Here at EATMT Trust HQ we’ve hit the ground running. January was over in a flash. Our Annual Report for 2020-21 was completed in January and the summary of that year can be accessed HERE. Grant applications were completed, the annual Charity Commission return was completed and we have also been busy co-ordinating the various strands to our Covid Continuity Fund for Culture (CCFC) project which will be delivered between now and the end of March 2022. Work on other events which are being planned for 2022 have also been worked on so now seems like a good time to highlight the 3 events taking place in March and also to give you more news on our other events.
As part of the CCFC project, we are running two pop up Traditional Music Cafes in Suffolk – one at Brandon Library on Thursday 10th March 2-4pm and one at Stradbroke Community Centre on Tuesday 22nd March 2-4pm. Our Brandon event welcomes some wonderful musicians – fiddlers James Delarre and Erin Brown, with Erin also demonstrating a broom dance and Nicky Stockman, melodeon player and CCFC project manager. Our Stradbroke event also welcomes some super musicians – Ron & Pam Ross and singer Shirley Harry. These are free afternoon events involving “have a go†sessions and a short afternoon concert. Refreshments will be available and our website will be available to browse on our laptop at both events to update our supporters who don’t have regular internet availability.
PLEASE NOTE, THE EVENT AT BRANDON LIBRARY IS NOW FULLY BOOKED!
Another event in March is our Music, Book and Instrumental Sale which is being run at Redwoods Library, Red Gables, Stowmarket on Saturday 12th March from 1-4pm. Following the success of the first sale run last September, we are putting this sale on again, this time with the opportunity to offer you the chance to sell any unwanted musical instruments. We have created a sales list of particular items that are on sale which you can view HERE so do get in touch if you are interested in any of the items for sale or if you have an instrument you would like to see. Bristol Fashion Band will be providing entertainment and there will be tea and cake as well as great bargains available.
We are offering 3 Gordon Ruddock bursaries in the 2022/23 financial year. One is in collaboration with the Burwell Bash Summer School, one in collaboration with FolkEast and the other is in the form of a year-long loan of an Anglo Concertina. If you are interested or know anyone interested in getting involved in the Youth Folk Moot with the FolkEast team (Burwell Bash sold out in 48 hours in December 2021) or in applying for our concertina loan, please contact EATMT on info@eatmt.org.uk or ring 07495 054669 before 31st March 2022. For more details about the Gordon Ruddock Bursaries seeHERE.
Cyril Barber Credit M Hunt
Cyril Barber July 1922- January 2022
It is with great sadness that we have to tell you that in late January 2022, at a grand age of 99 years old, Cyril Barber passed away. He will be remembered fondly. If you haven’t already read our Musician’s Profile of Cyril you can find that on our website. His funeral will be held at Bury St Edmunds’ Crematorium at 9am on Friday 18th February (no flowers).
You can read Katie and John Howson’s musician profile on Cyril HERE and see various films via THIS PAGE
Can you help?
We are on the look out for a working 2nd hand record deck and a reel to reel machine (2 speed – 3.75 & 7.5in). If you have either of these items unused and unwanted and lurking in your lofts, please do get in touch (info@atmt.org.uk) and we would be happy to give it a new lease of life!
Other events run in 2022 by EATMT
Saturday 28th May – More than Melodeons held in the village of Wingfield, Suffolk. We are delighted to be joined by some wonderful tutors offering a wide variety of workshops during the day followed by an evening concert in the Grand Barn:
Dave Shepherd – Fiddle Jack Hogsden – Melodeon Jill Parson – Melodeon Sally Barrett – English Concertina Andrew Collins – Anglo Concertina Mim Barnes – Whistles Janet Koralambe – Voice
We hope to have tickets on sale towards the middle of March 2022 but in the meantime, put the date in your diaries!
Sunday 24th July – Stepdance Day, Chippenham Village Hall, Cambs
Further details will be released in the coming weeks. This event is sponsored by the Instep Research Team and this year we plan to share the wonderful world of stepdancing with this East Anglian County.
Saturday 10th September – East Anglian Traditional Music Day, Stowmarket
Behind the scenes, plans for this event have been notched up a step and we will be in a position to share more details with you very soon. In the meantime, please do save the date!
