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Stone Steps Hornpipe

Here’s a tune from the Welch family of Bosham in Sussex, via The Sussex Tune Book. I normally call it ‘Stoney Steps’, but on checking, I find that actually the Welch family had it as ‘Stone Steps’. It’s a tune which seems to have been played all over Britain in the late 18th / early 19th century – the EFDSS publication Hardcore English has no fewer than 8 versions, taken from printed and manuscript sources from Kent right up to Tyneside and Scotland, and various places in between.

I can clearly remember the first time I heard the tune. It must have been around 1982 or ’83, and multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Nigel Chippendale was the guest at Faversham Folk Club. He launched into the tune, but after 16 bars ground to a halt – he just couldn’t remember the B music. Well, we’d have thought no more of it, but in the interval he went out, found a phone box, rang Vic Gammon, got him to hum the tune down the line, and then proceeded to play the hornpipe in the second half. Chris Wood and I were mightily impressed by this, and by the tune itself. We learned it from The Sussex Tune Book, and ‘Stone Steps’ became part of the Polkabilly repertoire. It’s a tune I’ve rather neglected in recent years, but is definitely worth reviving.

Stone Steps Hornpipe

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

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Lovely Nancy

A tune from the John Clare MSS, learned from George Deacon’s John Clare and the Folk Tradition.

The Traditional Tune Archive tells us that ‘Lovely Nancy’ was

A hugely popular melody…  printed in numerous mid-18th century collections and tutors, such as Longman’s Compleat Instructions for the German Flute (1796), Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the French Horn (1755), and Calliope, or English Harmony (1746). “Lovely Nancy” even can be heard today on a musical clock made by Joseph Ellicott in Bucks County, Pa., around the 1770’s. It was employed by the British military in America as a signal for retreat (Purser, 1992) [Ed.: note that’ retreat’ meant the ceasing of the days activities in the evening at camp, not a withdraw from combat], and was similarly employed by American fifers in the Revolutionary War (Keller, 1992). It appears in many American musician’s copybooks of the period (and nearly all surviving fifers manuscripts from the War for Independence), such as those of Captain George Bush, Giles Gibbs (1760-1780), fluter Henry Beck, Abel Joslens, Thomas Nixon (1762-1842, Framingham, Ct.) and John Greenwood, as well as that of Henry Livingston, Jr.

Which reminds me that the tune was used – appropriately enough – as the theme music for Andy Hamilton’s American War of Independence sitcom on Radio 4, Revolting People.

Lovely Nancy

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Flowers of Edinburgh

I’m not sure when or where I learned this tune, but it was almost certainly, directly or indirectly, from the Old Swan Band.

I’ve always thought of it as a country dance tune, so was surprised to find that it’s in Lionel Bacon’s Handbook of Morris Dances as a Bledington dance. Actually, the details of the dance seem a little sketchy – maybe it’s like ‘Young Collins’, or possibly ‘Maid of the Mill’; perhaps it’s an Idbury dance; and maybe this is the right tune for the dance – Kenworthy Schofield said it was danced to the “usual country dance tune”, and this is the version of the tune which Sharp included in Set 1 of his Country Dance Tunes (1909).

Sharp collected two very similar versions of the tune in 1909 – from Henry Sturch of Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire on the 23rd August (this version), and then from William Preece of Dilwyn, Herefordshire, on 29th December.

Flowers of Edinburgh

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Over the hills to glory

A country dance tune – and one of my favourites – from the great Bill Kimber of Headington Quarry.

I included Kimber’s playing of this tune in my English Tunebook post 3 years ago.

As I wrote at the time, I first came across this tune as an Irish fling, under the title ‘Love will you marry me’, on the De Danann LP Selected, Jigs, Reels and Songs. On that record Johnny Moynihan sings a couple of verses to the tune – here it is in a 1976 recording. A couple years later Nic Jones recorded it as ‘Some Say the Devil’s Dead’ – noting that his version was inspired by Johnny Moynihan’s performance on the De Danann record.

The tune apparently started life in Scotland, as ‘The Lass o’ Gowrie‘, but a good tune gets around. Phil Tanner from the Gower Peninsula in South Wales had it as ‘Over The Hills To Gowerie’. While in Oxfordshire the tune’s title was altered once more, and became associated with the struggles of a group of female agricultural workers.

This is from the Tradtune Archive

“Over the hills to glory” is a phrase associated with an incident in southern England. In 1873 sixteen women from Ascott-under-Wychwood were imprisoned for a short time for their part in forming an agricultural workers union, in helping to prevent “scabs” from replacing their men on the farm. Known as the ‘Ascott Martyrs’ the women garnered much public sympathy and quite a bit of press, before hastily being pardoned by Queen Victoria. A placard on the village green reads: “This seat was erected to celebrate the centenary of the Ascott Martyrs, the 16 women who were sent to prison in 1873 for the part they played in the founding of the Agricultural Workers Union when they were sent ‘over the hills to glory’.”

