A List of Reasons to Sing …

#8 To release endorphins

When you are bed bound from pain, you need all the endorphins you can get, so I’m singing plenty.

1. Chronic pain relief for a song 2. Singing through the pain barrier 3. Can singing help me manage chronic pain? 4. Away with pain

Managed a quick walk today, and saw this beautiful willow tree in Grange Gardens, Lewes.

The tune and words for this version of Seeds of Love were collected from Mrs Baker in 1912. Mrs Baker lived in Hammer, Sussex. The version was featured in the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (2012).

I love this song. EB xx

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Folk songs and Footpaths: Part 5 & 6

Recap of Research Questions:

• How might folk songs and footpaths be considered as related, and relational?
• If public bodies move to protect intangible cultural heritage, or living traditions, is such an aim possible? Which songs do they chose? Which version of that song? Which singer? What particular version, as no singer sings the song the same twice?

Listen here -> https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4/folk-songs-and-footpaths-part-5-and-6

‘Singing English folk songs is as crucial to me as walking the Sussex landscape … When I sing, I feel past generations standing behind me – and I hope I’m a conduit for them – those farm labourers and their wives who kept the songs going for us. The songs are social history and their beauty and power undeniable’- Shirley Collins, 2015

‘The paths offered (Edward) Thomas cover from himself: proof of a participation in communal history and the suggestion of continuity, but also the dispersal of egotism … folk songs and footpaths are, to his mind, both major democratic forms: collective in origin but re-inflected by each new walker. Radical, too, in their implicit rebuke to the notion of private property’ – Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways, 2012: pp. 309, 307

St Peter’s Church, Rodmell

Day 5 – Rodmell to Alfriston, 10 miles.

Thank you to my companions Emma, Anna, Moira, Dave, Mike, Jackie, Rachel, Sarah, Sarah Wales, Louise and her partner Andrew, and their daughter Arwen, Mum, and Lily and Bertie dogs, woof!

The recording begins with a stunning song The Sussex Shepherdess written by Charlotte Oliver, which I’ll allow her to introduce. We sang this late in the evening the night before, in Rodmell Churchyard. It’s a beautiful setting and adjoins the Woolf’s home, Monks House http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/monks-house/

Charlotte and Richard’s website: http://www.musicfinders.co.uk/Sea/sea.htm

The following morning I was at the church with my fellow walkers for the day; this incarnation of Cold Blows The Wind was collected in Rodmell. The person it was collected from is unknown, however it was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams at The Inn (presumably The Abergavenny Arms, also known to feed hungry guests staying with Virginia Woolf) on the 10 Jan 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/156. Only the tune was collected, so I looked elsewhere in Sussex for the lyrics and used some collected in Trotton in 1911, these were taken down from a Mrs Brown, helped by her son Jimmy, and Clive Carey notes that George Parrot in Minsted also sang this version http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/33

Thirdly, we have the brilliant Bob Lewis back, for a delightful duo of Blackberry Fold and Young Collins. Blackberry Fold is thought to refer to Uppark Park, the grand house near where my route began in South Harting. One of the owners:

‘Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh spent his youthful years in wild carousing. He was a close friend of the Prince Regent and his entourage included Emma Hart (the future Lady Hamilton, best remembered as Lord Nelson’s lover), who allegedly once danced naked on Uppark’s dining table for Harry and his guests. Middle-age saw Sir Harry become something of a recluse, but in 1825 the then seventy-year old scandalized his social circles once again by marrying Mary Ann Bullock, his twenty-year old dairymaid’ ( http://www.unravelled.org.uk/press-releases.html).

Here are the references for where they were collected: Young Collins, Blackberry Fold, Mr Baker, Southease, 9 Jan 1906, Ralph Vaughan Williams http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/152 http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/153

The only Mr Baker of Rodmell/Southease that I can find on the 1901 Census is a Mr Robert Baker, who is a noted as a Blacksmith at The Forge in Rodmell. He appeared to be deceased by the 1911 Census. I managed to find out from The National Archives, that he had died in 1907 aged 73. He had carried out repairs on Rodmell church with his business partner http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/af19d2f4-5f8e-49bb-b194-6b13bc5cfcfe

Here is a much longer historical profile of the Bakers of Piddinghoe and Rodmell http://www.thespasdirectory.com/tdprofile.asp?ref=2E4034

After that, by Firle trig point, is The Lark In The Morning, sung by Lily Cook in North Chailey 1954/5 collected by Bob Copper for the BBC: http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S187335 http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/you-never-heard-so-sweet-tscd671/

Sung here by me, with a collective effort of wind shielding and Arwen the baby, and Bertie the dog joining in! I tried to stick as closely as possible to Lily’s rendition, without mimicking it.

