Category Archives: Newsletter

Autumn 2024 Newsletter

Newsletter

Bringing you reports on what has been and news of what’s to come!

But First…Staffing News

We are delighted to announce that Jannine Parry will be joining the Trust as part time Operations Manager from early December. Jannine joins us at an exciting time as we start to think about celebrations for EATMT at 25 years and as we start to actively grow our Board of Trustees.

Hello EATMT, I would like to introduce myself to you all and express my excitement in my new role. I am a prolific Morris Dancer, perpetual vegetable grower, lover of nature and folk music. I am looking forward to meeting you all at an event soon and I am excited to be able to help guide and grow the trust into its next era. 

Reports on Summer 2024 Events

Stepdance Day in Essex, July 2024
Mo Allum with Doreen West
FolkEast, August 2024
Dave Tonge, Storyteller at Traditional Music Day, September 2024

Traditional Music Day 2024 – Playlists (EATMT YouTube Channel)

We have had a run of fantastic events this summer – we hope you managed to get to at least one of them! There are reports now online for Stepdance Day, our time at FolkEast and the recent Traditional Music Day. They join the list of reports found on our PAST Events 2024 page. As ever, EATMT is grateful for all of the help from its volunteers who have enabled each event to take place and run so efficiently.

Our next event

Our next event is the first of two planned Sunday Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance events. Following on from our popular events last year in Walsham le Willows, we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded funding from the Norfolk Community Foundation and its Sheila Ann Day fund. Sunday 17th November at Garboldisham Village Hall is the first of these Norfolk based events, with another planned in March 2025. Huge thanks to Jan Robinson for agreeing to co-ordinate this event once again and to Shirley Harry for agreeing to MC the afternoon. It’s a free event but we hope you’ll make a donation on entry, buy a raffle ticket and partake in a spot of afternoon tea and cake. Come along and watch/listen or come along and take part. If you want to guarantee a performance spot, email us: info@eatmt.org.uk.

2025 Events:

Sunday 23rd March – Garboldisham Sunday Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance;
Saturday 27th September – Traditional Music Day

MORE EVENTS TO FOLLOW

New Articles

We are delighted to be able to add 3 new articles to the website which we hope you enjoy reading. They are

Dancing Davies’ Boots and the Repair Shop by Fiona Davies

It’s a Small World – with contributions from Carol Kirkup and Pat Wells

The Devil’s Box in the East – Chris Holderness‘ recent article on Traditional Fiddle Playing in Norfolk and Suffolk

Blyth Voices – 2nd Edition – out soon!

Blyth Voices, which was originally published in 2003, and republished in 2008, has been our best-selling book, treasured by both singers and people with an interest in our local traditions, and referred to by researchers and writers worldwide.

The book brings together the songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth in Southwold in 1910, mainly from within the fishing community, and particularly from three brothers, William, Robert and Ben Hurr.

It was originally produced as part of the EATMT Blyth Valley Voices project, but over the last twenty one years, author Katie Howson has continued to research this topic and has discovered many new sources casting a fresh light on the matter – and a “new” song  – and even another singing brother!

Thanks to the hugely successful Vaughan Williams Folk project which was run June 2022 to December 2023, we have been able to work on a new edition incorporating Katie’s later research.

This new revised edition

  • includes the extra song
  • reconsiders the role played by George Butterworth, Vaughan Williams’ colleague and companion on this trip
  • delves into how the song collectors came to know about the Southwold singers
  • contains updated information, biographies and references

Katie has been assisted in checking over the finer details of text and scores for this new edition by our indefatigable proofreader Judy Smith, whilst the ever helpful Alan Helsdon has worked on interpreting Vaughan Williams’ famously illegible score and handwriting on the previously unpublished song.

We hope to have the new book available for sale leading up to Christmas. Watch this space!

You may also like to know that Katie is giving an online talk on some different aspects of this subject for the EFDSS Library Lectures series on 11th March 2025. This talk (‘Up from Sea, Up from Town’) will – although focussed on traditional singing – also consider the relationship between the local fishing community and the wider circle of middle class artists, musicians and writers who enjoyed visiting the town in the early 20th century. For more details visit: English Folk Dance and Song Society – Library Lectures 2025

Handmade Music

Don’t miss out on this book, that was published in August. Described by Steve Roud, Author of Folk Song in England as “an excellent book that puts the singers and musicians at centre stage”. Megan Wisdom hails from Suffolk and has worked closely with Katie Howson on late husband John’s Suffolk collection.