You can read more about the Ascott Martyrs at www.ascottmartyrs.co.uk.

Photo of the

“Ascott Martyrs quilt, 1873”. Double-sided quilt made by Martha Smith, one of the “Ascott Martyrs”, and now held by the People’s History Museum.

 

Over the hills to glory

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Valentine

One of the very finest morris tunes. I always think of this as a Fieldtown dance, because Oyster Women used to dance it in the Fieldtown style, although actually it comes from another Oxfordshire tradition, Ascott-Under-Wychwood. As danced at Ascott, there are no slows, but the slows – as introduced into the Fieldtown dance- really bring out the grandeur of the tune.

I asked my friends Chris Wood and Chris Taylor to play this at the end of my Mum’s funeral, 9 years ago – and a very fine job they made of it although, understandably, my mind wasn’t entirely focused on the quality of the music.

Valentine

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Andy dancing in a sling and pith helmet, with Oyster Women's Morris, 1986

Playing the fool with Oyster Women, 1986. The sling was the result of a sticking injury earlier in the day. I’ve no idea who provided the pith helmet.

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Ladies of Pleasure

I posted a couple of Bledington morris tunes recently. Here’s another one – a jig this time. I learned it from Son of Morris On, where the arrangement is based around Martin Carthy’s guitar-playing. Back in the 1980s Bernard Brown, always one of Oyster Morris’ most athletic dancers, used to dance this jig, although unfortunately I don’t think I ever had the pleasure of playing it for him to dance to.

George Butterworth collected the tune in 1912 from fiddle-player Charles Benfield.

The GlosTrad website tells us that

Charles Benfield was the main informant for the Bledington tunes, most of which were noted by Cecil Sharp at Benfield’s house at Bould (Oxon), a hamlet about a mile from Bledington (Glos). William and Nancy was also collected by George Butterworth, who is our only source for Trunkles and Ladies of Pleasure.
CJ Sharp wrote, 2 September 1909
“Ch. Benfield was fiddler to the Bledington Morris till it lapsed about 15-20 years ago. He afterwards taught some younger men but could not induce them to continue. He is an agricultural labourer and a keen morris dancer. His fiddle was bridge-less and bow-less so he half hummed and half whistled this & following 2 tunes.”

Here’s the tune from Butterworth’s MSS

Ladies of Pleasure, as played by Charles Benfield, from George Butterworth's MSS.

Ladies of Pleasure, as played by Charles Benfield, from George Butterworth’s MSS.

 

Ladies of Pleasure

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Laudanum Bunches

On Boxing Day 1899 Cecil Sharp saw Headington Quarry Morris dancing outside Sandfield Cottage, Headington. This was his first exposure to the morris, and while it didn’t immediately kick-start the 20th century morris revival (it was several years before Sharp’s morris collecting began in earnest) it was clearly an important moment, both for Sharp, and for William Kimber, who was playing concertina for the side that day. Sharp noted down some of Kimber’s tunes and said, as they parted “we may meet again”. Well, they did indeed meet again, and Bill Kimber became very important for Sharp, helping him to understand the dances, and providing morris dance demonstrations at Sharp’s lectures.

It would be stretching things to say that the morris revival would never have happened were  it not for Cecil Sharp. But his role was key, and the 1899 meeting was key. Yet it so easily might not have happened. Sharp might not have been spending that Christmas with his mother-in-law Mrs Birch in Headington. And, more fundamentally, the Quarry side might not have been dancing that day – they didn’t normally go out at Christmas, but it was a very hard winter so the men, mostly employed in the building trade and out of work because of the harsh conditions, decided to break with tradition in the hopes of earning a little extra income.

You can hear Kimber’s own account of the meeting, and why they were dancing at Sandfield Cottage that Christmas, on the Merryville website.

The Folklorist, Cecil Sharp, Meeting William Kimber in 1899. Painting by Anthony Morris.

The Folklorist, Cecil Sharp, Meeting William Kimber in 1899. Painting by Anthony Morris. From ArtUK, courtesy of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

In fact, regardless of the weather, the Quarry men might not have been out dancing in 1899 had it not been for Oxford antiquarian Percy Manning. The side had ceased dancing some years previously, but had been encouraged to reform by Manning; in particular, he organised a concert on 13th March 1899 (so just over 125 years ago) in the Corn Exchange, where Headington Quarry performed a selection of their morris dances, interspersed with songs and tunes sourced mostly from Chappell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time and Lucy Broadwood’s English County Songs. These – “a quaint and pleasing collection of old English ballads” – were performed by “Mr. Woodward, of Magdalen choir, Mr. Sunman, of the Cathedral choir, and Miss Taphouse”; Mr C. Taphouse of Oxford music shop fame, provided the pianoforte accompaniments (incidentally, looking at this web page on the Taphouse family, I think that the Miss Taphouse in question was probably Alice, born 1868, while the pianist was her slightly older brother Charles).

