Traditional music in England

Long description:

Selected recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

A broad range of field recordings of traditional music, including popular ballads, children's skipping songs, customs, music hall, soldiers' songs folk tales and interviews.

This package comprises the following collections:

Bob Davenport Archive
Bob and Jacqueline Patten Collection
Desmond and Shelagh Herring Collection
John Howson Collection
Keith Summers Collection
Nick and Mally Dow Collection
Reg Hall Archive
Roy Palmer Collection
Steve Gardham Collection
Terry Yarnell Collection

Bob Davenport Archive

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Original recordings made by Edward Tise for John Tchalenko's film The Boldon Lad: aspects of traditional music in working class Britain (1980), funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The collection also includes an interview with Bob Davenport recorded by John Tchalenko.

The recordings in this collection fall into two sections. The majority are the original location recordings made in Boldon, Newcastle, by Edward Tise for John Tchalenko’s film The Boldon Lad: aspects of traditional music in working class Britain which was released in 1980. The film features singers and musicians performing in local pubs, village halls, clubs and in their own homes, as well as discussion with them about their music-making. A copy of the film is held in the British Film Institute.

The second part of the collection comprises an interview with Bob Davenport recorded by John Tchalenko. Bob, born in 1932 in Tyneside, has been part of the north London folk music scene for over 50 years and is considered one of England’s traditional music legends.

Bob and Jacqueline Patten Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

A very large collection of field recordings of traditional songs, music, storytelling and customs made between 1969 to 2001 mainly in the south west of England, in Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. The collection features unique performances of West Gallery Music and Shape Note singing, English carols during house-visiting wassailing and children’s rhymes, songs and games.

The Archive is still growing and Bob and Jacqueline's work continues. For information on recordings made since 2003 and their current activities, please contact the World and Traditional Music curators who can put you in touch.

Carole Pegg Collection

Recordings in this collection are available for Higher and Further Education institutions only.

More than 800 recordings made between 1978 and 1984 in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Desmond and Shelagh Herring Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Field recordings of traditional songs, dances and customs from Suffolk recorded in the 1960s and ‘70s.

John Howson Collection

Recordings in this collection are available for Higher and Further Education institutions only.

Field recordings of traditional music and folklore recorded across the United Kingdom from 1972. While John Howson’s work centres around East Anglia, the collection also includes performances of songs from Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Sussex, Devon and Cornwall, among others, as well as from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.

John Howson is founder of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust. See http://www.eatmt.org.uk/ for more about the charity’s activities.

Keith Summers Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

The majority of the recordings in this collection, totalling over 1200, are of Suffolk performers recorded between 1971 and 1981. As such they comprise one of the most detailed collections of traditional and vernacular recordings devoted to this county. The collection also contains recordings from Sussex, Devon, Essex, Sheffield and of source singers in London folk clubs.

An obituary of Keith Summers by Paul March is available at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/ks_obit.htm

Nick and Mally Dow Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

A collection of songs, tunes, dances and customs recorded in the field from 1984 to 1990 primarily featuring traditional singers from Dorset and Lancashire, with a focus on travelling people.

Reg Hall Archive

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Over 400 hours of songs, instrumental music and customs from around the UK with a particular emphasis on dance music. Includes a collection of interviews with London Irish people talking about their involvement in the Irish traditional music scene in Camden Town in the 1950s.

Roy Palmer Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Approximately 140 hours of field recordings of soldiers’ songs and folk drama recorded for the most part by Roy Palmer in Birmingham, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, from the 1960s to the present day.

Roy Palmer has been involved from the 1960s in singing and seeking traditional songs. This collection of field recordings includes performances of songs and tunes as well as discussion and reminiscences about repertoire. Some of the recordings were given to Roy as he gathered information for his many published anthologies of traditional songs and street ballads reflecting different aspects of social, military, maritime, industrial, agricultural and recreational history. These publications can be found in the British Library’s Integrated Catalogue.

Steve Gardham Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Some 20 hours of field recordings of music recorded between 1967 and 1988 by Steve Gardham in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

This collection of unpublished field recordings was made by Steve Gardham over a period of 20 years from 1967 and concentrates mainly on singers from Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. The collection provides a uniquely comprehensive and detailed overview of the traditional and popular music tastes to be found in one urban industrialised centre and its satellite rural districts.

Steve took great pains to record all forms and genres of music that the singers could remember from their youth, even if they could only provide him with fragments. Included in this kaleidoscopic sampler of early twentieth century vernacular culture are: parlour ballads, children’s skipping songs, customs, music hall, hunting songs, dialect numbers, tales, minstrel ditties and shanties.

Steve's collecting work started with his family. His first recording was of his grandmother Annie Sykes singing Derby Lam at her home in Air St., Kingston upon Hull. From his family he then branched out to include their friends and associates and then the singers and musicians of the neighbouring towns and villages.

Transcriptions of a number of the recordings in this collection appeared in An East Riding Songster. A selection of folk-song from the East Riding which was published by Lincolnshire and Humberside Arts in 1982. British Library shelfmark: E.1885.l.(1.)

For more on Yorkshire’s folk song heritage go to The Yorkshire Garland Group, chaired by Steve Gardham, at http://www.yorkshirefolksong.net/

Terry Yarnell Collection

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Field recordings made in England and Ireland, circa 1970-1985. Includes a number of songs recorded by Irish singers living in London.

All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.