customs, traditions and glorious folk song, all the year...
TRANSCRIPT
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G L O U C E S T E R
C H E LT E N H A M
STROUD
CIRENCESTER
STOWON THEWOLD
MORETON-IN-MARSHTEWKESBURY
Ri v
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Se v e r n
LY D N E Y
River Avon
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BISHOP’SCLEEVE
NEWENT
NAILSWORTH
CHIPPINGSODBURY
Randwick
Th e C
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Paganhill
Bisley
Nympsfield
St. Briavels
Marshfield
Painswick
Dymock
Berkeley
Winchcombe
Cranham
Bourton-on-the-Water
ChippingCamden
Woolstone
Gotherington
UptonSt. Leonards
Minchinhampton
Avening
Brockworth
TETBURY
Canal
River Chubb
River Leach
Rive r W
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The Royal
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1557 Stationers’ Company begins to keep register of balladsprinted in London.
Mary Tudor queen. Loss of English colony at Calais.
1624 ‘John Barleycorn’ first registered.
Civil Wars 1642-1651. Execution of Charles I.
1660s-70s Samuel Pepys makes private ballad collection.
Restoration places Charles II on throne.
1720s First records of morris dancing in Gloucestershire
1765 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry published byThomas Percy. First printed ballad collection.
Mozart in London.
1780s Robert Burns collects songs for Scots Musical Museum.
1780s-1830s Romantic Movement in literature and music.
1787-1803 Scots Musical Museum published.
French Revolution begins. Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars.
1802-3 Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border published by SirWalter Scott.
Battle of Waterloo
1839 John, James, and Henry Broadwood collecting songs inSurrey and Sussex. Folk song collecting begins in Russia andGermany.
1843 Old English Songs published by John Broadwood.
Queen Victoria on throne. Nationalist Movement in music.
1852-3 Cotswold Games abandoned. Morris dancing declines.
1878 Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs published by M.H.Mason.
1888-91 Songs of the West published by Sabine Baring-Gould, Sussex Songs by Lucy Broadwood (son of Henry),Traditional Tunes by Frank Kidson, English Folk Songs byWilliam Barrett.
1893 English County Songs published by Lucy Broadwoodand John Fuller Maitland. First attempt at a national folk songbook.
1898 Folk Song Society founded by Kate Lee and A.P.Graves.
1899 Folk Song Society publishes first Journal. Kate Leecollects from Copper family.
Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII on throne.
1903 Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams begincollecting.
1904 First volume of Folk Songs from Somerset published byCecil Sharp. Kate Lee dies. Folk Song Society re-founded byLucy Broadwood.
1905-6 Percy Grainger begins collecting in Lincolnshire.Somerset Rhapsody by Gustav Holst, Norfolk Rhapsodies byRalph Vaughan Williams, Green Bushes by Percy Grainger.Mary Neal’s Esperance Guild begins to give publicperformances of folk songs and morris dances.
1907 English Folk Song: Some Conclusions published by CecilSharp. First theoretical book on English folk song. First volume ofMorris Book published by Cecil Sharp and Herbert MacIlwaine.First book to give detailed instructions on morris dancing.
1909 Last volume of Folk Songs from Somerset published byCecil Sharp.
1911 English Folk Dance Society founded by Cecil Sharp.George Butterworth begins collecting and dances in CecilSharp’s morris team. Reginald Tiddy collects mummers’ plays.
World War I. George Butterworth and Reginald Tiddy killed.
1914-16 Alfred Williams collects in Upper Thames valley.
1928-35 James Carpenter collects ballads and mummers’plays.
1932 Folk Song Society and English Folk Dance Societymerge.
1938 End of Harry Albino’s work in Gloucestershire.
World War II
OF ENGLISH FOLK MUSIC
Randwick cheese rolling and Randwick WapFirst Sunday and second Saturday in May
Randwick is oneof the two placesin Gloucestershirethat still practicescheese-rolling. Onthe first Sunday inMay cheeses arerolled three timesanti-clockwise(widdershins)around the church. This is followed by the Wap onthe second Saturday. The custom probably dates backto the Middle Ages but was suppressed in 1892.Revived in 1972, a colourful procession of villagersgoes from the War Memorial to the Mayor’s Pool ledby the Mop Man who swishes his wet mop to clearthe way.
Bisley Well Dressing - Ascension Day
First held in 1863. A short Church Service is followedby a procession to Bisley’s seven wells. The twenty-two eldest children in the Bluecoat village school carry
the wreaths andgarlands thathead theprocession andform thecentrepiece ofthe ceremony.These consist ofStars of David,the letters A.D.and the year,letters spelling
out the word ‘Ascension’ and five hoops. Similarceremonies are observed in the Peak District.
St Briavels Bread and Cheese Dole – Whit Sunday
This custom is said to date back to the 12th century,but the earliest account comes from 1779. Smallpieces of bread and cheese are thrown to local ‘doleclaimers’ who nowadays dress up in medieval
costume. ‘Dole Claimers’ used to be anyone who paida penny to the Earl of Hereford for the right to gatherfirewood. The ceremony was held in the church formany years, the bread and cheese being thrown fromthe west gallery, but rowdiness led to its being movedto Pound Hill. Some claimants used to pelt the rectorwith the food, but others – particularly miners – usedto keep the morsels ‘for luck’.
Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling, Brockworth,Gloucestershire – last Monday of May
Here, a DoubleGloucester cheeseis rolled down asteep hill, andpeople race after it,the first one to thebottom wins therace and thecheese. There arealso uphill races.The 250 yardcourse downhillslopes to 70degrees in placesand the groundsurface is veryuneven. Injuries arefrequent. Wooden
‘cheeses’ were used during the period of rationingfrom 1941-1954 and can be seen on display atGloucester Folk Museum. The custom is at least 200years old and is proudly maintained by localBrockworth families.