Events across the region are being organised by a variety of individuals and organisations like EATMT. Mardles.org is a great source of what’s happening when looking online. Don’t miss their Wind & Strings day of workshops on Saturday 7th May at the Geldeston Locks Inn.
As ever, we are working on adding more articles which have been kindly contributed by EATMT supporters. The latest addition is part of January’s Newsletter “Tatters” written for the good people of the Tiger Folk Club (Tiger Folk) based in the midlands. We made contact with this long running Folk Club in 2020 when we re-housed several tapes made by Dave Cooper of sessions in the 80s and 90s of the club at a time when Dave was involved. One of the club’s organisers, John Bentham, contributes to the Newsletter with “Bendle’s Bit” and he kindly sent it to us in the early new year because it had a reference to East Anglia, fine singers and to Neil Lanham. You can read the article HERE and if you are travelling North and passing Tiger Folk, you can check out who’s also visiting there via their Facebook page HERE.
“Community and Fellowship” EATMT’s Christmas Tree at the Walnut in Stowmarket
What a busy few months we’ve had. So much so that as we came to compiling the Winter Newsletter, we realised we hadn’t written the Autumn Newsletter!
Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out in Cromer, Channel 5
Our summer filming trip at the White Horse Inn in Cromer as reported in the Summer Newsletter was aired on Channel 5 and our Norfolk team of musicians, stepdancer and jig doll dancers were shown on the first episode of Susan’s 3rd series. You have to sign up to My5 to view the current series.
Updates on events run from August 2021 to now
The running of events since restrictions were lifted have had mixed fortunes. Full updates and reports with photos can be found the website under “Past Events/2021â€.
This was our first proper outing in 2021 and our thanks go to Hushwing and in particular Chris Holderness, who organised on the Trust’s behalf a session of music and stepdancing in the dance tent. It was well received and it was lovely to see familiar faces. The whole event was very well thought out and mindful given the ongoing stresses and strains of Covid 19. We were delighted to be asked to get involved again and a full report of the afternoon with photos can be accessed HERE.
What a very different beast it was this year but one in which EATMT and Stepdancing featured across the weekend. Thanks to Fiona Davies, the whole region was represented by dancers from across our region who got involved and demonstrated their particular style of stepdancing to the audiences. Workshops were run daily and the weekend ended with a brand new Stepdancing competition created especially for Folk East. The first Folk East Champion was Ethan Beal who won the Copper Kettle – donated by FolkEast’s organisers John & Becky Marshall-Potter.
Ethan Beal – Champion!EATMT stallOne of three stepdancing workshopsOur judges and musician James DelarreJudges James Abbott, Gloria Buckley and Pam Ross
We were very grateful to all who took part in the dancing and to our wonderful judges, Pam Ross, EATMT Patron Gloria Buckley and James Abbott.
Our stall ran throughout the weekend and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the number of visitors who came to say hello, bought books and hired instruments. Read our full report HERE.
Sale and Song day
Our own events run on 4th September was a game of two halves. The instrument, music and book sale was a great success and drew in a good number of visitors and with music from Bristol Fashion the atmosphere was delightful. As ever, we were grateful for help from a team of willing volunteers who manned stalls and served tea and cake. We will be running another sale on the afternoon of Saturday 12th March 2-4, again in Redwoods Library. A report on the day can be found HERE.
A popular request was for EATMT to sell instruments on supporters’ behalf and this is something we are now looking at offering for this next sale. Do get in touch if you might be interested. There will be live music too!
Sadly, our evening of Song took a hit with the cautious return to concerts affecting ticket sales and so we sadly had to make the decision to cancel this evening event.
Pam & Ron Ross and Judy Andrews minding the EATMT stall
As illness hit Alex’s house leading up to this event, we were extremely grateful to Trustee Eammon Andrews who pulled all things EATMT together to enable the Trust to have a stall at this event. Huge thanks also to fellow Trustee Lindsay Want, Judy Andrews, Andrew & Angela Collins, Sarah Hall, Jill Parson, Ron & Pam Ross and Tracey Wisdom. Eammon’s report on the day can be found HERE in the Past Events section of the website.