Here is an excerpt from Bob Copper’s book Songs and Southern Breezes: ‘When Lily Cook opened her door and ushered me into the front parlour, I stepped back forty years. The chiffonier with lace-edges lined runners, the heavy damask curtains faded into vertical stripes between the folds, the table-cloth to match … loved and tended, since she and her husband had moved in as newly-weds in 1909 … she with a proud tilt of the head, and her dark hair swept up into a large, over powering hat trimmed with ribbon and an ostrich feather … now, in carpet slippers  and a blue and white spotted pinafore, hair streaked with silver … over her shoulder I could look out across the gorse and the heathy expanse of Chailey Common right down to the steep escarpment of the South Downs at Plumpton … We started to swap songs and she was clearly delighted to learn that there were still people about who were aware of and in fact cherished the kind of songs that she had loved ever since she heard her parents and other members of the family singing when she was a tiny girl’ (Copper 1973: pp. 43 -46)

Lily Cook also sang variants of The Merchant and The Servant Man (she calls it The Iron Door) http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=lily%20cook&ts=1433184473789#record=2. By chance, and happily, she also sang the next song on the recording, Pleasant and Delightful, another choice inspired by the skylarks of the day, sang here by my mother Catherine Bennett. (Lily Cook, Pleasant and Delightful) http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S187292

Dear Father, Dear Father, Pray Build Me A Boat (a variant of Sweet William) is the next song, again I learnt this from a source singer. The beautiful voice of Sheila Smith, a seven year old gypsy girl was always going to be hard to do justice to. Do get the C.D and have a listen, it feels like you are there with Peter Kennedy in the roadside encampment of barrel top wagons near Laughton in 1952 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S339110  http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/im-a-romany-rai-tscd672d/

I’d also like to raise here the vast contribution to our oral and cultural heritage that travellers have made. It’s not possible to cover it here but I would like to link the The Song Collectors Collective who are doing a fab job of keeping the profile and enormous value of the traveller community alive http://songcollectorscollective.co.uk/

My mother Catherine Bennett, and a family friend Rachel Cooper, can be heard singing Shepherds Arise, in close harmony. The wind was beginning to be pretty ferocious by then, even though we were in a dip on Firle Beacon, so it’s only a snippet that came out well. The arrangement is that of the Copper Family, but Michael Blann is also know to have sung it!

Copper Family (and Michael Blann) http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=Shepherds%20Arise&ts=1433095648141#record=15

Catherine Bennett, Rachel Cooper, Sarah Wales, Elizabeth Bennett, Emma Miles, Sarah Bennett, Anna Trostnikova, Dave Reeves + Lily the Dog – Firle Beacon (Moira Faulkner, 2015)

After that an interview with Will Duke, so modest and such a super voice. He’s the person you always look around for in a folk club and hope he’s there (he would dispute this, I’m sure). He sings Ground For The Floor. As we can see form the archives, it was collected from George ‘Pop’ Maynard, who Will had learnt it from the singing of. However,  Charles Moseley (who may be the husband of Betty) of Redford, Sussex and a Johnson of Fittleworth, Sussex, appear to sing a related song http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=ground%20for%20the%20floor%20sussex&ts=1433188882653#

Day 6 – Alfriston to Eastbourne, 7 miles (plus a detour to Glynde)

The next morning was a site for sore eyes. Although gail force winds were blowing, Alfriston was looking exceptionally beautiful in dappled sunshine. I decided to break my folk roots/routes and sing the hymn Morning Has Broken. The famous hymn was written in Alfriston (1931) by Eleanor Farjeon after she was inspired by the beauty of the village and the surrounding countryside. There are some folk motif Blackbirds in there, so I felt it had links and branches. I sang it in the early morning piece of St Andrews.

Following this is Suzanne Higgins, singing the song she composed The Shepherd’s Token. An arresting piece about the English practice of burying Shepherd’s with a piece of wool or fleece in their hands or on their chest, so that St Peter would know why they had often been absent from church. The practice was in use in Alfriston up until the 1930s. Suzanne was inspired to write a song about burial rights after the passing of a family member. http://www.thegentlefolk.com/index.html

Firle Beacon from Windover Hill (Elizabeth Bennett, 2015)

After a spell of sitting in Jevington church and churchyard and enjoying the peace and shelter, I was joined by the charming Nick Cant and we made for the Eight Bells in Jevington. There I sang The Foggy Dew, a version collected from East Dean singers Mark Fuller and Luther Hills by Peter Kennedy in 1952 (Thanks to Vic Smith for introducing me to it) http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S175476. Nick, a singer and bell-ringer, sang a song from a group called The Pig’s Ear, which I’ll allow him to introduce.

