Morris dancing mayor takes on 200 mile world record

A former mayor is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by Morris dancing 200 miles (322km) along the Thames Path.

Duncan Bhaskaran Brown will make his way from London, through Windsor, Maidenhead and Reading in Berkshire, onto Henley and Abingdon in Oxfordshire and back to the capital again in just under a week.

He will start on Sunday at Hampton Court Palace and will dance more than a marathon a day, until he finishes at Bankside in London on Saturday 16 May.

Bhaskaran Brown, who was once the Mayor of his hometown, Abingdon, hopes to raise money for several local charities in the Thames Valley region.

According to the Guinness World Records The longest distance Morris danced in seven days is just over 146 miles (235km).

Bhaskaran Brown said he started Morris dancing 19 years ago and has "enjoyed every minute of it".

He said it had been a "privilege and a responsibility" to be a part of "a living tradition".

Last year he broke the record for the longest continuous Morris dance, spanning 11 hours and two minutes, performing more than 100,000 steps to 186 tunes.

He said he feels confident that he can break the distance record and said he will be supported by a team of people including local Morris groups along the route.

"What I noticed when I started training along the Thames path in full kit is you get a lot of smiles and that really, really helps," Bhaskaran Brown said.

"You forget about the blisters when people are smiling at you and encouraging you and supporting the wonderful charities."

He added that part of the reason he wanted to take on the challenge was to show people that the historic tradition of Morris dancing is still "alive and very vibrant".

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.