Yarmouth Hornpipe Talk
Again, ticket sales were poorly affected by continuing covid restrictions and concerns regarding attending concerts so we decided not to go ahead with this as an event in the week leading up to the proposed event. However, with some of our “Restart†funds we decided to hire a camera and invited young keen film maker, Katie Haines, to join the performers in Great Yarmouth where we spent the afternoon filming Chris Holderness’s talk which was interspersed with music from both Chris and Alan Helsdon and with stepdance from Fiona Davies.
You can now watch the film HERE! The idea for this event came about following Chris Holderness’ article “A Hornpipe by any other Name” and you can read this HERE. Also available within the article are sound files of the hornpipes and pdfs of the music notes.
Our thanks to Chris Metherill, Ben Land Media and ‘Hireacamera’ for their advice for enabling this idea to proceed.
Stowmarket Christmas Tree Festival
sdr
EATMT have decorated trees in 3 of the 6 venues that are taking part in this year’s Christmas Tree Festival. We have an outdoor tree in the “Winter Wonderland†grounds of Red Gables. Our second tree called “In the Bleak Midwinter†can be found at the Museum of East Anglian Life – the theme here is Christmas Music and the tune for this beautiful carol was composed by Gustav Holst who lived in Thaxted and whose classical compositions were heavily influenced by the English Folk Revival Scene. Our final tree is at The Walnut pub where the theme is Community and Fellowship. There are daily events in the Parish Church and the festival runs every day from now until 1st January 2022.
EVENTS in 2022
The following events are being planned for next year. Do put them in your diary. EATMT is grateful to everyone who is involved in working to make these happen. If you are interested in volunteering at any of our events, please do get in touch! Keep up to date with news as these events develop HERE.
Music, Book and Instrument Sale Saturday 12th March 2022 1-4pm, Redwoods Library
More than Melodeons Saturday 28th May 2022 A day of multi instrumental workshops plus tutor concert – Wingfield
With the help of Judy and Eammon Andrews we are busy working on bringing you a day of multi instrumental workshops. Expect singing, fiddles, melodeons, concertinas, whistles…
East Anglian Traditional Music Day (EATMD) Saturday 10th September 2022 – Stowmarket
Under the expert guidance of Alan Bearman, plans are well under way for this event. We will update you with news in the New Year.
Ruddock Bursaries 2022-23
We are delighted to be able to bring back 3 small bursaries for young musicians/artists involved in Traditional Music within East Anglia. One bursary will help towards the cost of a Burwell Bash place which is a week long summer school. Tickets went on sale on 18th December and by the end of the weekend all places were sold out. A number of young musicians applied for this place and over the coming weeks EATMT and Burwell Bash will be selecting a candidate. For the remaining two places, this will be launched at the end of January with decisions being made at the end of March. For more details see our Bursary Page.
Funding and Project News
With more pots of funding slowly becoming available and the promise of opportunities to reinstate events, time to do both is limited and so EATMT is delighted to have Nicky Stockman on board to help with our funding applications. Lockdown has brought us all much stress but for EATMT it has also brought us much hope with so many fantastic donations which need digitising and archiving. This all takes time and for some things, money (and so arts funding) is key to make sure we give these gifts the greatest respect.
The most recently successful funding application is from Suffolk County Council and their Covid Continuity Fund for Culture. Running from now (December) to March 2022 we will be purchasing more digital equipment to help us move between live and digital events, we will be looking to create our first ever podcast and we plan to run two community pop up cafes in two separate areas of the county. These pop up cafes will also give local supporters the opportunity to see what we have been doing digitally if they are unable to access the internet. We still have a number of supporters who receive our newsletters by post so we wanted to reach that audience specifically. We also are hoping to add a couple of instructional films to the website.
If you would like to get involved or would like more information about this project, please do get in touch (info@eatmt.org.uk).
Other projects are in the pipeline for later in 2022 including we hope, a good sized Heritage Fund project and we have also just found out that our local Stowmarket Town Council grant was successful. Some of this money will go towards venue hire for 2 music/book/instrumental sales that we are running (12th March is the next one as mentioned), some towards research costs for ideas on a local project and some towards volunteer expenses to help deliver the Jig Doll packs to local care homes. All of this is so helpful!