Tetbury Woolsack Races –Whitsun Bank HolidayMonday
The Woolsack Races inTetbury reflect theimportance of woolproduction and weaving inthe Cotswolds. Malecompetitors race down andup Gumstool Hill carrying a65lb woolsack, womencarry 35lbs. The raceorganisers suggest that theraces were started in the17th Century by youngdrovers showing off to localwomen by running up the hill carrying a woolsack.Today world record finishing times are recorded in theGuinness Book of Records.
Dover’s Games and Scuttlebrook Wake, ChippingCampden – Friday and Saturday after Spring BankHoliday
The ‘Cotswold Olimpicks’ or ‘Cotswold Games’ wereinstituted around 1612 by Robert Dover. They mixedtraditional games such as backsword fighting andshin-kicking with field sports and contests in music
and dancing, and were held onwhat is now Dover’s Hill aboveChipping Campden. RobertDover probably instituted theGames to support King James I’santi-Puritan ‘Book of Sports’ andinitially enjoyed aristocraticpatronage, hailed in AnnaliaDubrensia (1636), a collection ofpoems. They soon became apurely rustic occasion, andcontinued for well over twohundred years until the early1850s, when they weresuppressed because of allegeddisorder and rioting.
The Games were revived in
1951 as part of the Festival ofBritain, and have been held annually since the early1960s. As in the Annalia Dubrensia frontispiece, thecentre of the celebrations is a mock
castle, and a cannon is fired to begin the Games.After the competitions there is a torchlight processionto Chipping Campden’s town square. ScuttlebrookWake, next day, is the modern incarnation of ChippingCampden’s ‘Club’ day. The crowning of the MayQueen is followed by a fancy dress parade, maypoledancing, and morris dancing.
J U LYSt Margaret’s Day –20th July
At Nympsfield, the traditionaldish consumed on this daywas dumplings with wildplums (hegpegs) which gavethe villagers their nickname.
AUGUSTDry August and warmDoth harvest no harm
Cranham Feast – Second Monday in August
The earliest date recorded for the Feast is 1680. It isheld on the feastday of St. Jamesthe Great, towhom thechurch isdedicated. St.James’s Dayused to be 25thJuly, butchanging thecalendar in1752 placed itin August. It may originally have been an assertion ofvillagers’ rights over access to common land.Nowadays, there is a Feast Fayre and deer-carving onthe Saturday. A processional service is held on theSunday afternoon, followed by tea, children’s sportsand a tug-of-war.
S E P T EMBERSeptember blow softTill fruit be in the loft
Newent Onion Fayre – Second Saturday inSeptember
Newent Onion Fayre isthought to be the onlyBritish celebration ofonions. It is said to haveancient origins but wasrevived in 1996. It nowattracts crowds of manythousands. The highlightis an onion-eatingcontest in the Market
Square, but there is also a prize onion show, stallsselling local produce, music, entertainment, and ridesfor children.
Avening Feast and Queen Matilda’s Pageant – firstSunday after 14th September
Known locally as ‘Pig-Face Day’, this event is said tocommemorate the consecration of the church, in1080, by Queen Matilda, wife of William theConquerer. They stayed at Avening Court and gavethe builders a feast of boar’s head, thus giving rise tothe custom and its graphic name. Today, a feast isheld in the village hall after evensong at the Church ofthe Holy Cross. Celebrations are perhaps more mutednow than in past times – at the end of the 17thcentury local cleric George Bull tried to suppress theevent as it led to abuses and excesses in the village.Traditionally ‘pig-face’ sandwiches are served at thegathering, and the same delicacy will also be found inthe pubs in the district.
Clypping the Church, Feast Day, and Bow-Wow Pie,Painswick – Saturday and Sunday on or after 19thSeptember
‘Clypping’ is an ancient word meaning to embrace orencircle. The church’s dedication is the Virgin Maryand in the past the ceremony appears to have beenheld on 8 September – the Feast of the Nativity of theBlessed Virgin Mary. When, in 1752, the calendar losteleven days, the custom got its present date. At 3pm,
about!’ and they routed theFrench in hand-to-handfighting. For this feat theGloucestershires wereallowed to wear two hat orcap badges – the onlyregiment to do so. The BackBadge carries an image ofthe Sphinx and the word‘Egypt’. The Regiment is nowpart of The Rifles.
Stow Horse Fair – nearestThursday to 24th October and 12th May
In 1476 a charterfor two fairs, thefirst in May and thesecond in Octoberwas granted. Thesewere held on 12thMay, the feast ofSaints Philip andJames and the
24th October the feast of St. Edward the Confessor.Today these fairs are a major event in the gypsycalendar providing important opportunities to gatherand trade.
NOV EMBERIn Stroud there are early 19th century recordsof fire and fireworks at the Cross on Bonfire
Night (5th November) and of flaming pitch and tarbarrels but these activities were stopped in 1824.
DE C EMBERSt Thomas’s Day – 21st December
Please to remember St Thomas’s Day, St Thomas’s Day is the shortest day.‘Thomasing’ was anannual visiting customknown throughoutEngland. On St Thomas’sday poor people visitedthe houses of better-offneighbours requestingfood or provisions to help them through the winter.Also known as ‘gooding’ or ‘mumping’, the earliestreference to the custom is John Stow’s Survey ofLondon (1560). Many 19th century Gloucestershirewills refer to St. Thomas Day gifts.
Lamprey Pie
From the Medievalperiod, the City ofGloucester, in token oftheir loyalty to the royalfamily, presented a piemade from lampreys
caught in the Severn annually at Christmas to thesovereign. Lampreys are eel shaped and are parasiteson other fish. King Henry I was reputed to be so fondof lampreys that he died of a surfeit of them. Thecustom ceased in the 19th century. It was last revivedfor Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 and her Jubileein 1977.
