Through the hesitant sunshine we headed to the picturesque and newly-thatched King’s Head, in another foray into the south of the county, this time to North Lopham. The spacious bar given over to us proved to be a perfect place, with its low ceiling and wooden floor. The bar filled up and we had a pleasant mix of familiar faces and new, our ranks being swelled by several singers and musicians from across the border. This gave great variety to the usual programme of local song, music and step dance. Highlights, as ever, were the dulcimer duets of Richard Blake and Tom Knight, and the varied instances of step dance, from four practitioners, all with their own unique styles. There was also a great selection of songs, including some wonderful harmony singing. Special mention must be made of Michael Czarnobaj, not only for coming all the way from Ely, as he does so regularly, but also for performing the broom dance, with a broom borrowed from the pub for the purpose. 

In all, it was an enjoyable occasion, with our usual traditional fare, and great to see some new faces amongst the stalwarts. It would be great to give the pub a return visit at some point in the future. In the meantime, the “Tune-Up” events continue monthly, with dates being finalised for 2027. Catch us at the Trust’s Traditional Music Day on 19th September, in the British Legion, with a tune workshop preceding it for those wishing to have a run through a selection of tunes of different types from our repertoire – see the programme for full details. Our next ‘stand-alone’ event follows that, at Dereham Cock on Sunday 18th October. As ever, we hope to see you then. 

Chris Holderness August 2026

In 1952, as part of his extensive collecting of traditional music and song in Britain and Ireland for the BBC, Peter Kennedy found himself in the north Norfolk area of Blakeney and Morston. Here he collected country dance tunes, primarily from Blakeney blacksmith Herbert Smith, information about the dances and a few songs. These, along with more material collected locally by Kennedy on another trip in 1955 and by Seamus Ennis in 1956, were eventually released, firstly on cassette, then later as a CD, as Norfolk Village Songs and Dances. (1) Prior to that, some of the material had been used in at least one of the As I Roved Out series of radio programmes, broadcast on Sunday mornings. (2)

Before we delve into the contents, it’s as well perhaps to consider the provenance of the release of this material. The story seems to be that, on leaving his employment with the BBC, Kennedy took all of the recordings he and others had made with him, claiming them as his own. He then released them in a large series of cassettes on his Folktracks – later Folktrax – label. They were subsequently reissued as CDs, with sparse information, aside from track listings, and a distinctly low-rent feel about them. Considerable controversy has raged about this situation and the products themselves and I don’t wish to go into that here. Suffice to say that these releases were at least a way of obtaining these wonderful – essential – recordings, until Peter Kennedy’s death, after which they became unavailable. Topic Records obtained the rights to the material and started a reissue programme (3), but only a fraction has been made available and that includes nothing from the disc in question. It unfortunately means that the material is very difficult to find. More about the presentation later, but at least the music was released for a while, even if in far from optimum form, from what was by any standards an incredibly productive initiative, producing a large body of priceless recordings of the musical heritage of the British Isles.

Anyway, to return to the content of the disc under review: this north Norfolk coastal area proved to be a fruitful one. In the neighbouring villages of Morston and Blakeney Kennedy found reference to the Long Dance and a tune to accompany it. Ann Mary Bullimore, then landlady of Morston Anchor, gives a delightful description of the dance, which took place in “our barn”, as she describes the annex or lean-to room on the side of the pub (easily visible in old photographs of the place) and also plays the tune for the dance on the pub piano, increasing speed as she does so (although this doesn’t seem to have happened when accompanying the dance). Peter Kennedy, by his own admission, decided that ‘long dance tune’, or something similar, wasn’t name enough for the tune, and decided to call it Rig-a-Jig-Jig, the title of a play-party song of the nineteenth century. (4) The song has no connection whatsoever with the tune – it was merely Kennedy’s whim – but it is as Rig-a-Jig-Jig that this Long Dance tune has gone into wider currency.