Instruments for Sale

Over the summer we have added a couple more items to our sales listings. Head over to the Instruments for Sale Page for more details.

Thanks

As ever, we are not able to achieve any of this work without the support of volunteers and various organisations – local and national. We are also indebted to our ‘Friends’ who support us through the Trust’s membership scheme. Thank you everyone who has taken time to contribute to another successful year. A particular thanks from Alex Bartholomew who is moving on to new pastures after 23 years of working for the Trust. Thank you for your support, guidance and friendship!

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Traditional Music Day Newsletter 2

Newsletter

Nearly 48 hours until Traditional Music Day! 

Daytime events are FREE and we have a limited number of tickets on sale now for The Royal British Legion only.  

Head over to our website for our TMD NEWS. This page includes details on a free parking opportunity on the outskirts of the town and also an opportunity to download a programme of the day and timetables.  These will also be available on the day in print for which we will be asking for a donation.    There’s also a chance to listen to this week’s Classic Folk online radio show which features a number of our Artists and is a wonderful promotion for the day.  Link on the news page.   

We have a wonderful crew of Stewards who will be in venues and wandering around the town with Sum up card readers and donation buckets for cash and even QR codes.  If you like what your seeing, hearing and playing, PLEASE dig deep and make a donation.  You’ll receive a Jig Doll sticker in return!

TRADITIONAL MUSIC DAY LANDING PAGE

ARTISTS

DAYTIME EVENTS

EVENING EVENTS & EVENING TICKETS

VENUES

See you on Saturday!

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Summer 2024 Newsletter

Newsletter

Tickets on sale Wednesday 3rd July

Multiplying Jig Dolls

Here at Trust HQ, we’ve been very busy – so busy that Spring came and went without the production of the Spring Newsletter.

In our Winter newsletter we shared our new Jig Doll Logo created by artist and musician Karen Cater for Traditional Music Day. Since then, the Stowmarket and Meadlands Mens’ Shed have turned them into bigger figures and over the summer, once painted, the smaller ones will appear in shops along the main High Street in Stowmarket and the large ones outside venues on Traditional Music Day.

We have a small but incredibly committed team of volunteers to help bring Traditional Music Day to the streets and into the venues of Stowmarket, Suffolk for Saturday 21st September. We are just starting to update our webpages and our biggest news is that the daytime events are free thanks to local council funding. We have tickets for sale for our two evening concerts and these are on sale from Wednesday 3rd July via the John Peel Centre. Visit our TRADITIONAL MUSIC DAY landing page to find out the latest about this exciting day. It will be updated regularly over the coming months.

Stepdance Day

But first, we are delighted to be stepping back into Essex to host Stepdance Day in a really popular musical pub – The Compasses at Littley Green, near Chelmsford where Steve and his team are eagerly waiting to greet you on Sunday 21st July from 12 noon.

This pub hosts a regular Monthly music session (thanks to Myles Barrett) and is the pub that Steve Monk used to host a session at, prior to his untimely death in 2001. Stepdance Day – and particularly the Steve Monk Memorial Competition – has been in existence for over 20 years – being created in Essex by the Delarre Family and since 2004, EATMT have run the event. We have endeavoured to move the event across the counties in recent years and our arrival into Essex has been long awaited.

We are expecting an array of stepdancers and musicians from across our East Anglian regions to showcase the varying styles of stepping and we hope to encourage new dancers to the board. There will be workshops and competitions including the second Jig Doll workshop and competition.

Our wonderful patron, Gloria Buckley will be running her famous Raffle and she would be grateful of any donations for the prize table on the day.

Keep up to date with the programme of the day HERE.

Afternoon of Music, Song & Dance moves to Norfolk

Sunday 17th November 2pm-4pm

We are moving our series of Sunday Afternoons into Norfolk for this current financial year.  Once again, we are grateful to Jan Robinson for making the event happen.  We hope to keep the event free again but naturally, gratefully receive any donations on the day.

Come and say hello!