The interview with Steve Matcham, and spotless performance of a song associated with the naval career of his uncle, although it has a West Sussex theme, felt appropriate for my final view of the sweeping bay of Sussex blue and chalky white from the hills. Young Sailor Cut Down In His Prime was collected not too far away in Portsmouth, 1907, by GB Gardiner and John F Guyer http://www.vwml.org/record/GG/1/14/903

I stopped off in Glynde on my way home to sing in Glynde Church. The first song is The Week Before Easter, I learnt this from a recording of Harry Burgess who was from Glynde. Harry Burgess also sang The Foggy Dew, The Life Of A Man, and Pleasant and Delightful amongst others. http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S335047

Here are links to Harry’s speaking, and gorgeous singing, voice http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0069XX-0200V1 http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0198XX-1000V0 http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0198XX-1100V0 http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0198XX-1200V0

The Glynde History site has more on the Burgess family, as well as being a treasure chest of Glynde, and Sussex, social history http://glynde.info/history/property.php?pageno=13

Peggy Angus, with her landlord at Furlongs Farm, the Shepherd Dick Freeman (source unknown)

The second song is The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, learnt from a film made about the life of Peggy Angus. Peggy was by all accounts a woman with gumption, and whilst lots of people know her for her work as an artist, and her friendship with Eric Ravillious, there are aspects of her life that are less well know. She rented a cottage, part of the Furlongs row, in Glynde from the Freeman brothers, who were farmers at Furlongs (who in turn rented it from Glynde estate, thanks to Andrew Lusted for this piece information). She’d been living in Eastbourne and teaching, and she wanted a place of her own in the countryside. The Freemans said no at first, and so she camped outside for a few weeks until Dick gave in. Although born in abroad, and raised in North London, Peggy’s family were Scottish. She was famed to have held wild midsummer parties, where she served her guests homemade Elderflower champagne and sang folk songs around the fire. She was something of a radical too, earning her the nickname Red Angus from Ravillious’ wife’s father, I like to think of a hive of Socialist activity between Rodmell and Charleston. Here are a few links for Peggy Angus and Furlongs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjUg13yTSqQ    http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/06/peggy-angus-warrior-painter-designer-tiles-wallpaper. Here is a link to an article on William Freeman, a relative of Dick (Richard) Freeman http://glynde.info/history/extras/Freeman_golden_wedding_1945.php?1=1

Thank you to Paul Holden for playing me the following version on the guitar also, although I didn’t have time to learn it! It’s Mrs Moseley of Treyford again, with some quite unusual words! http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/160

St Mary’s Church, Glynde (Elizabeth Bennett, 2015)

My Great-Great Grandmother, Mary Martin Page, was adopted by a couple called Leonard and Susannah Page. Leonard and Susannah lived in Glynde, he was a shoemaker and she was a servant at Glynde Place, they were married in Glynde Church in 1836. Mary was raised there, and met her husband at Lewes Grammar School. Mary is said to have been Russian, and we are still researching her life to see if this the case.  In my Great Uncle Don’s memoirs, I thought I had read that Mary’s favourite hymn to sing around the house was Hark! Hark, What News The Angels Bring, so I decided to sing that to finish my journey. Sadly, I later read it was not Mary’s hymn (it was in fact Hark! Hark, My Soul! Angelic songs are Swelling). However, as luck would have it, it is a Sussex folk hymn (although thought to originate from the South Yorkshire carols tradition), collected from two of the singers on the walk no less, Mr Samuel Willett and Mr Thomas Bulbeck. I can’t remember having known that before, but a seed must have been planted at some point on my research.  http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=hark%20hark%20what%20news%20sussex&ts=1433098478941#

 (The gravestones of Leonard and Susannah Page, Glynde, and Raymond and Leah Bennett, Shoreham)

Glynde Church was such a beautiful place to sing, and finish my wayfaring, and it meant I could sit and think about my lovely Grandma and Grandpa, who loved May, Sussex, country lanes, and their family, and would have loved hearing about this walk (minus some of the more saucy songs, being Strict Baptists after all).

I”d like to finish with particular thanks to my Step-Father Tony, who was unwell for this week and couldn’t join me, but has been my companion (and bird spotter, botanist, geologist, and historian) for many other walks.

If you like these songs then please learn them, sing them, and keep them alive. Thank you for listening.

The Ones That Got Away:

Mervin Plunkett appears to have collected from a Mrs Jarrett of Rodmell in 1959 (The White Cockade, Sing Ivy) http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S165385

Geordie, As I Walked Over London Bridge Mr Deadman,  Rodmell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jan 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/6a/72 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S136087

Young Edwin (possible the same as The Servant Man and The Iron Door?), The Ship’s Carpenter, Mr Norman, Rodmell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jan 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S328788 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S328787

The Long Whip, Come All You Worthy Christians, Mr Back, Rodmell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S152719 http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/162

Pretty Betsy, collected at The Inn Rodmell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Jan 1906, could be same performer as Cold Blows The Wind? http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/157

The Baliff’s Daughter, Mr Walter, Southease, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 10 Jan 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/3/160

Come All You Young Ploughmen, Mr Baker, Southease, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 9 Jan 1906 http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S328782

Biography:

Copper, B (1973). Songs and Southern Breezes: Country Folk and Country Ways. London: William Heinemann Ltd.