In neighbouring Blakeney, Kennedy also recorded the tune from fiddler Herbert Smith. (5) He plays it with the clear intonation and solid rhythm of a seasoned player for dances, being about 60 at the time the recording was made. Here we have a local tune for a local version of the ubiquitous Long Dance, from neighbouring villages, played by people for whom the dance, and others, was an integral part of their social events. The late Barry Callaghan was quoted as saying in 2007 that the tune is “a favourite jig widespread throughout East Anglia.” (6) This isn’t really the case. The recordings from Smith and Bullimore seem to be the only ones made; it doesn’t appear anywhere else in Norfolk, or elsewhere in East Anglia. In fact it seems to be a very rare example of a tune with very limited location, as far as a narrow ‘traditional’ rationale is concerned. It has of course become very widespread throughout the Folk Revival. What Barry Callaghan was probably referring to was that John and Katie Howson’s Old Hat Band played the tune, (7) which doubtless was responsible for it being picked up locally. More nationally, its eventual popularity was probably due in the main due to seminal revival band Oak recording it. (8)

Be that as it may, both Ann Mary Bullimore and Herbert Smith give very spirited performances of the tune. There is also quite a bit more from Herbert Smith, and to these ears this material is worth the price of admission alone. Aside from Rig-a-Jig-Jig (to stay with its new name), he gives us more jigs with Tommy Make Room For Your Uncle and Starry Night For a Ramble, the latter rather different from the EFDSS-published version, which seems to have gained wider currency. (9) Snippets of talk, not all included on the CD, have him mentioning such tunes being used for dancing locally. We also get the hornpipes The Four Hand Reel and Blakeney Hornpipe, the latter a version of The Lass on the Strand and the former quite remarkably different from more common versions of the tune. (10) We also have a version of the Heel and Toe Polka and another untitled one. Herbert Smith says, “Take your partners for a polka” before launching into an un-named three-part tune which then merges into the ubiquitous Oh Joe, the Boat is Going Over. This tune, divorced from the Oh Joe part, now has fairly wide currency locally and has been recorded by several prominent revival musicians. (11) We also have a Highland Schottische tune, which seems to be totally unrelated to any other tune of that, or similar, name, and a version of the Varsovienna, with his comments as to how the tune fits the dance. Clearly, Herbert Smith has had a considerable influence on local musicians and the wider ‘English Country Music’ revival, despite the limited nature of the availability of the recordings. His highly rhythmic, relatively unadorned style and clear tone would be ideally suited for the dances he played for locally. (12) What is also remarkable is the fact that his tunes – or versions of tunes – are unusual, both for the area and more generally. Herbert Smith was a sterling example of an English country fiddler. For that reason alone, and given that there aren’t really that many examples of such players, this recording is of paramount interest and importance.

There is more to the disc than Herbert Smith though. Thirty tracks in total, although one is a snippet of Smith demonstrating his tuning – and the fact that he tuned his fiddle a tone low, which does not seem to have been an unusual practice. (13) Of further dance tunes we have a very sprightly Yarmouth Hornpipe on mouth organ, played by Leslie Lawson, the same tune also given here by Percy Brown, with ‘Shrimp’ Davies step dancing. Percy Brown, a melodeon player who lived near Aylsham, (14) was of course another musician who has exerted great influence on the Revival, although probably not through these recordings. (15) His muscular and rhythmic playing was much in demand to accompany dancing, and particularly step dancing.(16) He also sings the light Kitty Gray and, to finish off the CD, gives us Sheringham Breakdown, in conjunction with fellow melodeon player Bob Thompson, to accompany an un-named step dancer. Bob Thompson does not seem to have any tracks released elsewhere and remains a less well-known figure, although the late step dancer Richard Davies of Cromer remembered him playing. Here he also gives us an alternative (and perhaps more usual) Heel and Toe Polka. A third melodeon player – showcasing what was undoubtedly the region’s most common instrument for pub music and to accompany step dancing – is Albert Hewitt, father of renowned step dancer Dick Hewitt, and certainly no slouch himself as dancer and musician. Here we have the Southrepps Hornpipe (17) and The Breakdown, as given – actually Sheringham Breakdown again. All three show their prowess as dance musicians, Thompson and Brown with similar styles on two-row instruments and Hewitt more austere with his one-row playing. Step dancing really needs to be seen, of course, to be experienced properly, but the two step dance tracks work very well, the CD ending on a spirited note as a step dancer comes in about half way through the track. It’s a shame we aren’t told who they are.

