archaeology

Footpaths and Folk Songs: Part 3

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ambertobeedingelevation

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

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sdw7_route

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

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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.

  1. Communities where this material originally came from have instant access to records of their own cultural heritage.
  1. 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.

  1. 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

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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, 30th 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, 1st 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, 2nd 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, 3rd 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, 4th 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, 5th 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