Why Cracken Morris?

We called ourselves “Cracken Morris” mostly because we liked the sound of it, but the name works for us because of multiple associations.

Firstly, Cracken Edge is a geographical feature overlooking where we practice and yet the name isn’t so tied to a well-known place that we’d become a hostage to fortune if our practice moves home. Pictured here behind the Old Hall Inn and its fine beer garden (the site of our very first public performance, before we even had kit), you can just make out the old quarries which form such a distinctive part of the local landscape. Before the quarrying, it might have been the scarp just seen above the roof which took the name Cracken Edge. It is possible that Cracken Edge takes its name from Old English “craka” for a crow or similar bird and “ecg” (pronounced very much like modern “edge”.

We also like the name as an alternative spelling of Kraken; in its alternatively-spelled form it makes use of its eight legs to play music, wave hankies, and clash sticks.

And finally, some of us with a pun-itive sense of humour smile at the thought that a dance-out might be a “cracken day out, Grommit”.