Mummers – Marshfield Paper Boys Boxing Day,26th December
The mummers play at Marshfield had ceased to beperformed there in about 1880, but was revived byfolklorist Violet Alford, the sister of the vicar in thevillage in 1931. She ‘improved’ the play, changingthings a little from what elderly residents recalled verywell about the original script and characters. Thetraditional St George became King William in heradaptation, for example, and Father Christmas wasadded. It is a version of the combat play (where one
character kills another and the dead man is broughtback to life by a quack doctor). The players wearcostumes with strips of coloured paper or wallpaperhanging from their clothes and these costumes givethe troupe its alternative name: the Marshfield PaperBoys. The antiquity of the Marshfield play itself isclaimed by some to date to the twelfth century. It is alocal custom, kept local, with roles passed to familymembers of those already in the troupe, and includesa requirement that players have a genuine Marshfieldaccent.
Customs, traditions and glorious folk song
400YEARS
J A NUARYBlow well and bud well and bear wellGod send you fare well
Every sprig and every sprayA bushel of apples to begiven awayOn New Year’s day in themorningFrom dawn on New Year’s Day,at Upton St Leonards,Gotherington and Woolstone,children went from house to house singing this rhymeand were rewarded with apples and cakes. This wasknown as ‘bud-welling’ or ‘buff blowing’.
F E BRUARYFebruary fills the dykeWhether with black or white
St. Valentine’s Day –14th February
On St Valentine’sDay/Cast Beans inClay
(old saying from 1620Berkeley Vale)
MARCHWhen you can put your foot on tendaisies, spring is here
LENT CUSTOMS
Collop Monday is the day before Shrove Tuesday. Itwas when the lastmeat of the seasonwas eaten, in theform of collops ofbacon or mutton.The fat was used tofry pancakes onShrove Tuesday.
On Ash Wednesday the traditional dish atMinchinhampton was pease pudding.
A PR I LWhen April blows his hornTis good for hay and corn
Mothering Sunday –Fourth Sunday ofLent
The modern ‘Mother’sDay’ is an Americaninvention dating from1906. Mothering
Sunday is a much older tradition, observed on thefourth Sunday of Lent. Sons and daughters visited theirmothers and gave them presents, also cakes andDymock daffodils. It was traditional to eat frumenty(hulled wheat boiled in milk, seasoned with cinnamon,and sweetened with sugar).
MAYDew gathered on a May morning is traditionallybelieved to be good for the complexion.
I wash my face in water which has neverrained nor runI wipe my face with a napkin which was neverwove nor spun
1st MAY – MAY DAY REVELS
Paganhill Maypole is painted larch decorated withstreamers. Every year it is repainted and freshstreamers are fitted. May Day revels in Cheltenhamwere conducted by the chimney sweeps and includeda processional dance and a Jack-in-the-Green. As thepoet Alfred Noyes wrote:
For the chimney-sweeps of Cheltenham town,Sooty of face as a swallow of wing,Come whistling, fiddling, dancing down,With white teeth flashing as they sing.
A Jack-in-the-Greenwas revived inWinchcombe in 2009
Ascension Day
Before the Spring BankHoliday was fixed at theend of May,Whitsuntide was amoveable feast fortydays after Easter.
Moist in May, heatin June,Makes the harvestcome right soon
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Paganhill Maypole. Photo: ©bazzadarambler
Photos: © Alan Cleaver and Laura Newsam
Tetbury Woolsack Race.Photo: © Rachel Cotterill
Photo: © Gloucester FolkMuseum
Photo: © Desiree Chow
Photo: © Louise Eltringham-Smith
Photo: © Louise Perrin
Bisley Well Dressing. Photo: © ClareAuchterlonie
Randwick Wap. Photo: © Cal Williams
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The Water Game, Bourton-on-the-Water – AugustBank Holiday
This game is played on the day of the local fete. Somesay it began to celebrate the coronation of Edward VIIbut it bears a strong resemblance to other forms oftraditional (rather than Association) football in which
the goals might be half a mile apart and contested byhundreds of players. At Bourton it is a five-a-sidefootball match played in the stream of the RiverWindrush.
AUGUST – SEPTEMBER
The Severn Bore
Late August tolate September isa good time towitness theSevern Bore whenthe tides are attheir highest.Traditionally manypeople try to ‘ride’the bore in avariety of craftincluding, today,surfboards.
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Photo: © Tom Cole Photography
Photo: www.celtnet.org.uk
Shin kicking. Photo: © Chris Osburn
Photo: johnsti777
Freshwater Lamprey. Photo:scriptorsenex.blogspot.com
Photo: © Derek Schofield
Photo: www.cotswolds.info
Photo: www.cranham.net
young people join hands to form a circle around theparish church and the service begins. Joining hands,they take two steps towards the church, and two back,while singing the ‘Clypping Hymn’. Afterwards, all thechildren are given a currant bun.
Next day, Sunday, is Feast Day and associatedwith Bow-Wow Pie. It was customary to bake a meator fruit pie in which the china figure of a dog had beenplaced. Sometimes there were smaller dogs within thepie, one for each person round the table. There areseveral stories which tell how the custom originated.Painswickers used to be very sensitive about this, andwhen Stroud lads met their fellows from Painswickthey only had to say ‘Here come the bow-wows’ forfighting to break out. Barks and catcalls can still beheard at rugby matches in the area.
OCTOB ERGood October, a good blastTo blow the hogs acorn and waste
Michaelmas Mop Fairs
Farm workers were originally hired by the year and‘lived in’ on their employer’s premises and the annualMichaelmas Hiring Fairs were important events. Those
wantingemploymentwould carrya symbol oftheir tradein theirhand or intheir hat – ashepherd’scrook, forexample.Those who
had no trade would carry a mop, hence the name of‘Mop Fair’. Nowadays, the fairs are purely pleasureevents. They are held at Chipping Sodbury,Cirencester, Stow-on-the-Wold, Tewkesbury andWinchcombe.