Archives
The Carroll & Mackenzie Archive
The latest precious archive that EATMT has received is from collectors Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie. Jim and Pat recently sent us a number of personal effects belonging to Walter Pardon including two of his melodeons along with an incredible digital collection of songs, talks, photographs of singers Walter, and recordings of Harry Cox and Sam Larner passed to Jim and Pat by Bob Thomson and Peggy Seeger. We will gradually list what has been gifted and will make this available to listen to, initially on an individual basis we think, but the plan is to turn this archive into a bigger project which then makes eventually everything freely available online. Read our new page about the collection HERE.
The Music Box Archive
The latest additions to the Music Box Archive have been added to by its creator, Megan Wisdom. Click HERE to listen to Shirley Harry and Ron and Pam Ross.
Recent Articles
We are so grateful once again to a number of people who have freely given their time and contributed to new articles which are featured on the website are:
A Hornpipe by Any Other Name – the latest article by Chris Holderness and an article that triggered the idea of the event “The Yarmouth Hornpipe” which is now also available to view as a film HERE.
Remembering Peter Bellamy 30 years on – an article about the East Anglian singer with contributions from David Bartlett, Paddy Butcher and Alan Helsdon
Laura Cox’s Song Book – by Alan Helsdon. Laura was Harry’s older sister and she kept, like Harry, a book with all of the words from songs sung by the family and wider community.
Harry, Holt and Harmony is a review of a “meet the author†event in Holt – specifically Bruce Lindsay, author of the recent book “Two Bold Singermenâ€.
Junyi’s Year with a Pokerwork Melodeon At the start of 2021, we were approached by a Masters student based at the Royal Holloway University in Surrey and she spent a year learning one of our Hohner D/G boxes under the watchful eye of musician Hazel Askew. Junyi returned the melodeon in September and kindly wrote us a short article which features on our HIRE page which you can read HERE.
If you would like to contribute an article to the EATMT website, please do get in touch with us – 07495 054669; email info@eatmt.org.uk.
Home Stage is a relatively knew initiative that formed during the pandemic. They are based in Blakeney but work online with employees dotted all round the country. They focus on both folk music (Homes Stage Folk) and poetry (Home Stage Poetry) and Maddy Leedham runs Home Stage Folk. The aim of Home Stage Folk is to make folk music more accessible for everyone, everywhere with the hopes of inspiring the continuing preservation and evolution of folk music. As part of this they try to explore all different aspects of folk music through both online and in-person events.
Every Tuesday they release a programme called ’Tuesday Folk People’ where Maddy interviews a new artist weekly, showcasing their music and stories. They try to vary the artists so there is a range of folk styles from different areas all round the world, demonstrating the versatility of the folk scene. This is streamed on Facebook and YouTube for free. There are plans to do a Tuesday Folk People tour in 2022, allowing our audience to see their favourite artists in person. Here’s a link if you want to check it out: https://www.home-stage.co.uk/tuesday-folk-people
Another project they are running is called ‘Folk Music, Poetry and the Environment.’ For this, they are asking people to send in their folk music and poetry creations addressing the climate crisis that will then be aired in a 45 minute weekly programme. For every entry a tree will be planted. People will then vote for their favourite song & poem and the most popular will win £500. In addition, the artists with the most popular songs will be taken on a short tour in 2022, performing in venues in London, Manchester and Birmingham as well as performing at their 2022 folk festival (see below). They recognise that folk music and poetry have long been vehicles for protest, influencing and creating change for the better and feel this is applicable to the climate crisis.Here’s a link if you want to check it out: https://www.home-stage.co.uk/folk-music-poetry-and-the-environment
On the weekend of the 15th-17th July they will be hosting the Home Stage folk festival in North Norfolk. More details on this will be released soon.
As well as this, they host one-off events, such as the recent Martin Simpson event. They have also previously aired interviews with Eliza Carthy, Frankie Armstrong and Jon Boden as well as a live in-person performance with Martin Carthy.
