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THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTRY LIFE SERIES includes old people recalling their lives on the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire. Mostly in the various Gloucestershire dialects , they are a fascinating insight into the way of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are full of humour and aspects of social history. The series is produced by Gef Lucena for Saydisc Records and the full details and purchasing details can be found on www.saydisc.com
In the early decades of this century, before the impact of television and the motor car, the village entertainer was an important member of the community. The more ancient traditions of country and morris dancing, mummers plays and folk song were fast fading from the popular imagination. The music hall-especially that aspect of it which told of things rural-was taken up by local singers as modern material geared to local tastes.
This recording deals with such entertainers and with others who remember a song or two-some nearer the folk roots than others. It also features memories of one ‘Laughing Tom’ who entertained the community not by his singing, but by his jocular approach to the long and arduous task of earning a living. Included too is a piece by that wonderful couple, William and Mary Crew serious in content and intent but infused with an ebullient wit and charm that characterises all their contributions and which cannot fail to uplift the spirits of all who listen.
The Cotswolds were once rich in folk song and yielded a good crop to the early collectors. These ancient songs would probably have been unknown to the personalities on this record who came from the very end of this oral tradition
l: NED WHEELER OF LOWER SWELL (recorded June 1961)
Ned Wheeler’s ‘Village Pump’ song was featured on our ‘Cotswold Characters’ recording and now this village entertainer introduces his ‘Granny’s Old Armchair’ with a number of typical rural jokes which crop up in various guises all over the West Country and, like the song, may have originated in the musichall.
2: JIM TURNER OF TETBURY (recorded c.1962)
Recorded when he was 80 he was once a member of the local Mummers. After singing ‘When I Took My Nance To Church’ he describes his role as ‘the gallant sailor’ in the Mummers play and then sings the song which he was called upon to end the play-’Johnny Ochre’, a nonsense song of unknown antiquity possibly with later additions.
3: HOWARD PRITCHETT OF BIBURY (age 70 when recorded in 1962)
One of the great characters-full of rich speech and humour. He has already described his part in the local minstrel troupe on our ‘Cotswold Characters’ and here sings ‘Farmer Giles’ and ‘To Be A Farmer’s Boy’, both of the ‘country song’ category rather than true folk songs. His vocal style is rich and forceful as are his humorous anecdotes from his days as a carrier.
4: ARTHUR SALLIS OF DUMBLETON (age 77 when recorded in c.1970)
‘The Bard of Dumbleton’ he calls himself and was obviously the life and soul of any festivity or entertainment. His vocal contribution is of the interesting and ancient genre of the cumulative song. ‘I fed him all under a tree’ he sings even though ‘he’ may be a hen, cow or even wife!
5: WILLIAM AND MARY CREW OF ELKSTONE (recorded c.1965)
Everything this couple did in life seemed imbued with humour and good-naturedness. Whether it was running their petrol-filling station-still with hand-cranked pumps-or describinq sprinqtime or nettle tea as here. Luckily the road scheme which was to see the demolition of their property came just after they both had died.
6: FRANK WHEATCROFT OF CHIPPING CAMPDEN (recorded 1963
With jobs ranging from charity milkman, through ploughing with horses and shepherding to being the village lamplighter, Frank Wheatcroft pleasantly sings the three verses of ‘While I Work I Whistle’, a song which sounds rather closer to folk roots. For those interested in details of social history, a charity milkman was paid by the parish to milk cows loaned by local farmers. He then distributed the milk to the poor of the parish.
7: CHARLES AND LAWRENCE LADBROKE OF CHIPPING CAMPDEN (recorded 1968)
This is a version of the well-known ‘When Jones’ Ale Was New’. It is much shorter than usual but an obvious song for boisterous chorus singing.
8: FRED ARCHER OF ASHTON UNDER HILL (recorded 1965) Fred Archer crops up on several of the recordings in this series, and here he remembers a local small-time farmer, pig killer and general help at busy times- ’Laughing Tom’- a man who was locally renowned for his constant good humour.
9: TOM STEWARD OF TIRLEY An entirely self-explanatory song to end this more light-hearted approach to the rigours of rural life before the tractor and the combine harvester.
GEF LUCENA Series Producer