The Gloucestershire Regiment – the Back Badge
The Gloucestershire Regiment was formed in 1881from the 28th and 61st Foot. It was one of the oldestregiments in the British Army, had the most battlehonours, and anumber of nicknamesincluding ‘Theslashers’ and ‘The OldBraggs’. In 1801 the28th was in action atthe Battle ofAlexandria whenFrench cavalryattacked from bothfront and rear while ina two-deep line. TheColonel ordered ‘Rearrank only – face
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Bow Wow Pie.
Photo: © Emma Woodwww.abritdifferent.co.uk
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe Gloucestershire Folk Map is one of a series of folk maps currentlybeing researched and published by Yvette Staelens and C.J.Bearman ofBournemouth University. It is a research output of The SingingLandscape Project, a Knowledge Transfer Fellowship awarded to theteam by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Concept and compilation Yvette Staelens [email protected] C.J.Bearman. Researched by Yvette Staelens and C.J.Bearman, whogratefully acknowledge the help of Andrew Bathe, Paul Burgess,Gwilym Davies and Chris Wildridge, in sharing their research andsupporting this map project, also Gloucester Folk Museum staffChristopher Morris and Nigel Cox.
Additional photo research by Louise Perrin.
Extensive effort has been made to contact all copyright holders forpermission to use photos on this map.
Society of Authors for permission to use the Alfred Noyes quote.
We have found Roy Palmer’s book on ‘The Folklore of Gloucestershire’indispensible especially for the old sayings that we have reproduced onthis map. Malcolm Taylor, EFDSS librarian for permission to use andprovision of photos from the Cecil Sharp Archive in the Vaughan WilliamsMemorial Library.
Published by Bournemouth University © Bournemouth University 2010
ISBN 978-1-85899-274-7
Design Andrew Crane http://andrewcrane.posterous.com/
Printed by Wincanton Printing Company www.wincanton-print.com
Customs, traditions and glorious folk song, all the year round
Tewkesbury Mop Fair. Photo: © Craig Fletcher
Photo: frontispiece of Annalia Dubrensia
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Front badge of theGloucestershire Regiment.Photo: Soldiers ofGloucestershire Museum
Rear badge. Photo: Soldiers ofGloucestershire Museum
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Cover image: William Hathaway, fidler from Lower Swell. Photo by Cecil Sharp © EFDSS
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G L O U C E S T E R
C H E LT E N H A M
STROUD
CIRENCESTER
STOWON THEWOLD
MORETON-IN-MARSH
LY D N E YR
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Sever
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BISHOP’SCLEEVE
CHIPPINGCAMDEN
NAILSWORTH
River Thames
Minchinhampton
Kemble
Winson
SouthCerney
Soomerford Keynes
Sherborne
QueningtonSouthrop
Hatherop
Dixton
Buckland
Bourton-on-the-Water
Longborough
TETBURY
CHIPPINGSODBURY
Canal
River C
hubb
River Leach
Rive r W
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RoyalForest of
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Th e C
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LECHLADE
TEWKESBURY
William Baylis William Baylis (1847-1926) was an agriculturallabourer born at Stantonbut living in Bucklandwhen Cecil Sharp met himin 1909. He worked forthe vicar, grew asparagus,did land draining, and wasa great man for the church.Like many Gloucestershiresingers, he knew folkcarols including ‘OnChristmas Time’, and awassail or ‘waysail’ song.He was also a handbellringer. Buckland at this time had a great musicaltradition - a string orchestra and a temperance band,which could combine as full orchestra.
Henry Thomas Henry Thomas (1830-?)may have been inChipping SodburyWorkhouse when CecilSharp collected from himin April 1907, but hisappearance and the keyhe is holding seems tomake that unlikely. Hehad one of the largestrepertoires of any singerSharp found inGloucestershire - eleventunes and six sets of
words, including the carols ‘The Virgin Unspotted’ and‘Come All You True Good Christians’.
William Hedges Very little is knownabout William Hedges(1831-?) who was aretired shepherd living inWestington, ChippingCampden, when CecilSharp collected fromhim in August-September 1909. LikeHenry Thomas, he hada large repertoireincluding ‘We Shepherdsare the Best of Men’,and a version of ‘GeorgeRidler’s Oven’, a songpeculiar toGloucestershire.
Herbert Gascoigne Herbert Gascoigne (1870-1925) was a blacksmith andmember of the National Master Farriers’ Association.
Born near Bath, hemoved to Tetburyand later settled inKemble. He is saidto have been one ofthe finest cricketersever to play for thevillage. He gaveAlfred Williams oneitem, ‘Turpin and theLawyer’, a version ofthe well-known‘Turpin Hero’.
Elizabeth FieldAlfred Williams collected from Elizabeth or ‘Lily’ Field(1880-1951), who was postmistress at Winson formore than thirty years. She gave him three songs,among them the ballads ‘Lord Thomas and FairEleanor’ and the mysterious ‘Cutty Wren’ (Richat toRobet). She was a great reader, a good talker, and an
excellent gardener. Elizabeth and Walter Field areinteresting for the evidence they provide of socialmobility. They acquired a car, and their sons Dick andPeter won scholarships to Rendcomb College,established in 1920 to offer public school styleeducation to promising village boys.
Edwin Griffin The singer AlfredWilliams named asEdward Griffin wasprobably Edwin Griffinthe younger (1878-1952). The 1901 censusdescribes him as acattleman, but it seemshe later worked in thegardens at HatheropCastle and was caretakerof the school. He was abellringer and gaveWilliams one song, ‘JohnAppleby’.
Eli Price Eli Price (Alfred Williams called him Jasper) was bornat South Cerney and spent all his life there, dyingin 1952. He was an agricultural labourer.Williams only collected one song from him,‘The Bold Champions’.