This is only the folk music side of things, there is plenty more going on with Home Stage Poetry. Here’s their website for everything they do: https://www.home-stage.co.uk/
Katie has been busy investigating a series of radio programmes broadcast in the 1940s and this particular article relates to the programme that includes singing from the Eel’s Foot. Read that HERE. Katie also presented this article to a recent Traditional Song Forum and you can watch that HERE (Katie appears 39 minutes in)
Vaughan Williams’s Journey into Folk
Norfolk based author Caroline Davison has recently launched a series of podcasts/blogs which follow a year of Vaughan Williams’ s folk song collecting.
Join me as I follow renowned British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, on the first year of his listening journey into folk song. You’ll hear me sing the first verse of a song on the day he collected it – circa forty days between December 1903 and January 1905 – supported by info on the original singers, why and how Vaughan Williams came to meet them, background on the songs and the stories they tell.
This is a detailed account of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ visit to King’s Lynn and nearby villages in 1905 and 1906. In the space of a week in January 1905, and a brief one day visit in September 1906, the up-and-coming young composer and folk song collector noted down 74 songs and tunes from local fishermen, sailors and others in the area.
We have traced the stories of people who sang to him, their songs and tunes and what influence their music had on a man who became one of the giants of 20th century music.
The book is illustrated by Anne Roberts’ drawings and by archive and Colin James’ modern photographs of the places he visited.
Chapter 1: Ralph Vaughan Williams career to 1905 Chapter 2: Folk Song collecting at the time Chapter 3: First stop the fens: his arrival in West Norfolk and what he did here Chapter 4: King’s Lynn, the unexpected treasurehouse of song: the North End in 1905 Chapter 5: A good week’s work Chapter 6: Mr Carter Chapter 7: Mr Anderson Chapter 8: Mr Bayley Chapter 9: Mr Harper Chapter 10: The women singers Chapter 11: Mr Donger and Mr Smith Chapter 12: The Workhouse Chapter 13: A day trip to Sheringham Chapter 14: The legacy of his visit Chapter 15: The North End of King’s Lynn today
Appendices include a resume of previous researches into the visit, acknowledgements and bibliography.
The chapters include the music he collected from each singer and the words where they are given. There are also suggestions of where words he did not copy down might be found.
The North End of King’s Lynn, the fishermen’s quarter, its way of life and its eventual disappearance under 1960s redevelopment is covered along with an introduction to the workhouse where the composer heard several old singers from various walks of life.
The aim is to give an insight into an important week in RVW’s life – and one which means that, more than a century later, the songs of those seafarers and the local community have not been lost. What is more, they are still heard in concert halls around the world through the work of this great English composer.
Jill Bennett/Elizabeth James Dec 2021
Keep up to date and ways to HELP!
Do keep checking our website over the coming months with our plans for bringing events to you. For an up to date listing of events across the region, look no further than Mardles (www.mardles.org). Keep on supporting your favourite bands and venues in spite of continued Covid restrictions and do consider joining our Friends Membership Scheme.
These uncertain times mean we all continue to be financially vulnerable.
The way this scheme works has changed! Please note that Recycle for Charity no longer accept the pre paid envelopes. Instead, you can arrange for a pre paid label directly with the company – you can still select the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust as your chosen charity and instead of £1 per cartridge, we can get as much as £2 so we urge you to continue using this scheme. There is a minimum number of cartridges you can send in order to qualify for a free postage label though this generally equates to 2-3 cartridges. Every little helps – both the Trust and the environment. For more information about this scheme, please see https://www.recycle4charity.co.uk/.
Thanks
It goes without saying that the continued annual support from our Friends is much appreciated.
We are of course grateful for the continued support of our local town council – Stowmarket Town Council – our local District council Mid Suffolk and also Suffolk County Council.