MacFarlane, R (2012). The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot. London: Penguin

Frazier, C (2006). Cold Mountain. New York: Grove/Atlantic

Folksongs and Foot Paths: Part 4

Upper Beeding to Plumpton (14 miles), train to Rodmell  

(Peggy Bailey Collection)

‘After a time, though, Inman found that he had left the book and was simply forming the topography of home in his head. Cold Mountain, all its ridges and coves and watercourses. Pigeon River, Little East Fork, Sorrell Cove, Deep Gap, Fire Scald Ridge. He knew their names and said them to himself like the words of spells and incantations to ward off the things one fears most.’

…

‘Ada wondered about his hundreds of tunes. Where were they now and where might they go if he died?’ – Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

LISTEN HERE -> https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4/folk-songs-and-footpaths-part-4

N.B I have persisted in trying to track down another version of A-Maying (David Miles, Heyshott), as luck would have a particular search subject that I haven’t tried before bought up the tune and words, collected from none other than Samuel Willett. I sent them to the safe hands of the brilliant Valmai Goodyear for resuscitation.

Bonny Light Horseman, Mrs Cranstone, Billingshurst, 1907, George Butterworth  http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S317054

Bonny Light Horseman, Michael Blann, Colin Andrews, Upper Beeding http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S316785

A Word On Sussex and Sussex Songs, Samuel Willett to Lucy Broadwood http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/70

Hare Hunting (lyrics), Samuel Willett, Cuckfield/Fulking, 1890, Lucy Broadwood http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/78/3

Hare Hunting (music), Samuel Willett, Cuckfield/Fulking, 1890, Lucy Broadwood, http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/72/19

George Townsend, Life of A Man http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S242286

Mustrad preview track The Echoing Horn, George Townsend http://www.mustrad.org.uk/sampler.htm, http://www.mustrad.org.uk/mtrec/sound/16.mp3

Come Write Me Down, Various http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=come%20write%20me%20down&ts=1432896125249#record=133

Ploughman Lads https://mainlynorfolk.info/nic.jones/songs/ploughmanlads.html

Copper Family http://www.thecopperfamily.com/

The Willetts, Fulking http://fulking.net/the-old-bakehouse/

Samuel Willett 1851 Census  http://www.ukcensusonline.com/search/index.php?fn=Samuel&sn=Willett&phonetic_mode=1&event=1851&token=hQ3OpLiMhNFKyaHCWwvuATGKKkeKXtNE8Y2dU5G8gzE

Samuel Willett 1881 Census http://www.ukcensusonline.com/search/index.php?sn=Willett&fn=Samuel&kw=&phonetic_mode=1&event=1881&source_title=Sussex+1881+Census&year=0&range=0&token=A-TvPUkATWLvNrSdViwi2KFsijs168Sy_yULxO6M-4U&search=Search

Sussex Postcard by Albert Edward Willett http://www.sussexpostcards.info/publishers.php?PubID=313

George Townsend http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/townshen.htm

Colin Andrews, Shepherd On The Downs http://www.bonnygreen.co.uk/shepdown.htm

Brighton Vox Choir https://brightonvox.wordpress.com/brightonchoirbrighton-vox-community-choir/

Shoreham Memories http://www.shorehambysea.com/memories-of-shoreham-by-sea-a-1940s50s-childhood-in-connaught-avenue-and-west-street-.html

David E. Gregory http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/28107573/before-folk-song-society-lucy-broadwood-english-folk-song-1884-97

The Ones That Got Away:

Sovay, Painful Plough?, Mr Welfare, East Chiltington, George Butterworth, 1908 http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/7a/75 http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/7d/1

The Banks of The Green Willow, Mr Cornford, George Butterworth, 1908 http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/6b/27

You Seaman Bold That Plough The Ocean, Fair Maid Walking, H. Hunt, George Butterworth, 1908

http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/6a/70

Footpaths and Folk Songs: Part 3

Day 3 – Amberley to Upper Beeding, 14 Miles

Listen here -> https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4/folk-songs-and-footpaths-part-3

Sonnet V. To The South Downs – Charlotte Smith

AH! hills beloved!–where once, a happy child,
Your beechen shades, ‘your turf, your flowers among,’
I wove your blue-bells into garlands wild,
And woke your echoes with my artless song.
Ah! hills beloved!–your turf, your flowers remain;
But can they peace to this sad breast restore,
For one poor moment soothe the sense of pain,
And teach a breaking heart to throb no more?

…

May, 1915 – Charlotte Mew

Let us remember Spring will come again
To the scorched, blackened woods, where all the wounded trees
Wait, with their old wise patience for the heavenly rain,

Sure of the sky: sure of the sea to send its healing breeze,
Sure of the sun. And even as to these

Surely the Spring, when God shall please
Will come again like a divine surprise
To those who sit to-day with their great Dead, hands in their hands, eyes in their eyes,
At one with Love, at one with Grief: blind to the scattered things and changing skies.