As well as the instrumental music, there are also ten songs, as well as a short track of Herbert Smith talking about singing contests locally. Phil Hamond of Morston, a blind ex-army major, gives us Still I Love Him, accompanied by his own melodeon, and the unaccompanied The Foggy Dew. His rich dialect-inflected singing somewhat belies his background and social status. (18) The Foggy Dew is common enough in East Anglia; Hammond’s tune is quite unusual for this well-known song. Neville Grout of Cromer sings the emigration song Castle Gardens, to melodeon accompaniment, although the notes don’t state whether it’s his own. (On aural evidence it doesn’t appear to be.) This proceeds at a leisurely lilt, a track slightly marred by a bit of pitch fluctuation. Blakeney’s Billy Dickerson gives us the locally-composed The Young Girls of Blakeney, a fanciful paean to the girls of the village. The remainder of the tracks seem to have been recorded in Southrepps and some were undoubtedly taken down by Seamus Ennis on his visit there in 1956. (19) Sid Load gives us the sly and once-popular Rap-a-Tap-Tap (Farmer’s Servant), one song broadcast in As I Roved Out in January 1955. (20) He certainly relishes the story in the song. Leslie Bane gives us a steady and clear The Dark-Eyed Sailor and Faithful Sailor Boy, both perennial East Anglian favourites; an excerpt of the former was also broadcast in January 1955, in the same programme. Another track given here which was broadcast as above was Leslie Lawson’s magnificently paced The Dolphin. Finally we have a couple of tracks certainly recorded by Seamus Ennis – he took many songs, although often just fragments, from brothers Harry and Ben Baxter in Southrepps Vernon Arms – the latter was the landlord. Here Harry Baxter gives us a soft-voiced Blow the Candle Out and then both brothers perform a rousing In Scarborough, a rare example of unison singing from the area.

So, Norfolk Village Songs and Dances gives us a wonderful selection of music recorded in the 1950s, a time when there were still a great many practitioners in evidence, even if elderly. It is of course just a tiny fraction of the material collected in the British Isles at the time. There are three volumes devoted to Harry Cox, for instance, to give a local example. This disc, running at a little under an hour, gives us a supreme collection of music from this tradition in north Norfolk. It is a crying shame that it has never had a ‘proper’ release with presentation and notes of which it is worthy. An example of the shoddy packaging is that the monochrome inlay contains a picture of a fiddler, but it isn’t even Herbert Smith. When asked about it, Peter Kennedy admitted that he was just looking for a suitable photo, didn’t have one of Smith or any of the other performers, and so used one of Lincolnshire fiddler James Fussey. (21) That requires no further comment as to the respect accorded the material. More importantly, the disc has been long unavailable and Topic Records seem to have stopped their reissue programme years ago. One can only surmise that there just isn’t sufficient interest in the material in this country to warrant the expense of packaging it properly and reissuing it in a form worthy of the material. In some places, box sets of discs of such material might be issued, with weighty booklets of information to accompany them – Yazoo Records’ 7 CD set of Kentucky Mountain Music springs to mind as an example of such specialist-interest material (22), but there are many others – but sadly there does not seem to be much interest in England’s traditional musical heritage, apart from the relatively small amount of aficionados, and so I strongly suspect that the material will remain unissued.
Be that as it may, this is a superlative recording. The Herbert Smith tracks are essential and all of it is wonderful stuff. In lieu of any alternative at present, find someone who has a copy of this gem and ask them to make you a copy!