The last few months have been very demanding and without the help, guidance and support of the following people, EATMT would not be able to share its achievements with you all:
James Abbott, Mo Allum, Eammon & Judy Andrews, David Bartlett, Alan Bearman, Tom Beese, Suffolk County Council Arts Officer, Bristol Fashion Band, Gloria Buckley, Paddy Butcher, Ed Caines, Jim Carroll, Andrew Collins, Ivan Cutting, Michael Czarnobaj, Karl Daniels and the team at Stowmarket Town Council, Fiona Davies, James Delarre, Roy Emmerson at Mid Suffolk District Council, Rita Gallard, Chris Gill, Katie Haines, Shirley Harry, Alan Helsdon, Chris Holderness, Katie & John Howson, Hushwing Band, Gemma Khawaja, Nicola Lancaster, Ben Land, Pat Mackenzie, Jill Parson, John & Becky Marshall Potter, Chris Metherell, George Monger, The Team at Red Gables, Jan Robinson, Pam Ross, Candy Sheridan and her team at Strumpshaw, Miriam Stead, Nina Truin, Lindsay Want, Angela Watson, Ron White.
We hope we have included everyone that has got involved over the last few months – apologies if anyone has been missed off!
Wishing you all a peaceful Yuletide and best wishes for 2022
This summer newsletter brings once again lots of news including details on events, more archives and details of new webpages.
Trust HQ
Thanks to the Museum of East Anglian Life, we were able to make a gradual move off site to our new home at Red Gables and by the end of June everything had been moved across town. We managed to recycle old furniture via the local Facebook Marketplace and local Stowmarket Freecycle group. As a result our 5 desks, 2 filing cabinets and even the little old but still working fridge found new homes. One desk went to a home office in Stowmarket which will be used as a walkie talkie charging hub for the Suffolk Lowland Search & Rescue charity. One of the local scout leaders took another two desks for a home office but in return offered a van and spare hands to help with the final move.
We were very grateful to receive a donation enabling us to take on a third room which is situated on the ground floor of the building. This gives us space to store equipment used for events and larger items such as the maypole. It also provides an area for learning and research once we are in the position to make this possible and it can also double up as a good sized meeting room.
We are also very grateful to local IT firm CFB Solutions for providing a much needed daily back up service for the EATMT documents and for ensuring the computers can talk to each other now they have also settled into the new office.
NEWS
Happy Birthday Cyril!
Cyril Barber Stepdancing – Taken at the Norwich Playhouse in 2001 at the first event organised by Des Miller for Rig-a-Jig-Jig: A Norfolk Music History Project
This July saw step dancer and musician Cyril Barber celebrate his 99th birthday. Fellow musician Steve Matthews, a long standing friend of Cyril’s and EATMT supporter spoke to Cyril recently prompting Steve to dig out his old recordings of Cyril and friends. Steve is hoping to get these digitised and we hope to share some of these wonderful memories at some stage in the future.
Steve Dumpleton
Many friends of Steve’s were grateful to have been provided the digital link to the celebration of his life on June 8th. It was a beautiful service, one which Steve would have been very proud of. His love of life and generous nature had clearly touched so many people’s lives. Previous EATMT director, Katie Howson has contributed to an article about Steve and thanks to Steve’s Widow, Jan, we have also included the tune that Steve wrote for Katie and John Howson – “The Trip to Stowmarket”. You can read the article HERE.
HIRE SCHEME
Thanks to a few more donations, we have added a few more instruments to our popular Hire Scheme and have updated the web pages on this popular scheme.
Friend and musician Frances Smith donated not one but two fiddles (plus bows and cases) to EATMT – both of which are fine specimens! One is a particularly fine instrument so it has had some work on it to put it into a good sale position and we will be selling this in the coming months (see below). The second instrument has been added to the Hire library and we have also added Adrian Hilton’s fiddle from his bequest to the scheme.
Sale fiddle – German (Saxony) 1920s £800 (including bow and case)
In addition, Friend and volunteer Alan Helsdon donated his small Bell Accordion to the Hire Scheme and that went out on loan just recently. The Hohner Arietta accordion passed on to EATMT on long term loan by another Friend and supporter Vaughan Hartridge, has just been returned after a year-long free loan to a young local musician. EATMT would like to offer this free year-long loan again so if you know a young person (u25) who might be interested, please do get in touch.
Funding News – Restart Grants
We have been delighted to have had support throughout the last 18 months of difficulty from our local district council. In the last few months we learned that we had been successful with the Suffolk Community Restart Fund which was awarded by Mid Suffolk District Council and Babergh District Council. We also were given a Discretionary Restart Grant from Mid Suffolk and this is on top of our regular annual revenue Grant that we apply for each year.