References:

The Silvery Tide (tune), John Searle, Amberley, Lucy Broadwood, 1901, http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/29/5

The Silvery Tide (lyrics), John Searle, Amberley, Lucy Broadwood, 1901, http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/31

Silver Tide, Mrs Moseley, Treyford, Clive Carey, 1912 http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/159

The Old or Rich Merchant (lyrics), Walter Searle, Amberley, Lucy Broadwood, 1901, http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/32

The Old or Rich Merchant (tune), Walter Searle, Amberley, Lucy Broadwood, 1901, http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/29/8

Young Jockey (lyrics), Mrs Humphrey (given here as Mr Humphrey), Storrington (Sullington), Dorothy Marshall, 1912  http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/291

Young Johnny (tune), Thomas Bulbeck, Harting, G.B Gardiner/John F Guyer, 1909, http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S270976

The Merchant, Harvey Humphrey, Storrington (Sullington) Clive Carey/Dorothy Marshall, 1912 http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/284

The Seasons Of The Year, John Burberry, Lyne (Sussex), Lucy Broadwood, 1892, http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S160555

Vic Gammon http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/staff/profile/vic.gammon#tab_publications

South Downs Yarn http://www.southdownsyarn.co.uk/

http://www.greenman-linocuts.co.uk/chanctonbury.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/13/oxford-junior-dictionary-replacement-natural-words

Benjamin Hoare, father of John (I believe) http://pubshistory.com/SussexPubs/Pulborough/WhiteHorseBury.shtml http://www.familytreedesigns.co.uk/Angmering/Houghton%201891.htm

Bob Tailed Mare, Irish Girl, Shepherds Health, Jack Williams, Seventeen Come Sunday, Bonny Bunch of Roses, Preety Ploughboy, Gallant Poachers, Mr Hoare, Houghton, Lucy Broadwood, 1901

The Ones That Got Away:

Spanish Ladies, Mr Cooper, Washington, George Butterworth and Francis Jekyll, 1907

All Round My Hat, Edmund Knight, Washington, George Butterworth, 1907

Our Captain Calls, Seeds of Love, Mrs Golds, Washington, George Butterworth, 1907

Jack Of The Game, Mrs Golds, Washington, George Butterworth, 1907

Down In Our Village, Black Velvet Band, Just As The Tide Was Flowing, Mr Standing, Washington, George Butterworth and Francis Jekyll, 1907

Folk Songs and Footpaths: Part 2

Day 2 – Cocking to Amberley, 13 miles

Listen here -> https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4/folk-songs-and-footpaths-part-2

may I be gay – e.e. cummings

may I be gay

like every lark

who lifts his life

from all the dark who wings his why

beyond because
and sings an if

of day to yes

(listen) – e.e. cummings 

(listen)

this a dog barks and
how crazily houses
eyes people smiles
faces streets
steeples are eagerly

tumbl

ing through wonder
ful sunlight
– look –
selves,stir:writhe
o-p-e-n-i-n-g

are(leaves;flowers)dreams

,come quickly come
run run
with me now
jump shout(laugh
dance cry

sing)for it’s Spring

– irrevocably;
and in
earth sky trees
:every
where a miracle arrives

(yes)

you and I may not
hurry it with
a thousand poems
my darling
but nobody will stop it

With All the Policemen In The World

A – Maying (Heyshott)

Oh my daddy has gone to the market a mile and my mammy she’s minding the mill all the while.

In comes my dear Johnny and this he was saying, go with me my Betsy and we’ll go a-maying

Oh no dearest Johnny it’s a folly to ask for my mammy’s a spinning she’s set me a task,

Says he cut the tyre let the cows go a-staying, for the time will go sweetly while we go a-maying

My daddy he asked oh where had I been? My mammy she told him I’d the cows to fetch in.

My mammy she said somewhere I’d been a-playing, but she never had no thoughts that I’d been a-maying

If my Johnny proves true, which I hope that he will. Then we will get married and honour the mill.

My daddy and mammy we will leave them a-staying, for the time went so sweetly while we were a-maying.

David Miles / 12 Nov 1912 / Heyshott / Dorothy Marshall http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/319

 

The Bee Worsle, Duncton  http://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/9/76

The Apple Worsle, Duncton http://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/9/77

Link to Dorothy Marshall article –  Marshall (many thanks to EDFSS library)

Halnaker Mill, Stane Street  http://www.sussexias.co.uk/images/mills/scm308.gif

David Miles, Heyshott http://www.gravelroots.net/miles.html

Oakscroft, Heyshott http://www.gravelroots.net/history/41_2.html

May celebrations 1904, Heyshott  http://www.gravelroots.net/history/42.html#here

The Cobbler, Henry Burstow http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/14/2

The Spotted Cow, John Rowe http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/312

Green Bushes from the Edwin Spooner who we mentioned, collected from the workhouse in Midhurst, this is one song of many http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/6a/82