We are setting up stall in various locations over the summer within East Anglia. Some are at Folk events, others at local Stowmarket based events. Do come along and say hello if you see us:

Bury Folk Festival Saturday 30th June
Stowmarket Carnival 14th July
Primadonna Festival , Stowmarket 26-28 July
FolkEast Festival, Glemham 16th-18th August
Bungay Folk Festival 6th-8th September

Sad Farewells

Eric Baker

Eric Baker

Our lovely friend, singer and jig doll dancer Eric Baker passed away after a short illness in the Spring. The shanty group who Eric was a member of (The Rum Old Boys) sang two songs at his funeral. He will be sadly missed.

Jim Lawrence

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of sailor, sail maker and wonderful musician Jim Lawrence. He was a regular face at EATMT events – most recently at last year’s More than Melodeons and Stepdance Day events.

Jim Lawrence

You can hear about Jim on BBC Radio 4’s Last Word which was broadcast on Friday 8th March 2024 HERE (20 mins in but he is remembered with other great lives lost in recent weeks and the whole programme is worth a listen!)

2024 EATMT Events so far…

We’ve had a busy year so far and our first event of the year was another Sunday Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance which took place on Sunday March 24th at Walsham Le Willows Memorial Hall.

Michael Czarnobaj steps to our Sunday afternoon audience

Read here for our report on this welcoming, free event.

Swiftly following on from this event, we jointly hosted the Traditional Song Forum’s Spring Conference at the Stowmarket Scout Centre.

We were treated to such a varied and interesting number of talks – much of it relevant to East Anglia. Our report can be found HERE and we will be shortly including film of most of the talks on this day. Our thanks to Steve Roud, Martin and Shan Graebe and the TSF team for inviting us to get involved.

Our 3rd More than Melodeons at Wingfield Barns at end of May took place, once again with something for everyone and included first time workshops in Dulcimer and Piano Accordion. We are extremely grateful to have the support of the Wingfield Barns team on the day but also, the event was made possible by the support of Cllr Lavinia Hadingham and Acorn Instruments.

We had a wonderful group of tutors who worked their socks off to deliver some well thought out workshops and who then performed in an early evening concert.

Read our report HERE and do think about joining us next year if you haven’t so far! It’s a really wonderful event (even if we say so ourselves!).

New Article

A Story of Dulcimers by Alan Helsdon

If you’re interested in submitting an article that you think supporters of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust might be interested to read, then do get in touch!

Happenings at Trust HQ

In a bid to be mindful of unnecessary expenses, we’ve had another office move. Still at the wonderful Red Gables where we live with other local charities, we’ve moved three offices into one big one over April and May. No mean feat considering we were also running events over this time too!

Alex would like to thank Jan Robinson for her help and also to Mark and Jon who were dragged in to do the final move to enable the job to be done on time.

CFB Solutions – local IT company – put the computers back into communication with each other again and updated the software so we’re firing on all cylinders again. There’s no address change and everything we own is now in one room which makes life easier.

In mid May the Board of Trustees had a half day Future Proofing day facilitated by Norwich based Adam Clark. Adam has over 20 years of experience working in social inclusion and cultural policy and projects, in VCSE, public and private sectors, headed policy and strategy teams in local government, and led many local, regional and national partnership projects. He has experience as a trustee, volunteer and manager, and now works as a freelance coach, workshop leader and trainer. Aside from his day job, Adam is a musician with a particular draw to folk and the links to his East Anglian roots. Recently he has been named as one of the eight new musicians recognised by the organisation Live Music Now.

As a result of this really positive day, new ideas and plans are being formulated. Watch this space…

Other events in the area…

We do try to promote a handful of events and organisations doing some great stuff in the region but obviously, what we do barely scratches the surface of what’s going on. Mardles (online) is still doing brilliant work with this and they would be our first port of call and there are other organisations who are geared to specifically do this. We will try to promote on our separate page but please bear in mind that “we” is actually a part time singular “we”! Other Traditional Music Events in the Area…

Requests for help

If you would be happy to take event posters or flyers to a regular club, session or your village notice board, please do get in touch.  We would be happy to post these out to you in order to spread the word of the work we are doing.  We are also looking for a small number of volunteer stewards for Traditional Music Day.  Do get in touch if you think you can help.

Thanks

As we head into the summer months, so our volunteers are ramping up the hours committed to bringing Traditional Music Day to fruition. We are extremely grateful to all of those involved in this – the event simply can’t happen without them.