Albert Spiers Albert Spiers (1844-1928)came from Defford,Worcestershire, but came toLechlade around 1876 towork as an agent for theGreat Western Railway. Hewas also landlord first of theSwan pub, then the Crown.In politics he was a staunchConservative. He retired aftersuffering the loss of his wifeand daughter in 1909 andlived at Southrop, whereAlfred Williams met him.
Sarah Timbrell Sarah Timbrell (1865-1950)was born at Eastleach Martinand went into service beforemarrying John, a carter, ofQuenington. They lived atBrize Norton before returningto Quenington by 1901.Alfred Williams noted thesong ‘Isle of Wight’ and afragment of the ballad ‘RobinHood and Little John’.
John Ockwell Robert John Ockwell (1871-1944) was the son of afarmer and noted local singer and followed his father inboth professions. Alfred Williams collected only one
song from him, ‘The Bunchof Nuts’, but it appears thathe was known both forsinging at home and in thelocal pub, and when hisdaughter died a numberof printed songsheets werefound.
George SimpsonSherborne was known as ‘a desperate morris place’,and its dances are among the most beautiful andintricate of all. George Simpson (1850-1915) was
born there and danced in the morris ‘side’ until itdisbanded, around 1875. He then migrated to workon a farm at Upton, near Didcot, Berkshire, but didnot forget his artistry. Cecil Sharp met him in 1908and wrote that “he proved to be one of the best andcleverest dancers” he had ever met, and so keen thathe taught them to the boys of his adopted village.
Harry Taylor Cecil Sharp first collected from Henry Taylor (1843-1931) in a field in May 1910. He later wrote that
Taylor “sang to me the tunes,executed the steps, and explainedthe figures with the utmost skilland readiness”. Longborough isamong the most vigorous andspectacular of morris dancetraditions, and Taylor had lastdanced in 1887. He survived to bevisited by the Travelling Morris in1924 and subsequent years.
Thomas Pitts Thomas Pitts (1855-1940) was pipe andtabor player for theSherborne side. Thepipe was three-holedand played with onehand while the otherbeat the tabor. Mostmorris dancerspreferred pipe andtabor because of thestrong rhythmicsupport it provided.This fine photographwas taken by HarryAlbino.
John Mason and William Hathaway
Most morris musicians, however, played the fiddle.John Mason (1835-1912) and William Hathaway(1842-1910) were the first Gloucestershire musicians
encountered by Cecil Sharp. Mason came from Stow-on-the-Wold and played for a number of morris dance‘sides’, including Lower Swell and Longborough ‘sides’largely composed from the Hathaway family. The coverof this map shows William Hathaway, who camefrom Lower Swell, but had migrated to Cheltenhamwhere Sharp found him working as a shoemaker.
Chipping Campden and Dennis Hathaway
Henry Taunt took this photograph of the ChippingCampden morris dancers in the town’s high street in1896. Dennis Hathaway is on the right. In 1908Charles Ashbee brought his Guild of Arts and Crafts toChipping Campden and the revival of traditionalculture inspired Hathaway to form his own side fromlocal boys.
Cecil Sharp (1859-1924)was a London musicteacher who collected folksongs and morris dancesfrom 1903 onwards. Hefirst visited Gloucestershirein 1907, inspired by anencounter with twosewermen who were
whistling morris dance tunes in a Londonstreet, and between then and 1921collected from fifty-four Gloucestershirepeople. Sharp collected and publishedmorris dances from Bledington,Longborough, and Sherborne. He alsocollected country dance tunes and songs,beginning in the Chipping Sodbury areaand moving on to the uplands aroundFord, Naunton, Temple Guiting,Winchcombe, and Chipping Campden.Gloucestershire introduced Sharp to manyfolk carols, such as ‘The Cherry TreeCarol’, ‘The Twelve Joys of Mary’, and ‘AVirgin Unspotted’, while Mary Ann Claytonof Chipping Campden provided the well-known tune for ‘The Holly and the Ivy’.
Percy Grainger (1882-1961) was anAustralian pianist and composer whobegan collecting English folk songs in 1905.He began working in Gloucestershire in1907, inspired by stays at Stanway, homeof Lady Elcho. In 1908 perhaps the most
extraordinary event in the history of folkmusic collecting happened when LadyElcho’s house-party descended onWinchcombe Workhouse to hear itsinmates sing. Percy Grainger wasaccompanied by Lady Elcho, LadyWemyss, the former Prime Minister ArthurBalfour, the former Colonial SecretaryEdward Lyttelton, and John SingerSargeant, the leading portrait painter ofthe day. Grainger recorded the singing withan Edison cylinder phonograph and wroteto his girlfriend Karen Holten that it wasfun to see an amusing farm labourer singinto the phonograph, while the notabilitieslistened. These recordings are now in theLibrary of Congress, Washington. Graingercollected from fourteen Gloucestershirepeople before his interest waned in 1909.
Alfred Williams (1877-1930) was born intoa carpenter’s family. He was a part-timefarm labourer at the age of eight and leftschool at eleven. At fifteen he went to work
in the Great WesternRailway company’sworks at Swindon.Humble originsconcealed an enormousintellectual appetiteand ability. He learnedLatin, Greek, andFrench, besidesbecoming a painter andwriting his own poetry.His best known book,
Life in a Railway Factory (1915) expressedhis dissatisfaction with the GWR and couldonly be published after a breakdown inhealth forced Williams to leave. He thenbecame a market gardener and folk songcollector, reporting his discoveries in theweekly issues of the Wilts andGloucestershire Standard. Over the twoyears 1914-16, Williams collected fromabout 230 people in the upper Thamesvalley, where the three counties ofGloucestershire, Oxfordshire, andWiltshire meet, a remarkable achievementfor a man not in robust health, whose only
transport was his bicycle. In 1916 Williamsdecided that the war effort needed him andenlisted. In 1923 he brought his collectingmaterial together in Folk Songs of theUpper Thames.