Chris Holderness August 2026

Notes:
1. The album was first released as a cassette and then, in expanded form, as Ftx 328. No date given.
2. Broadcast on 02.01.55. A copy of most of it is in the Russell Wortley Collection in the British Library. See: Chris Holderness: MT221: Southrepps: Singing and step dancing in a north Norfolk village (27.01.09) mustard.mainlynorfolk.info for more details.
3. Six releases of Peter Kennedy material were released, some multiple CDs, under the editorship of Reg Hall, as an extension of Topic’s Voice of the People series. 4. Words are given at tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Rig-a-jig.
5. See: Chris Holderness: MT179: Herbert Smith: Fiddling Blacksmith of Blakeney (08.08.06) – as 2 above – for details of Herbert Smith’s life.
6. Mentioned in The Traditional Tune Archive, as 4 above.
7. A recording is on The Old Hat Concert Party OH1CD (1999 – CD reissue) 8. Oak: Welcome to Our Fair Topic 12TS212 (1971)
9. The Old Swan Band recorded Starry Night… as Starry Night For a Randy on No Reels Free Reed FRR 011 (1976), mishearing, according to Rod Stradling, Herbert Smith’s title.
10. The Old Swan Band also recorded Blakeney Hornpipe as Blakeney Breakdown on No Reels, as 9 above. Rod Stradling told me that the only way he could get the recordings
originally was by sneaking a tape recorder into Cecil Sharp House; Jim Eldon recorded The Four Hand Reel on The Brid Fiddler Stick SDCD003 (2004 – CD reissue). 11. Herbert Smith’s Polka was recorded by Webb’s Wonders on Bob Davenport: Down the Long Road Topic 12TS274 (1975); Tufty Swift: How to Make a Bakewell Tart Free Reed FRR 017 (1977).
12. For more details about Herbert Smith’s playing and that of other East Anglian fiddlers see: Chris Holderness: The Devil’s Box in the East – Traditional Fiddle Playing in Norfolk and Suffolk (08/24) www.eatmt.org.uk.
13. Another example is Herefordshire fiddler Stephen Baldwin: English Village Fiddler Leader LED 2068 (1976) and Here’s One You’ll Like, I Think MTCD334 (2005). 14. See: Chris Holderness: MT211: Percy Brown: Aylsham melodeon player (30.11.07) – as 2 above – for details of his life and music.
15. Some tracks of Percy Brown’s playing were included on English Country Music from East Anglia Topic 12TS229 (1973). This was very influential – reviewed in a previous newsletter.
16. See: MT211, as 14 above, and Chris Holderness: MT291: The dancing Davies: Step dancing fishermen of Cromer (11.02.14) – as 2 above – for more information about step dancing in the area.
17. The names of Yarmouth Hornpipe and Sheringham Breakdown seem very long-standing and widely-used in the area. It’s unclear whether Blakeney Hornpipe and Southrepps Hornpipe were equally so, or added by the collectors. Katie Howson plays a version of the latter on The Old Hat Concert Party – as 7 above – where she calls it Albert Hewitt’s Hornpipe.
18. See: Chris Holderness: MT198: Billy Lown and Philip Hamond: two north Norfolk singers (01.02.07) – as 2, above – for information about Phil Hamond.
19. Full details given in Chris Holderness: MT221, as 2 above. The article contains photographs of Seamus Ennis collecting in the pub; Ben and Harry Baxter can be heard more fully on As I Roved Out: Songs from Norfolk: Ben and Harry Baxter (Folktrax Ftx 234).
20. More details of the broadcast of 02.03.55 are given in Chris Holderness: MT221, as 2 and 19, above.
21. James Fussey’s playing can be heard on Folklife Feasts and Customs of Cambridge and the Fens (Folktrax Ftx 423).
22. Various: Kentucky Mountain Music (Classic Recordings of the 1920s and 1930s) Yazoo 2200 (2003).

Sunday 14 June 

It was late afternoon when we began to arrive at the village engaged, so it would seem, in on-going festivities. By happy coincidence our event tied in with the tail end of Shotesham Open Gardens weekend, something we had not known when booking the venue. The pub was packed – we had difficulty weaving through those in the bar as we made our presence known – and the garden was equally full. There was certainly a festive atmosphere in the air and the quintessentially British situation of people of all ages enjoying drinks and the sunshine at the local pub. 

A fully outside event for us this time. The band worked its way through a selection of tunes, of various types, as usual. Our repertoire of tunes taken from myriad recordings of local traditional musicians is being further augmented by those from two manuscript tune books from the county: George Watson of Swanton Abbott and William Clarke of Feltwell. We certainly will never run out of suitable material. In addition, Tom Knight produced a seemingly endless amount of tunes on the dulcimer, as they occurred to him, most stemming from the repertoire of his grandfather, Reg Reader. Endearingly, young two-year old Reggie helped his dad out on a couple of occasions – perhaps the first steps in his following in the footsteps of his great grandfather, as well as father? Several people sat in with us throughout the proceedings, creating a full sound, which seemed to be greatly appreciated by those in the garden. 