Barbara Allen tune, Mr Dearling, West Burton http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/7a/39

Barbara Allen lyrics, David Miles, Heyshott http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/314

FYI A version of BA collected from Terwick Sussex  http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/6

What’s the Life of a Man, Frank Dawtrey, Crowshole  http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/39

Green Bushes, Mr and Mrs Stemp, Trotton http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/86

Cruel Father and Affectionate Lovers, Mr Viney, Houghton http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/329

The Servant Man tune, Walter Searle, Amberley http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/29/1

The Servant Man lyrics, Walter Searle, Amberley http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/33

The Servant Man lyrics, John Searle, Amberley http://www.vwml.org/record/LEB/2/34/1

Interview with Bob Lewis by Vic Smith: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/b_lewis.htm

The Ones That Got Away:

As I was Going Up Cocking Hill, Jim Madgwill, Henry Hill, Clive Carey 1911

The Hounds Are All Out in The Morning, The Spanish Shore, Barley Mow, Will Of The Waggon Train, Frank Dawtrey, Clive Carey 1911

Come All You Worthy Christians, Green Broom, The Nutting GIrl, The Miller Of Staffordshire, Lord Thomas and Fair Elenor, Van Dieman’s Land, I Am A Brisk And Bonny Lass, Twanky Dillo, Old King Cole, Nothing Else To Do (all lyrics only), David Miles, Heyshott, Dorothy Marshall 1912

Old Reynard, Seven Long Miles, Sober Jenny, Little Mary, Pretty Sally, The Murderer (all lyrics only), John Rowe, Duncton, Clive Carey and Dorothy Marshall 1912

Highland Soldier, Ploughboy’s Glory, You Seaman Bold, Barbara Allen, Jolly Ploughboys (all music only), Mr Dearling, West Burton, George Butterworth 1907

The Cobbler and The Miser, The Irish Stranger, Farmer Waterloo, Amberley, John Searle, Lucy Broadwood 1901

Bonny Bunch Of Roses Oh!, Come My Own One, Amberley, Walter Searle, Lucy Broadwood 1901

Folk songs and Footpaths: Part 1

Day 1 South Harting to Cocking, 7 miles

Listen here -> https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4/folk-songs-and-footpaths

‘… And they must be the footsteps of our own ancestors who made the whole landscape by hand and left their handprints on everything and trod every foot of it, and its present shapes are their footprints, those ancestors whose names were on the stones in the churchyard and many whose names weren’t.                                                                                                                                          And the tales of them and of men living I would take with me and the songs in my mind as if everything I thought and felt had to be set in words and music – everything that was true in me” – From To Live Like A Man, by F C Ball (Given me to with kind permission by his relative Shirley Collins).

‘ … And that we shall go singing to the fashioning of a new world’ – The Envoi, Woodcraft Folk

The Full English The Full English was a major national digitisation and education project celebrating England’s cultural heritage through traditional folk songs, dances and customs. The project brought together the most important archival collections of folk material, held in numerous libraries and archives around the UK, and made them freely accessible through a single online digital archive. The material was drawn from Victorian and Edwardian folk collectors such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lucy Broadwood and Cecil Sharp, and includes manuscripts of notated songs, dances, and tunes, printed broadsides, lectures, notes and correspondence. These items were conserved, digitised, and catalogued before being uploaded to a central digital archive accessible through the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website. Alongside our exisiting digitised collections, catalogues and indexes, the site now provides the largest, most comprehensive, searchable, database of English folk songs, dances, tunes, and customs in the world, with over 80,000 digitised items from 19 seminal collections. It is rich in social, family and local history and provides a snapshot of England’s cultural heritage through voices rarely published and heard before.   Aims Promote the Study and Practice of the Folk Arts EFDSS’s mission statement includes “To promote, preserve and develop the folk arts”. Through providing this information in an easily accessible way, we hoped it would lead to an increase in the study and practice of the folk arts Folk is an unusual genre in that it is based in heritage. By providing access to this material, it instantly creates a wealth of material for singers, musicians, and dancers to add to their repertoires. We’ve been able to put the original MSS material online. As compared with published works which have been selected and edited, these collections are relatively unmediated. Therefore it provides an accurate look into what exactly “the folk” were doing. Access

1. Provide access to materials previously difficult to access.

Digital surrogates of original manuscript material hosted on the VWML website – has a world-wide reach (where internet provision exists). Library users no longer have to travel to London to access materials, but can do so from the comfort of their own homes or singarounds, at any time of day or night. To make access even easier, we have started a programme of transcriptions of the text and music from manuscript material, which allows for full-text searching.

2. Communities where this material originally came from have instant access to records of their own cultural heritage.

3. Provide the information in a useful and meaningful way

From experience of how library users had wanted to access material in the past, we used this information to dictate how we catalogued and indexed the materials. E.g., performer’s names, where the information was collected; whether manuscripts contain text, music, or both; Alternate titles, etc.