Jackson’s Oxford Journal printed a positive report of the event the following Saturday, 17th March – and helpfully provided the complete programme.

Report of the Corn Exchange concert from Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 17th March 1899.

Report of the Corn Exchange concert from Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 17th March 1899.

William Kimber with concertina, outside the Royal Albert Hall.

William Kimber with concertina, outside the Royal Albert Hall.

It was a real honour to play Bill Kimber’s concertina. I can confirm that

  • it’s still in good nick
  • it’s a lovely responsive instrument
  • it’s really loud!

Having mentioning this on Facebook, Mike Heaney got the film-maker’s permission to upload a clip of me playing the concertina to YouTube, and here it is:

Many thanks to Julie Kimber-Nicholson for allowing me to play her grandfather’s box, and to John Richards for permission to share this video clip.

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William and Nancy / Gallant Hussar

Two morris tunes from Bledington. I’ve known these (to hum at least) since the 1970s: ‘William and Nancy’ was on John Kirkpatrick’s excellent LP Plain Capers, and ‘Gallant Hussar’ was on Son of Morris On, both of which were released in 1976. I’m pretty sure that Son of…was the first record of morris tunes that I heard, and it had a really big impact – not least because many of the tracks feature anglo-concertina, played variously by John Rodd, John Tams and the wonderful John Watcham. Although if you want to hear lots of really good anglo playing close-up, without the distraction of electric guitar, bass and drums, you absolutely need to check out Plain Capers.

Before recording these tunes, I went back to the Black Book to check how they’re supposed to go. So the number of A’s and B’s is probably correct, but they’re played much too fast for the serious dancer.

William and Nancy

 

Gallant Hussar

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Manfrend

About a year ago I spent an enjoyable afternoon with a friend playing through tunes culled from George Deacon’s John Clare and the Folk Tradition. One of which was a tune which appears three times in his MSS in slightly different forms, and with different names: ‘Ita: Minefreda’, ‘Italian Momfreda’, and ‘Mont Vida’. I forget which of these we played. Whichever it was, we thought it was a great tune, apart from the fact that certain notes (possibly written down incorrectly by Clare) just didn’t seem to flow naturally. Subsequently, we both looked at various other versions online – and I also found this really nice performance by a Northumbrian-Scottish-Italian trio. I hadn’t exactly forgotten about the tune, but hadn’t ever got round to deciding exactly how I wanted to play it. And then, leafing through The Sussex Tune Book, I came across ‘Manfrend’ and immediately knew that this was how I wanted to play it! Proof, if any were needed, that it’s always worth revisiting sources that you’ve been using for years, because there’s always likely to be something that you’ve missed on previous occasions (now, where did I put my copy of the ‘Fiddler’s Tune-Book’?).

This version comes from the MS of the Welch family, of Bosham in West Sussex. I suspect the tune’s title (like Clare’s ‘Mont Vida’) is just a mishearing and/or mis-spelling of ‘Monferrina’. The Traditional Tune Archive provides numerous 19th century versions of the tune, and tells us – quoting Frank Kidson – that the Monferrina is

a kind of country dance, originating in the Piedmont. The tunes used in Italy and Malta became fashionable in England in the early years of the 19th century, and were employed for country dances. In this country the name stood as ‘Monfrina, Monfreda or Manfredina’.

Manfrend

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Bobbing Joan / Kempshott Hunt

I first encountered Mat Green in about 1980, at one of the famous Wednesday night English music sessions at the Queen’s Head (or was it the White Hart?) in Eynsham. And then at a Sidmouth festival in the early 80s I saw him playing for a Drill Hall ceilidh with the Woodpecker Band. I was immediately taken by his strongly rhythmic playing and, of course, by the way he held the fiddle in the crook of his arm. When I moved back to Oxford in the late 1980s I met Mat most often in his role of musician for Rogue Morris. Then in the Autumn of 1992, at the first assembly of the singers and musicians that would go on to become Magpie Lane, it was agreed that – although Chris Leslie would be making a guest appearance on the Oxford Ramble CD – the band needed a regular fiddle-player; and in my mind there could be only one candidate to play on an album of Oxfordshire songs and tunes. As I recall I saw Mat the following weekend at a Haddenham Ceilidh, he accepted the invitation to join, and that was that. 30 years on, Ian Giles, Mat Green and myself are still playing with Magpie Lane – and long may that continue.