The gravel underfoot was potentially a problem for dancers, although not so bad for the step dancers, as it happened, once boards had been put down, and much took place. Game as ever, Barry Mobbs and Monica Rackham managed to waltz and polka on several occasions, retaining the grace despite the hazards underfoot. The dancing was a draw, as far as interest was concerned, and several local youngsters were inspired to try their hand (or feet?) at it. Given the acoustic situation, we decided to forgo songs for the occasion and to concentrate on a few hours of instrumental music. It has to be said that it fitted the occasion and surroundings perfectly. 

So a very enjoyable afternoon and a successful foray into south Norfolk. We have been asked back to the pub, if we wish, and maybe at some time in the future we’ll do another event there, perhaps inside where we can give the songs an airing too. 

Chris Holderness June 2026

Veteran VT135CD (2010) 

Essex is a county with a rich history of traditional song. It was, after all, the first place that Vaughan Williams noted down a song, Bushes and Briars from Charles Potiphar in December 1903, the first of 115 taken down by the composer in the county, mainly between December 1903 and October 1904. (1) It is surprising then, and somewhat saddening, that so little audio material has been made available of traditional song collected in the county, particularly given the riches available from Suffolk and Norfolk, to the north. Aside from the material under review, the only songs released seem to be four songs each by Kitty Harvey and Cliff Yeldham, recorded by Peter Kennedy in Thaxted in 1958 (2) and Sam Steele’s tracks of Reg Bacon of Radwinter, as well as, more extensively, Neil Lanham’s recordings of the same singer and others in the 1960s.(3) 

In 1998 the Veteran label released a cassette album of Harry Green (1874-1968) entitled Harry Green – Old Songs and Folk Songs from Essex (VT135). It contained seventeen tracks recorded by Fred Hamer in 1967 who, despite being blind, collected much material from different areas of the country in the 1960s. (4) Rod Stradling reviewed the release for Musical Traditions in March 1998, in which he wrote: “I am aware of very little Essex song or music on record, so this must be considered an important historical document. Furthermore, that a man of 93 years of age – after a life of hard physical toil in the open air – should be able to sing like this, is quite extraordinary…Not only is he a splendid performer, but there is some interesting material here as well. Harry Green is a man for unlikely couplings of tunes and texts…He is also a dab hand at dealing with odd-length lines…” (5) 

In 2010, Veteran reissued the material on CD, now as The Fox and the Hare – Harry Green and Other Traditional Singers from Essex (VT135CD), adding more tracks from other sources, as John Howson explained in the booklet notes: “There are, in all, just forty minutes of recordings of Harry, so on this CD we have been able to include four other fine Essex traditional singers: Ernest Austin (Great Bentley), ‘Sugar’ Bailey (Shellow Bowells), Stan Walters (Stanstead Mountfitchet) and Lorna Tarran (West Mersea).” (6) What we have here, then, is the complete recorded output of Harry Green, as well as a smattering of songs, of varying styles, from others across the county. 

Despite his advanced age, Harry Green was a marvellous singer. John Howson comments that “Harry Green was obviously a real old character, and you can almost see the sparkle in his eye when he recites The Pear Tree or the epilogue to Down in the Fields and Ladies Won’t You Marry.” (7) The seventeen tracks are presented here in three batches of five or six, interspersed with the other singers. The CD kicks off with a magnificent version of The Merchant’s Daughter and the Highwayman, of which Rod Stradling wrote: “here we find an unusually full text paired with a version of the Fagan the Cobbler tune. What is particularly intriguing is that the usual tune