Nor can the organisation survive without the support from Town, District and occasional County funding for which we are extremely grateful. Our popular Friends Membership scheme is also key to our existence and we like to say thank you to those who commit £15 per yer by offering discounted rates on our tickets. If you’re not already a member, then please do consider joining. You can find out more here.

We look forward to seeing you in the coming months. Do come and show your support – join in, make a donation, buy tickets.

Happy Summer!

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Winter 2023/24 Newsletter

Newsletter, ,
Megan Wisdom & Mossy Christian
Michael Czrnobaj
Cambs Stepdancer
Ray Hubbard entertains

NEWS:

The winter months are always quiet event-wise for EATMT though in the background, we are anything but.  Since our last Newsletter, we have run a second Sunday afternoon of Music, Song and Dance (photos above) – a report can be found online but we’re delighted to be bringing a third Sunday afternoon event, again in Walsham le Willows, on Sunday 24th March from 2pm-4pm.  It’s a free event and if you’d like to add a song, dance, tune or monologue, then please do get in touch!  We are extremely grateful to Jan Robinson who has enabled this event to be run for the third time this financial year and we are grateful to Suffolk County Councillor Jessica Fleming whose locality budget has allowed this series of Sunday Afternoon events to take place.

Nicky Stockman and Alex Bartholomew during November and December worked hard to pull the final strands of the Vaughan Williams Folk project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, together by the deadline of 31st December.  There are a few final pages to upload to the website, particularly in relation to the individual songs collected but even so the website comprehensively showcases the successes of this wonderful project.  We presented our completed project at the EFDSS Folk Educators’ Day in November at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and also to the National Lottery Heritage Fund team in January and an article appears in February’s Vaughan Williams’ Society Journal.

Linked to some of our work on this project, Katie Howson has been busy working on the 2nd Edition of publication Blyth Voices which has sold extremely well since its publication in the early 2000s but particularly over the last couple of years and we are down to our last 40 or so copies to sell.  We are planning to send this to print in the next few months.

Our Annual Report and finances for 2022-3 have just been reported to the Charity Commission and you can read the Annual Summary HERE. January has also been spent finalising plans for most of our events coming up in 2024 including confirming artists for September’s Traditional Music Day.

NEWS: Events for 2024

An Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance
Sunday 24th March, 2pm-4pm

Doors open at 1.30pm. 
Free entry but donations are encouraged

Please note this event is now taking place in Walsham le Willows.  We are indebted once again to volunteer Jan Robinson for pulling this third Afternoon of Music, Song and Dance together – our first event of 2024. 

We’d be delighted to see you all again – either come and listen or join in with a song, dance or story.

Walsham-le-Willows Memorial Village Hall, The Street, Suffolk IP31 3AA

Traditional Song Forum Spring Conference – A Feast from the East – Saturday 6th April from 9.30am-5pm

Free event but please reserve your place

We are delighted to be collaborating with the Traditional Song Forum, an internationally recognised organisation and bringing their Spring Conference to the East of England – specifically to Stowmarket Scout Centre.  Katie Howson, Alan Helsdon, Chris Holderness, Chris Heppa, Dr Hazel Marsh, Martin Nail and John Marshall-Potter are our speakers for the day covering singers Harry Cox, Walter Pardon, Fred Whiting, collector Des Miller, the Blaxhall Ship’s history of traditional singing and the newly established Gypsy and Traveller Voices in Archive.  It promises to be a fascinating day with heavily focused on East Anglia.

The Traditional Song Forum is also calling for papers for a 2 day conference in London in July. Entitled “Collectomania! Folk Song and Music Collectors and their Worlds”, Steve Roud offers the opportunity to submit papers for this conference. For a bit more information on this, see our Other Events page.

More than Melodeons, Saturday 25th May – Day of Workshops and Early evening Tutor Concert

We are very excited to announce the following tutors running a wide range of Workshops at Wingfield Barns. 

Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Megan Wisdom, Erin Brown and Barry Watson, Richard Blake and the East Suffolk Community Folk Orchestra will be sharing their knowledge and skills in a number of workshops.

There will be individual workshops for Piano Accordions, Concertinas, Melodeons and Dulcimers (absolute beginners).  There will also be a day of singing workshops and multi-instrumental workshops so there is something for everyone.  We are also delighted to be welcoming members of the newly formed East Suffolk Community Folk Orchestra who will be running a Folk Orchestra workshop.