James Madison Carpenter (1888-1984)came from Booneville, Mississippi, andafter graduating MA from the stateuniversity gained a PhD from Harvard, in1929. He made his first collecting trip toBritain in 1928, then stayed from 1929 to1935, investigating sea shanties, traditionalballads, and mummer’s plays. Research
grants andadvancingtechnologyenabled himto useconveniencesnot availableto previouscollectors,such as
motor-car travel and a mechanicalrecording device, the Dictaphone.Carpenter collected about 150 mummersplay texts in Britain, twenty-seven of themin Gloucestershire. Only Oxfordshire (withthirty) produced a higher number. He alsocollected from several ballad singers,including Frederick Newman, previouslyencountered by Percy Grainger. Back inAmerica, Carpenter moved to DukeUniversity, North Carolina, but became avirtual recluse after retiring fromacademic life, his work unknown until hewas tracked down in 1972 and hiscollection purchased for the Library ofCongress. It is only recently that it hasbecome widely known in this country.
F. Scarlett Potter collected ‘TheShepherd’s Song’ from Thomas Coldicoteof Ebrington and sent it to LucyBroadwood (1858-1929), who published itin English County Songs (1893). Thebrothers Henry (1866-1910) and RobertHammond (1868-?) collected from a singleGloucestershire singer, but did not identifyhim. ReginaldTiddy (1880-1916)collected mummersplays inGloucestershire inpreparation for abook, but was killedin the First WorldWar. So was the composer GeorgeButterworth (1885-1916) who investigatedmorris dances in collaboration with CecilSharp. Clive Carey (1885-1964) alsocollected morris dances on behalf ofSharp’s rival Mary Neal (1860-1944) .After the First World War he made acareer as singer and opera producer.Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958),arguably Britain’s greatest composer ofmodern times, was born at Down Ampney,in Gloucestershire, but despite being anactive collector, met only one singer in thecounty, as did Cecil Sharp’s amanuensisMaud Karpeles (1885-1977). Janet Blunt(1859-1950), who lived at Adderbury,Oxfordshire, collected two Gloucestershiresongs. Harry Hurlbutt Albino (1889-1957)was a gentleman amateur who collectedsporadically from around 1913 until 1938,and was also a skilled photographer. Muchof his work was done to facilitate hisarticles in the Gloucestershire Countrysidemagazine.
Gloucestershire’s most famous musicalsons of recent times are Gerard Finzi,Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, and RalphVaughan Williams. Vaughan Williamshonoured his native county with hisarrangement of ‘The Wassail Song ofGloucestershire’. Of the others, only Holstplayed a direct part in the folk musicrevival. He did editing work on behalf ofthe Folk Song Society and publishedarrangements of morris dance tunescollected by Cecil Sharp. His one-act operaAt the Boar’s Head (based onShakespeare’s Henry IV plays) containsmany arrangements of Hampshire tunescollected by George Gardiner.
C O L L E C T O R S
George Simpson (standing, on the right) with his ‘children’
John Ockwell. Photo courtesy[the late] Miss MarjorieOckwell (Somerford Keynes)
Alfred Williams
James Carpenter. © Library of Congress
Cecil Sharp. © EFDSS
Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger. © EFDSSReginald Tiddy. © EFDSS
Name Location
Acott, Charles Maisey HamptonAdams, Henry StroudAsh, George Ampney CrucisAshbee, Janet Chipping CampdenAvery, William AldsworthBanting, William QueningtonBarnard, Mrs. MitcheldeanBarnes, James QueningtonBarnett, Alice QueningtonBarrett, [John?] Frank FairfordBarrett, Henry RandwickBartlett, Joseph Down AmpneyBaughn,Thomas South CerneyBaxter, Robert EastleachBaylis, William BucklandBeach, Richard BreamBennett, Isaac Little SodburyBetteridge, Thomas Lower SlaughterBetterton, Thomas HatheropBond, Mary QueningtonBradley, John CoatesBradshaw, William BiburyBrown, Mrs. B.A. ColesbourneBrown, William DriffieldBunting, Thomas SherborneBye, Una EastleachCarpenter, Robert Cerney WickClappen, Thomas DriffieldClayton, Mary Ann Chipping CampdenCobb, Mrs SappertonColdicott, Thomas EbringtonCollett, John StanwayCollins, James LechladeCook, George Stow on the WoldCook, Henry ArlingtonCouling, George KempsfordCouling, Lot KempsfordCorbet, Henry SnowshillCox, James MinchinhamptonDenley, Thomas SevenhamptonDavis, William WinchcombeDawes, Eli SouthropDeane, Mrs CheltenhamDobbyan, Miss BristolDobbyan, Mrs. BristolDoughty, Amy WinchcombeEvans, Joseph Old SodburyField, Elizabeth WinsonFletcher, Isabel CinderfordFreeman, Emily Ampney CrucisFry, John TormartonGardiner, Charles OakridgeGascoigne, Herbert KembleGill, Peter StroudGinovan, Thomas BristolGodwin, Robert SouthropGodwin, Sarah SouthropGosling, Mrs Mary LechladeGriffin, Edwin HatheropGrubb, George EwenHacklett, Willliam WinchcombeHalliday, Arthur CulkertonHands, John SnowshillHands, William WillersleyHarding, James Stow-on-the-WoldHarris, Miss/Mrs E. QueningtonHathaway, Jane Lower SwellHawker, Ann Broad CampdenHawkins, Arthur BiburyHawkins, Keziah Old SodburyHedges, William Chipping CampdenHerbert, George PoultonHerbert, George AveningHicks, George BiburyHorne, Mr Chipping CampdenHowes, Mr. CheringtonIles, Joseph PoultonIrvine, Mrs ChedworthJames, Mark Lower SlaughterLane, Archer WinchcombeLane, George ‘Daddy’ WinchcombeLaunchbury, Thomas Wyck RissingtonLawrence, Robert ChedworthLong, Mr Acton TurvilleLooker/Mapson, Jane BiburyMackie, Mrs LechladeMander, James AldworthMartin, William WinchcombeMay, Richard FairfordMerriman, Philip