turns up later on…carrying the verses of She was a Stranger in London. Both examples work very well in their new situations. He is also a dab hand at dealing with odd-length lines, and this example from The Merchant’s Daughter is particularly enjoyable.” (8) This tour-de-force is followed by the memory-testing recitation The Pear Tree, which gives a very good contrast of material. Space precludes a track-by-track appraisal, but suffice to say that thereafter Harry Green delivers a wide selection of material in a clear and assured way, without the breathlessness one might expect with a man of his age. Rural favourites such as When Jones’ Ale was New and Down in the Fields Where the Buttercups All Grow rub shoulders with staunchly old, traditional fare such as As I Walked Out One May Morning and Banks of the Sweet Primroses, the latter sadly only a fragment. There is the equally fragmentary Thaxted Bells and The Blackguard Gypsies, the rare (in Britain) The Fox and the Hare, in full, and such popular and stage favourites from the late nineteenth century as Two Sweethearts and Treat My Daughter Kindly. It’s also great to hear the words to the local favourite polka tune Oh Joe the Boat is Going Over and a sprightly Ladies Won’t You Marry to the tune of In and Out the Windows. Occasional spoken asides and epilogues show an infectious enthusiasm, evident throughout the forty minutes of Harry Green’s singing. 

Another twenty minutes or so is taken up with the other four singers, with two tracks from each. Ernest Austin gives us John Barleycorn and Hares on the Mountain / Knife in the Window. He has a somewhat light delivery – he sounds rather subdued after Harry Green, but I don’t mean that as a criticism – but an assured style nonetheless. These two tracks were included on the Topic LP Flash Company in 1974, an album which I reviewed in the previous newsletter. (9) Herbert ‘Sugar’ Bailey, from Shellow Bowells, near Chelmsford, had a cassette album of his songs released in 1989: Who’s Going to Hold My Horse? The two tracks here are taken from that release. The comic and pacy music-hall song The Photo of the Girl I Left Behind is contrasted with the well-known traditional Bunch of Thyme, given in an unhurried, deliberate manner, letting the – admittedly slender – story unfold. 

Stan Walters gives us a version of Died for Love, called here A Girl Who Led a Life so Straight. John Howson, in the notes, comments that “In England the song was sung by many Gypsy singers” and to my ears Stan Walters sounds rather similar in style, with his rather slow, stately delivery. By contrast we have When Irish Eggs are Frying, a parody of When Irish Eyes are Smiling, of course, here just a fragment really. The only female singer, Lorna Tarran, gives us The Herring Song, with its cumulative cast, a popular song in East Anglia, collected several times prior in Essex. Finally we have the unusual The Flash Girl, a combination of recitation and song fragments, of which John Howson comments: “Lorna Tarran learned this intriguing piece from her grandmother and there is a hand-written transcript of it in the Mersea Island Museum collection, at the top of which it states ‘by Grannie French 1885 to 1938’. The piece is a combination of texts from several sources, with the story set on Mersea Island. The opening four lines are very similar to those which start Never Been to Colchester, which is included in Charles Benham’s Essex Ballads (1897), while the chorus and song verses are based on the song The Knickerbocker Line, which usually tells the story of a lady of the night stealing a watch.” (10) Intriguing indeed!

The Fox and the Hare is, to the best of my knowledge, the only full length album of Essex traditional music and song (leaving aside its previous cassette incarnation) in existence. That is of course a great shame, in an area which has generally been very well represented indeed over the decades by recordings of such material – although it has to be said that the same situation applies to Cambridgeshire. I am here referring to the concept of ‘traditional’ in a narrow sense – that of performers or ‘bearers’ who learned and performed within their communities, as opposed to the ‘revival’ of enthusiasts who have come to the music by choice and interest, from outside a community-based music situation (which hardly exists anymore, anyway, at least in England). It is fortuitous that there are the printed texts available from which singers and enthusiasts can learn so much, and that recordings have been produced of such material over the years, by bands such as Potiphar’s Apprentices. (11) It is, however, a shame that there is such a paucity of sound recordings of ‘source’ singers, to continue to act as inspiration, as well as to enjoy in their own right. 

Judging by these seventeen tracks given here, Harry Green stands up there with the best of the East Anglian singers, those lauded for style, repertoire and authenticity. It is easy to fall into musing on the ‘what ifs’ – what if he had been recorded when much younger? What if he had been recorded more extensively? What if other members of his community had been available to sing, or even to comment? But ultimately this is pointless. We have what we have, and we should of course be grateful for that. He was a fine singer and this CD stands as a great testament to that. Harry was a pub singer. He didn’t sing much at home. His daughter Chrissie Andrews told John Howson in 1987: “Well he used to sing in the pubs. He used to have a sing-song with his old friends in the pubs…There used to be accordion players and somebody would get up and stepdance…When we went on coach outings and that sort of thing, he’d sing. Nobody else in our family used to sing. Father was the only one, but I can’t remember him singing in the house, not for any length of time. He might just sing the verse of a song or something like that. Not like he did when Fred Hamer came along and he’d sing a whole song.” (12) 