The Tutor Concert will take place at 5pm and tickets will be on sale from March 1st.

Stepdance Day returns to its founding county – Essex!

Sunday 21st July 2024, 12 onwards

Steve and his team from The Compasses, Littley Green, Chelmsford, CM3 1BU welcome EATMT and its supporters to celebrate Stepdance Day.  The pub is a Real Ale and Traditional Cider pub, offering food and even accommodation and a pub that also hosts a regular folk session. 

Please note the change of date for this event!

Image by Karen Cater

We are honoured to have had this lovely image created especially for our Traditional Music Day events. This Mr Jolly Boy jig doll image was created by Essex based artist Karen Cater (and joint owner of Hedingham Fair) taken from a photograph of EATMT’s Mr Jolly Boy gifted to the Trust during the “Covid Years”.

Venues are booked, as are the artists listed above and we are hoping to add more names in the coming weeks.  We are working with local community groups and schools who we hope will showcase some of their music, song and dance that has been put together especially for the day.  There will be ticketed and free events across the town but we are hoping our regular supporters will support us by buying tickets!  We are looking for a handful of volunteers to join the team for the day – please do get in touch if you’re keen to help!

Linked to our main Events Page (from the bottom of the page) we have a page dedicated to a small number of non EATMT events in East Anglia that are featured. We can’t promise to respond to all requests and we only consider adding events if we’re approached. It’s not personal if your event hasn’t been included – rather it’s down to a lack of time!

New: Articles

Burwell Bash opens its bookings on Friday 9th February and this year they are delighted to be able to offer even more Youth Funded places. EATMT offers a Bursary via its Gordon Ruddock Bursary but they have been gifted more sponsorships. Read more HERE .

Read about a newly formed Community Folk Orchestra set up in Bungay HERE

A new Community Folk Orchestra is born

Musician and Horseman Ray Hubbard spent over 60 years researching into the History of the Suffolk Horse. This is his article which appeared in the Winter 2018 edition of the Heavy Horse World magazine: HERE

Lives Remembered

Des Miller – Norfolk Historian & Musician

Des with partner Barbara Jane

It is with sadness that we report of the recent death of Des Miller – musician and historian; co founder of the Rig-A-Jig-Jig project and band promoting the traditional music, song and dance of Norfolk.

Friend and fellow band member Chris Holderness writes:

“Des was a mainstay of Rig-a-Jig-Jig, a band specialising in the local musical traditions of Norfolk.  For well over a decade the band was seen and heard all over the country and elsewhere, playing their brand of local music, song and step dance.  A consummate musician, adept on several instruments, Des’ steady but fiery mouth organ added greatly to the band’s drive.  He was also the founder of the music project of the same name, engaging in much collecting of oral history of the county’s traditional musical heritage.  A great musician, historian and man, he will be greatly missed”.

Chris has written a fuller appreciation of Des and his work which appears on the Musician Profiles page HERE

Paddy Butcher – Hurdy Gurdy musician and sharer of music

We are also sad to report of the death of Paddy Butcher – a musician with a wide repertoire and love of folk music – especially English and European – and regularly seen playing his Hurdy Gurdy, singing in local folk clubs or playing melodeon.  A member of numerous bands including the Suffolk Bell and Horseshoe Band, RSVP and BOF! Not just a wonderful musician but someone who spent a lot of time supporting and nurturing other musicians and sharing his love of music.

Support EATMT

Can you put up a poster?

We are particularly interested to hear from you if you can put up a poster in your village if you’re local.  We can post out A4 laminated posters to you if you think you can help.  Please get in touch!

First Aid?

If you are planning to come along to any of our events and you are First Aid Trained, we’d love to hear from you.  If you’re interested in helping and would like to take part in some first aid training, we’d also love to hear from you!

You can support EATMT in a number of other ways: 

VOLUNTEER at events or in the office,
BECOME A FRIEND – Join our Friends’ Membership Scheme 
SHOP for our publications,
BUY TICKETS for our EVENTS

THANKS

As ever, thanks go to the regular team of volunteers who provide a variety of support to EATMT. We’re delighted to continue to welcome new members into the volunteer team over the last few months and we are really grateful to everyone who steps in and up to the challenges!

We are also grateful to the following regular funders for helping us run events and projects:

       

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