For much of that time – since about 2000 or 2001 I think – Mat and I have also performed together as a duo. Initially this came about as part of a cunning plan to get free tickets for Sidmouth, as neither of us was booked in any other capacity. That nice Mr Bearman went along with the plan, and we led a few sessions and did short spots at venues like the Arts Centre. Dan Quinn saw us there, and got us a booking at the Lewes folk club; then Martin Nail got us a gig at the Islington folk club; and things grew slowly from there. We’ve never done any advertising or promotion, but over the years we have made repeated visits to the Islington, Cellar Upstairs and Musical Traditions clubs in London, both Thursday and Saturday night clubs in Lewes, the Black Diamond club in Birmingham, and Tiger Folk in Nottinghamshire. We’ve played elsewhere too, of course, but those are the clubs that kept inviting us back, and didn’t seem to mind – indeed positively welcomed – the fact that, for the most part, we just stand up and play very straightforward arrangements of English dance music, in much the same way as if we were playing those tunes for people to dance to. Initially, especially when playing tunes that have also been in the Magpie Lane repertoire, I really missed the extra oomph that you get from guitar, cello and percussion. But very soon I realised that Mat and I generated quite a lot of oomph ourselves; and that with just the two of us, it’s much easier to hear and respond to what the other person is doing. And I have to say that hearing what Mat’s playing is always a real joy – indeed a privilege. So I’ve really come to enjoy our gigs as a duo.

Mat Green and Andy Turner publicity photo

Mat and Andy, Magpie Lane, March 2009. Photo by Rob Midgley.

We’d never considered doing any kind of recording, assuming that it probably wasn’t an economical proposition. But in the summer it emerged that we’d both been thinking that it would be nice to get our repertoire recorded for posterity. So we contacted Doug Bailey at Wild Goose Studios, who was immediately interested in the project, and thus early in November we found ourselves spending three fairly relaxed days at Doug’s studio recording the album. Much to our surprise, physical copies tuned up just before Christmas, and the record is now officially released. Indeed, tonight we’re doing a CD launch, with a gig at the monthly folk night at The Swan in Eynsham.

The album is called Time for a Stottycake (WGS444CD). It runs to 63 minutes, with half a dozen songs and 10 instrumental tracks. You’ll find the tracklist on our website – from where, of course, you can buy a copy of the CD. You can also buy a physical copy of the CD from Bandcamp, but if you’ve given up on physical artefacts and prefer your music as a download, you’ll have to go to one of those big tax-avoiding platforms like Amazon or Apple Music – or you could try 7Digital which I’m led to believe has a more ethical approach.

Mat Green and Andy Turner 'Time for a Stottycake' CD cover

Anyway, here’s a couple of tunes from the album. We recorded these straight after breakfast on our second day of recording. I think we were keen to demonstrate that it might only be 9.30 a.m. but we were full of energy. Having done one take we decided to try it again, to see if we could get it a bit tighter, but we simply wouldn’t recapture the spirit of this version. So here you are – take one, warts and all.

Bobbing Joan / Kempshott Hunt

Mat Green – fiddle
Andy Turner – C/G anglo-concertina

 

These two tunes both come from the John Clare MSS, via George Deacon’s invaluable John Clare and the Folk Tradition (sadly now out of print again, having been updated and reissued in 2002). Clare wrote ‘Bobbing Joe’ out in 3/4, but it didn’t take me long to spot that it’s definitely not a waltz – I suppose it’s in 3/2, but the dotted rhythm at the start of the tune isn’t what you’d normally expect in a 3/2 hornpipe. It’s also completely unrelated to any of these ‘Bobbing Joe’ versions. Actually, I’ve just realised that in fact this tune is called ‘Bobbing Joan’ not ‘Bobbing Joe’ (bugger!) and I think it must be a variant of this one: ‘Bob and Joan’ from William Tildesley of Swinton, Lancashire. There are transcriptions of that at abcnotation.com in both 3/4 and 3/2, although I see that Taz Tarry has noted that the time signature is given as 2/2 in the manuscript. Clearly, a tricky blighter, this tune!

Kempshot is in Hampshire, near Basingstoke. The Prince Regent took Kempshot House as a hunting lodge in 1788, and this tune seems to have first appeared in print in the 1790s – it was in Preston’s Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1793 and in notable Scottish collections such as Gow (1792) and Aird (1796) – the tune itself certainly has a Scottish feel to it, regardless of its origins.

You’ll find more information about the Kempshot Hunt, and other versions of the tune, on the Traditional Tune Archive and on the Magpie Lane Sleevenotes website.