Chipping CampdenMerritt, W. Maisey HamptonMessenger, Charles Cerney WickMidwinter, James AldsworthMills, James South CerneyMills, William BiburyMoss, Ann DriffieldMorse, William Coln St AldwynNeal, Mr. C.S. Aston-sub-EdgeNewman, Frederick Cold AshtonNewman, William StantonNightingale, Ann DidbrookNightingale, Arthur DidbrookOckwell, Jane PoultonOckwell, Robert John Somerford KeynesPacker, Jane WinchcombeParnell, Albert EbringtonPhelps, Charles AveningPhelps, Sarah AveningPitts, Esther EastleachPrice, Eli Jasper South CerneyPuffett, John LechladePillinger, John LechladePrice, Dennis TetburyRichards, Caroline? Little SodburyRoberts, Edward SiddingtonRoberts, Mary Anne WinchcombeRussell, James HatheropRussell, Jane TetburySellars, Charles EastleachShepherd, William WinchcombeShilton, Henry LechladeShilton, James LechladeSims, W. FairfordSmith, Charles CoatesSmith, Eli BrookthorpeSmith, Raymond BiburySmithered, Elizabeth TewkesburySparrow, William KembleSpiers, Alfred SouthropSuch, Mr CheltenhamSutton, John BiburySwallow, Thomas Lower GuitingTandy, George WinchcombeTanner, Tom CheringtonTaylor, John PoultonTeale, Elizabeth? WinchcombeTemple, Henry BarnsleyThomas, Henry Chipping SodburyTimbrell, Sarah QueningtonTimms, William? BucklandToms, Richard FairfordTranter, T.J. MinchinhamptonTrueman, James Ampney St MaryTucker, James BristolWakefield, Robert WinchcombeWall, Jane DriffieldWatts, William Henry TewkesburyWebley, John BiburyWest, James QueningtonWiggett, Mrs. P FordWilkins, Robert John TetburyWilliams, Kathleen Wigpool CommonWixey, Elizabeth. (Ann?) BucklandWoodward, Charles Ebrington
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Gloucestershire Folk Song153 Gloucestershire people sang or recited to folk songcollectors between the 1890s and the end of the 1930s.This is a high total, in view of the fact that Gloucestershirenever had a single collector who devotedly workedthrough the county, as others did in Devon, Dorset,Hampshire, and Somerset. Most of the material collectedwas common all over southern England. There wereclassic ballads such as ‘The Outlandish Knight’ and ‘TheBroomfield Hill’, and songs of farming life and convivialitylike ‘We Shepherds are the Best of Men’, and ‘All JollyFellows that Follow the Plough’. There were even seashanties through the maritime connections of Bristol andGloucester Docks. Singing in Gloucestershire also hadsome unusual or peculiar features. Among them were thesongs ‘George Ridler’s Oven’ and ‘The Jovial Foresters’.The former was long believed to be a satire on OliverCromwell; the latter concerns mining in the Forest of Deanand is still sung by local choirs. The county introduced
collectors such as Cecil Sharp to folk carols like ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’, ‘The TwelveJoys of Mary’, and ‘A Virgin Unspotted’, referred to by Ivor Gurney as the ‘GloucesterCarol’. Gloucestershire’s form of wassailing differed from the more usual celebration ofapple trees as in other counties from Sussex to Somerset. The word was usuallypronounced ‘waysail, and the Gloucestershire waysail consisted of groups travellingfrom farm to farm, displaying their decorated wooden waysail bowl, singing their songand collecting money. They were sometimes accompanied by the ‘Broad’ which was arepresentation of a cow. Almost every village had its own version of the waysail song.
Gloucestershire Morris DancingThe historian Keith Chandler has identified 124 Gloucestershire morris dancers and musicians whoperformed between the 1750s and the 1930s. The county was home to two sorts of morris dancing,the ‘Cotswold’ style in the east and the ‘Forest of Dean’ or ‘Border Morris’ style in the west.References to morris dancing begin in the fifteenth century, but the first depiction of men performingwhat looks like the ‘Cotswold’ style is the painting ‘Harvesters at Dixton Manor’, dated to around1720. About the same time a lady wrote in her diary that she was ‘almost stunned with morrisdancing’. Unlike ‘country’ or ‘social’ dancing, the morris dance was reserved for special occasionsand performed by ‘sides’ of trained dancers who were almost always men and usually from the samefamilies. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the main motive was collecting money atWhitsuntide (now Spring Bank Holiday). ‘Sides’ of men performed at village ‘club days’, outsidegreat houses, and even travelled to London to dance in the streets. They called this ‘taking an annualcircuit’, but were sometimes harassed by the law because their bells and ribbons, inevitably,‘frightened the horses’.
There is known to have been ‘Cotswold’ style dancing at nearly thirty places in Gloucestershire,but after the 1850s the custom declined. Morris dancers sometimes had bad reputations for drinkingand violence and Victorian ‘respectability’ frowned on them. A particular turning point in thisdecline appears to have been the ending of the Cotswold Games in 1852-3. By the time collectingbegan in 1907 very little was left. Only one ‘side’ at Chipping Campden has an almost continuoustradition going back into the nineteenth century. Another ‘side’ at Bledington had several revivalsbetween the 1880s and the 1930s, but the dances of Longborough, Oddington, and Sherborne had tobe reconstructed from the memories of one or two old dancers and musicians. Memories of the‘Forest of Dean’ style were even more fragmentary. It was known at Bromsberrow Heath, Clifford’sMesne, and Raurden, but only the Bromsberrow Heath dance has been reconstructed.