4. How the information is presented

Options to sort results by ref no., place, performer, collector, and relevance. Options to browse material visually by collection, or geographically through a map function. Preservation of original manuscripts If fewer people need physical access to the originals, then the strain on them is lessened. Conversely, it also means that awareness of the material is heightened and serious researches are still keen to view the original documents!

References:

Lady Maisry, Thomas Bulbeck http://www.vwml.org/record/GG/1/21/1379

Unquiet Grave, Helen Boniface http://www.vwml.org/record/GG/1/21/1390

A Farmer there lived in the North Country, Frank Hutt  http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/339

Mother, Mother Make my Bed, Mrs Ford http://www.vwml.org/record/AGG/8/48

Barbara Ellen, Mrs Moseley http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/161

How Cold The Wind, George Tilson http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/271

Unquiet Grave, Mrs Stemp http://www.vwml.org/record/CC/1/83

The One’s That Got Away:

Thomas Bulbeck, Harting: The Highway Man Outwitted, Bushes and Briars, When First Apprenticed, The Nobleman’s Wedding, Deep in Love, Cupid the Pretty Ploughboy, Come all you Worthy People, The Golden Vanity, The Mermaid, You Seaman Bold.

Mrs Moseley, Treyford: The Drunkard’s Child, The Sailor’s Grave, The Golden Glove, Sheffield Park, Will of the Waggon Train, Now tell me Mary how it is, A Fair Maid in the Garden, The Blind Beggar’s Daughter, The Turkish Lady.

Mr Carpenter, Elsted: The Sun is Just A-Peeping Over the Hills, Master’s Health, Come All you Worthy People That Dwell Within the Land, Both Sexes Give Ear to My Fancy, The Irish Recruit, Merry Boys Merry, The Smuggler’s Boy, The Miller’s Dog.

George Tilson: Pretty Susan the Pride of Kildare, Hunt the Squirrel, On the Banks of the Sweet Dundee, General Woolf, The Bonny Bunch of Roses, The Princess Royal.

https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/thewifeofusherswell.html (The Wife of Ushers Well, sung by Gerald Moore)

https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/songs/thebrisklad.html (The Sheep Stealer, sung by Diane Ruinet) http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S160890  

 

May Preview

Waysinging: Come Ye All

*‘A walk is only a step away from a story, and every path tells’

For the first week of May I’m off the walk the Sussex stretch of the South Downs Way, along the route I’ll be singing songs that are collected from, or associated with, the places I pass. I’m using my preview post to give details of the walk for any one interested in joining. The best way to let me know if you’re coming along is email elizabethjoybennett@gmail.com. How you would like to get involved is entirely up to you – you can come just to keep me company, get me to teach you bits of the songs, walk with me for an hour, meet me at the pub …

Each day will then be made into a podcast available on this site, and I hope very much that people will comment and discuss underneath the posts. I’ll almost certainly say something that people want to debate, they’ll be other versions of the songs people know, they’ll be other walks I could have attempted, they’ll be a chorus of voices; I’m only one. This is exactly as it should be. With that in mind here are a few of my research questions that will act as a backdrop to my journey:

• What are the archaeologies of intangible cultural heritage/living traditions? How might classification, UNESCO or other, benefit or hinder these practices?
• Is there a relationship between folksongs and footpaths? How might both be seen to travel, to be acts of ‘consensual making’*? If so, how might this relationship serve to demonstrate the importance of imagination and creativity to how we relate to, and with, our world outside of doors?

The Route:

I would imagine with stopping to sing I’ll be averaging about 2 miles an hour, below are key points of the walks.

South Harting to Cocking , 7.5 miles, 30^th April

1pm – The Warren Car Park, Harting

Forty Acre Lane, Two Beech Gate, Pen Hill, Buriton Farm, Devil’s Jump, Didling Hill, Cocking Down, Cocking Hill

5pm – The Bluebell Inn, Cocking

Cocking to Amberley, 12 miles, 1^st May

10am – The Bluebell Inn Cocking

Heyshott Down, Littleton Down, Scotcher’s Bottom, Stane Street, Bignor Hill, Westburton Hill, Bury hill, Houghton.

5pm – The Sportsman Inn Amberley

Amberley to Adur, 13 miles, 2^nd May

10am – The Sportsman Inn Amberley

Springhead Hill, Kithurst Hill, Sullington Hill, Washington, Chanctonbury Ring, Steyning Bowl, River Adur.

6pm – Upper Beedimg, tbc.

