Sixteen-year-old Harry Abel likes basketball, BMXing and funk music – but on Wednesday nights he can usually be found practising morris dancing.

“People my age are a bit surprised when I tell them I morris dance, but they usually end up pretty intrigued and girls find it pretty impressive too, said Harry, from Uffington.

He is one of six young lads who regularly dance with the Icknield Way Morris in Wantage.

Last week, the Morris Ring, the official body of morris dancing, warned the tradition could become “extinct” within 20 years.

It said young people were too embarrassed to take part and that sides were dying out.

But that is clearly not the case in Oxfordshire.

Graham Hubbard, Squire of the Icknield Morris Men, from Wantage, said: “As well as having a good number of twenty and thirty-something members our group of teens love being part of the morris and think it’s fun.

“They even get girls screaming at them and have updated their morris uniform to be more trendy – so we are far from dying out!”

Most of us non-morris dancers associate it with bearded blokes jumping about with bells and hankies.

But in Oxfordshire, morris has a huge following, with many towns and villages having their own different styles of morris dance and family memberships stretching back centuries.

In Wantage, morris has been alive and kicking since Elizabethan times – the Churchwardens’ Accounts refer to items of morris regalia as early as 1565.

But it was a woman who paved the way for the Icknield Way side.

Miss Mary Shunn, a teacher at Icknield Secondary Modern School, introduced morris dancing into the school curriculum as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award in the 1950s, and the side are now familiar faces at many local festivals, as well as further afield.

Mr Hubbard added: “Some people mistakenly think morris is stuck in the past and the Morris Ring have put forward a common point of view about it being in decline.

“But while morris is very traditional, it can move with the times; dances evolve and so does the music, the choreography and even the kit.”

“We celebrate our 50th year next year and we are proud to think that we are counteracting the decline.”

For more information on morris dancing, see the website themorrisring.org dwaite@oxfordmail.co.uk