The Wigan Observer of 17th July 1880 reported that the plot of land had been bequeathed to the young men of Abram for the purpose of celebrating the ancient festival of Abram called the Morris Dance, provided it was celebrated at least every 21 years. This festival, described as ‘ancient’ in 1880, may date from the 18th century. By the 1840s the Morris Dancers’ Ground had become one of Abram’s few landmarks: it was included on the Ordnance Survey map of 1846, together with the nearby Maypole House Farm, believed to take its name from the dancers’ Maypole. It is unlikely that it would have been recorded by OS if it was a new feature when surveyed: it had probably been in use for generations.

Use of the Ground for the ‘ancient festival’ ended in the summer of 1901, the last year that the traditional dancers did their rounds. The dance should have been performed in 1922, but was not. Abram UDC stepped in to preserve the site, marking it out with posts. Over the years these disappeared and the site became derelict. In 1968, William Wright J.P., a former Chairman of Abram Urban District Council and son-in-law of one of the 1901 dancers, applied for ‘village green’ status for the site; this became official in 1972. Mr. Wright’s sister-in-law was also a member of ‘Abram Morris Dancers’, a team of girls who, from the First World War through the 1920s, performed Morris dances with decorated sticks rather than the old Abram dance with handkerchiefs, and had a Continental-style Maypole on Park Lane. This family connection obviously meant a lot to Mr. Wright, who also secured ‘common land’ status for the site in 1976 as further protection from development.