Thankfully Fred Hamer did record him singing – whole songs. This CD is essential for the collection of anyone interested in East Anglian traditional song. The obvious reason is that it’s the only one from Essex, but there’s much more to it than that – particularly the quality of Harry Green’s singing and his unusual repertoire. The other singers who augment the original release all acquit themselves very well – a brief aural snapshot of each one – and demonstrate that more material could have been released from this county. The sound quality of the disc is generally very clear – only the Lorna Tarran tracks have a bit of noise, but this doesn’t impair enjoyment. As is usual with Veteran releases, the CD package is well presented, with performer biographies, photographs and extensive track notes. At the time of writing the recording is available from Veteran as both CD and download, so there isn’t really any excuse, if you haven’t got it already. 

Chris Holderness July 2026

Notes: 

1. See ‘The Essex Researchers’ for information about what has been printed, with reference to the work of Sue Cubbin, David Occomore and Phil Heath-Coleman, at eatmt.org.uk/the-essex-researchers as part of the information on the site about Vaughan Williams collecting in East Anglia 

2. Released as The Foggy Dew: Suffolk and Essex Singers (Folktrax FTX 040) as a cassette and later CDR. It has long been unavailable. The Essex material comprised Kitty Harvey singing Sylvia, Mary Across the Wild Moor, The Young British Waterman and The Squire of Tamworth and Cliff Yeldham singing The Cobbler and the Butcher, Down in Cimred’s Garden, The Nobleman’s Lady, The Sailor Boy and The Tree in the Wood 

3. Veteran VT150CD Heel and Toe: Reg Bacon sings Banks of the Sweet Dundee, John Barleycorn, Nothing to Do With Me and The Barley Mow – this CD was reviewed in a previous newsletter; NLCD 5 / 6 Stour Valley: Reg Bacon sings The Banks of Sweet Dundee, She Promised to Meet Me at the Gate at Eight, The Dark-Eyed Sailor, The Spotted Cow, The Barley Mow and John Barleycorn. The CD set also includes Ernest Austin: The Nutting Girl and Hares on a Mountain, Tom Bush: His Day’s Work Was Done, John Carter: Harvest Home Largess Song, George Cowle: We’ll Call for the Grog and My Boy Billy, Bob Manning: Treat My Daughter Kindly, Riding on a Free Train and McCafferty, Beryl Cowan: The Barley Mow, Essex Hawkey Encore, The Fox and the Hare, The Herrings’ Heads, The Oyster Girl, Treat My Daughter Kindly and I Wonder When I Shall Be Married? David Francis: The Dunmow Flitch of Bacon and With My Navvy Boots On, Buster Brown: Why is Bacon So Tough?, My Meatless Day and The Photo of the Girl I Left Behind Me, Leonard Woodley: Old Ingatestone Hall and Charlie Cutmore: Joby Cutmore’s Hornpipe – as well as some performers from outside the county. This is probably the largest collection of Essex material outside the album under review 

4. Some of Fred Hamer’s field recordings have also been released on Garners Gay (EFDSS LP 1006) and The Leaves of Life (VWML 003 – cassette) 

5. Review of the cassette by Rod Stradling: Musical Traditions, 08/03/98 mustrad.mainlynorfolk.info 

6. Introduction section of CD booklet notes 

7. Harry Green biography section of booklet notes 

8. The Musical Traditions review, as 05, above 

9. Topic 12TS243 Flash Company – reviewed in July’s newsletter 

10. ‘The Flash Girl’ notes in CD booklet. The Knickerbocker Line was a New York streetcar route from the mid-nineteenth century until the early twentieth, before being replaced by the subway. The song had reached England by the early twentieth century and was noted by collectors several times. Sam Larner’s The Dogger Bank uses the same tune and mentions the line in the final chorus. 

11. See note 01, above, for more information

12. Quoted inthereview-note05, above-fromthecassette inlaynotes, not included in thoseoftheCD