From 1924 onwards the ‘Travelling Morris’ group (composed of undergraduates from CambridgeUniversity) began to bring the dances back to the countryside and try to glean what they could of thesurviving tradition.
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Adams, William Edwin CheltenhamAkerman, George LongboroughAndrews, Albert Edward WinchcombeAndrews, George WinchcombeBaldwin, George NewentBayliss? OddingtonBaxter, Robert EastleachBenfield, Charles BledingtonBennett, William James Lower SwellBond, Richard Edward BledingtonCarey, Abraham BledingtonCarey, Benjamin BledingtonCarey, Thomas Abraham BledingtonCarey, William Henry BledingtonCarter, William Guiting PowerClifford, William Lower SwellCollins, John LongboroughCook/Gibbs, Edward BledingtonCooke, Joseph OddingtonCourt, James Edward Chipping CampdenCurtis, William? WithingtonCyphas, David RissingtonCyphas, James RissingtonDavies, William Edwards WinchcombeDavis, John RissingtonDay, Henry Chipping CampdenDenley, Benjamin WithingtonDenley, David Naunton/G. PowerEldridge, Henry EastleachEldridge, William EastleachFarebrother, Robert TodenhamFranklin, Charles Edward BledingtonJoseph Garlick Little BarringtonGayley, William OddingtonGorton, Charles OddingtonGorton, Henry OddingtonGriffin, George Albert Chipping CampdenHall, Lewis James BledingtonHarris, Jonathan BledingtonHathaway, Dennis Chipping CampdenHathaway, Edwin LongboroughHathaway, George LongboroughHathaway, George BledingtonHathaway, Henry LongboroughHathaway, James Stow areaHathaway, Samuel Lower SwellHathaway, Thomas Chipping CampdenHathaway, William Lower SwellHathaway, William LongboroughHawker, Henry SherborneHawker, Thomas SherborneHicks, George SherborneHitchman, John BledingtonHooper, William SherborneHopkins, James SherborneHowell, James Chipping CampdenHumphries, George WithingtonJames, Edward SherborneJames, Richard Chipping CampdenJones, Charles Little BarringtonKeeley, William Chipping CampdenKench, John SherborneKench, Thomas SherborneKilby/Kilbey, Charles SalpertonKilby, George SalpertonKilby, John SalpertonKilby, Joseph SalpertonKilby, Mary SalpertonKilby, Richard SalpertonKilby, Samuel SalpertonKilby, Thomas SalpertonLamb, George Bourton-on-the-Hill
areaLardner, James SherborneMajor, James WinchcombeMason, John Stow areaOverington, William OddingtonPitts, Thomas SherbornePugh, George OddingtonRandall, John WinchcombeSandles, Albert OddingtonSandles, William OddingtonSearch, William OddingtonShillum, Edwin Frank WinchcombeSimpson, James Sherborne/NorthleachSimpson, George SherborneSimpson, James SherborneSlatter, William BledingtonSmith, George Chipping CampdenSpragg, Charles LongboroughSpragg, John William LongboroughSpragg, William LongboroughSteed, Henry BledingtonSteptoe, George Little BarringtonTaylor, Albert BledingtonTaylor, Albert LongboroughTaylor, Charles OddingtonTaylor, Christopher LongboroughTaylor, Harry LongboroughTaylor, Henry SherborneTaylor, James SherborneTaylor, Mark LongboroughTaylor, Stephen LongboroughTaylor, Stephen LongboroughTaylor, Walter LongboroughTaylor, William Chipping CampdenTaylor, William Arthur Chipping CampdenTownsend, Albert SherborneTuffley, Alfred LongboroughTuffley, Thomas LongboroughVeale, Charles Chipping CampdenVeale, Thomas Chipping CampdenWarner, James Chipping CampdenWebb, Frederick LongboroughWebb, George John Chipping CampdenWebb, Joseph LongboroughWebb, Oliver Budd LongboroughWebb, Robert Frank LongboroughWhite, Albert Belcher WinchcombeWilliams AldsworthWinter, Thomas William BledingtonWood, Havelock WinchcombeWright, William BledingtonYoung, Thomas NorthleachM
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Wassail! wassail! all over the townOur toast it is white and our ale it is brownOur bowl it is made of the white maple treeWith the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee
A LIVINGTRADITION
SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR, the workof Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, AlfredWilliams and their fellow collectors, has
been continued by Peter Kennedy, Mike Yates,Peter Sheppard and Gwilym Davies. Theorganisation Glosfolk has been founded tosupport folk music in the county.www.glosfolk.org.ukPaul Burgess researches singers and dancersand the folklorist and historian Roy Palmerhas published an authoritative survey ofGloucestershire’s folklore.
Cecil Sharp. © EFDSS
William Baylis. © EFDSS
Elizabeth Field. Photo courtesy Peter Field
Albert Spiers. Photo courtesyMrs Kathleen Newman(Southrop)
Sarah Timbrell. Photo courtesyJanice Falvey (Plantsville USA)
Thomas Pitts. © GloucestershireArchives, Albino Collection
John Mason. © EFDSS William Hathaway. © EFDSS
Photo: © English Heritage. NMR
Harry Taylor. ©EFDSS
Henry Thomas. © EFDSS
Edwin Griffin. Photo courtesy(the late) Reuben Sims(Hatherop)
William Hedges. Photo:Museum of English Rural Life
Herbert GascoignePhoto: Christian Brann& Collectors Books
Eli Price. Photo courtesy (the late) Mrs ElsieLockey (South Cerney)
Morris dancers (bottom right) at Dixton Manor c.1720. Photo: © Cheltenham ArtGallery & Museum
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