River Adur to Rodmell, 16 miles, 3^rd May

8am – Upper Beeding, tbc

Beeding Hill, Truleigh Hill, Fulking Hill, Devil’s Dyke, Saddlescombe, West Hill, Pyecombe, Keymer post, Ditchling Beacon. Plumpton, Black Cap, Mount Harry, Lewes

Train from Lewes to Southease

6pm – Abergavenny Arms, Rodmell, Brighton Vox Choir sing

Rodmell to Alfriston, 11 miles, 4^th May

*sunrise on Kingston Hill

11pm – Monks House Rodmell

Southease, Itford Hill, Beddingham Hill, Firle Beacon, Alciston, Bostal Hill

5pm – The George Alfriston

Alfriston to Eastbourne, 10 miles, 5^th May

10am – The George Alfriston

Littlington, Windover, Cuckmere River, Charleston Manor, West Dean, East Dean, Seven Sisters, Birling Gap, Beachy Head.

3pm Eastbourne Beach Promenade

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/south-downs-way

*MacFarlane, R (2012). The Old Ways. London: Penguin pp. 17 – 18

Quick call out for reading recommendations …

Hello fellow pub archs,

2015 continues to pace by, and my project has altered a little bit. I’m going to spend the first week of May walking the Sussex stretch of the Southdown’s Way, singing songs as I go. I’m going to do a podcast for each day with a bit about the route, the songs, the singers/collectors, the archaeological aspects of the area, and perhaps snippets from other writers and some oral history. In performance studies/cultural geography I’m on the post-phenomenological spectrum, I have my own theorists for that area, but I’m wondering who I should be using for interpretative/phenomenological archaeology? Any thoughts/advice/suggestions greatly welcomed.

Thanking you,

E.B

May 2015: Elizabeth Bennett, performance and landscape researcher

Inspiration

‘When Shirley Collins talks about folksong, it isn’t a conversation of historical information, musicological data sets, Roud or Child numbers. It is of the corner of a Sussex field … it is a mother strolling through that field’s corner and becoming, for a moment, every young woman who’d ever strolled past it. To Shirley Collins … each age-old song is that corner field – a magical locus in which the singer is no longer merely themselves, but becomes every man and woman who has ever sung that song’ (Justin Hopper, 2014)

The Singer

I sing regularly in a Sussex-based folk choir and I have heard folk songs sung all my life by my mother who has performed in folk clubs around Sussex for the past 40 years. Following in Shirley Collins footsteps, literally and figuratively, I intend to sing the folk songs of Sussex in sites of resonance. I will aim to publish one recording a day, with an introduction to the site, the history of the song, and then an unaccompanied performance in situ. As a researcher, I am particularly interested in notions of landscape that are haptic and auditive rather than visual, therefore I intend for the recording to be purely audio and to discuss how imagination might add to the process of landscaping for the audience.

The Songs

A multitude of folk songs are set in the month of May, and it is within this month that I will be posting my research. I hope that I will be able to explore why May has proven such a muse for singers of the British Isles, by discussions around the social and agricultural practices of this time of year and the processes of nature that have inspired them. Although in contemporary times we have been able to record folk songs, both in the written and the audio form, for this project I would like to interview Sussex folk singers and learn songs orally from them. This method both continues original traditions of practice and reflects how I have absorbed folk songs throughout my life.

Brighton Vox Choir – Firle, Sussex

The Setting

At the outset of the projects I had wanted to learn songs throughout the British Isles and sing them in sites of well-known archaeological merit. My decision to narrow the perspective is two-fold; my postdoctoral research argues that landscaping is a process and Sussex, being my home county, has been the site of my formative landscapes [or lifeworld as Pearson and Shanks term it: ‘the totality of a person’s direct involvement with the places and environments in everyday life’ (Pearson, Shanks 2005: p. 153)]; furthermore I believe that this will contribute to notions of the everyday and vernacular archaeologies explored throughout Public Archaeology 2015. Therefore, whilst I may record a song on the lofty heights of Chanctonbury Ring, I may also record a song walking through Lancing Recreational Ground on my way to the Co-op.

Questions?

1. Public engagement as it stands would be with those who are engaged in the project through twitter and the blog, and the singers that I approach to teach me the songs of Sussex. How might I engage the non-blogging public? Do I perhaps perform all 30 songs at the end of May at a local folk club? Or do I sing the songs live at the sites with people around and therefore have both a non-web and non-folk audience?
2. If archaeology is a subject concerned with artefacts, how might we begin to perceive the artefacts of folk performance practices? Am I the artefact? Or are their traces of songs imprinted on the land? Is this interpretative archaeology?
3. Is landscape the preserve of the seeing subject? How might folk song contribute to a multi-layered conception of landscape – or a deep map?
4. Beyond Mike Pearson and Mike Shanks’ collaboration Theatre/Archaeology (2005), are there texts or projects of interest that may help me to formulate my ideas around the relationship between performance and archaeology?

https://soundcloud.com/elizabeth-bennett-4

Hooper, J (2014). By The Mark On His Hand. Available at: http://www.justin-hopper.com/by-the-mark-on-his-hand/ [Accessed on 11/08/2014]. Electronic.

Pearson, M. Shanks, M (2005). Theatre/Archaeology. London: Routledge. Print.