday.

After dancing at The Waterwitch, they moved on to The George, in the High Street, and finished at The Bell, in The Bury, in difficult weather.

Mr Ellis said: “It was one of those very strange evenings. If you said ‘we are going to go out on a cold, wet night and do this’ then we would probably have stayed at home. But the atmosphere was brilliant.”

The troupe’s next big performance will be their annual May Day dawn dance at The Crooked Billet, in London Road, Hook, at 5.32am.