The restart funding will give us the opportunity to purchase the necessary equipment to enable the digitising of the recordings we have been donated that are specific to East Anglia. It will also provide some training for volunteers to assist with this digitising. There is a small amount of funding for some temporary archiving assistance and it enables EATMT to move forwards with small events even if heading into autumn we are not able to run at full capacity.
This support is much welcomed and we are grateful for the continued support of our local town council – Stowmarket Town Council and our local District council.
TV Film Crew Trip to Cromer
After a long, extended cold and wet spring, the sun came out for a day of TV filming in Cromer in early June. Chris Holderness, Richard Blake and Alan Helsdon were the house musicians, Rita Gallard and Sheila Park provided the jig doll percussion (Sheila with Harry Cox’s jig doll, Rita with a recently donated Mr Jollyboy (thank you Judy Smith!) and Fiona Davies added to the scene with some stepdancing. Puppeteer and singer Gemma Khawaja was also involved displaying her newly made fishermen puppets for an arts funded project. Thanks to publican Ann and her team at the Cromer White Horse for their patience and hospitality.
The show will be aired in autumn and we will be able to give more information once we are given it.
Katie & John Howson update on their work post EATMT
As EATMT approaches the grand age of 21 years, we thought it might be a good time to catch up with Founders and past Directors Katie and John Howson. Read about their latest projects HERE.
With the much anticipated “freedom†day now past, we are now in a position to announce a few forthcoming events – 3 that we are organising and 3 that we will be involved in.
As this e-newsletter winds its way through the digital ether, the Burwell Bash will be in its second day. For an opportunity to catch the Tutors’ Concert on the final evening (Thursday 29th July, 8pm) please visit The Burwell Bash.
If you’re in the area of Holt, North Norfolk this coming Saturday (31st July), do pop in to the New Holt Bookshop – they are having an author event featuring Bruce Lindsay who will be talking about his book on Harry Cox and Sam Larner. There will be music provided by local musicians Chris Holderness and Alan Helsdon. For further details see HERE.
Strumpshaw Tree Festival – featuring traditional music and stepdancing on Sunday 15th August (event runs 14/15 August)
FOLKEAST – 20/21/22 August – As well as finding us within the Instrumental Stall area, we are delighted to be working in association with the festival organisers to bring several Stepdance workshops and a competition to the dance area.
Sale & Song in Stowmarket – Saturday 4th September. We will be running an afternoon sale of music, books and instruments with live music from Bristol Fashion and an Evening of Song with The John Ward Trio & Megan Wisdom.
Wingfield Harvest Festival – Sunday 10th October – We will be having a stall at this new event. Expect music, song and dance.
The Yarmouth Hornpipe – Saturday 16th October – Talk, music & dance with Chris Holderness, Alan Helsdon & Fiona Davies in Yarmouth.
For more details about the above events, please visit our EVENTS PAGE
Jig Dolls in care homes in Stowmarket
Robert Horn, Jill Jennings & Colin Biginton entertaining the Monday Luncheon Clubbers at Redwoods
The new resource presentation for Care Homes has been received very positively in Stowmarket. So far, Cedrus House Care Home, Chilton Meadows Care Home and the Redwoods Luncheon Club have taken up the offer of this free resource with a number of other homes booked in over the coming weeks.
We have uploaded a catalogue of almost each box file of archives from Chris onto the website. Eventually this archive will be accessible either through visits to the Trust offices and/or digitally with the view to providing an educational resource.
New articles that Chris has written and have been added to these pages are the Discographies of Harry Cox and Walter Pardon.
Harry Cox and Walter Pardon
Over the early summer, 2021 has seen the 50th anniversary of Harry Cox’s death. This has been commemorated by EATMT by adding articles to the website which includes recordings of Harry singing – one which does not appear to have been heard before. We are very grateful to the family of John Halliday who passed on John’s books and recordings to EATMT. It was in this box of various items that several reel to reel tapes were found – this particular one was unlabelled so imagine the joy when we realised who was singing!
It was also the 25th anniversary of Walter Pardon’s death and whilst considering what to include in an article about Walter, it became apparent that several people wanted to contribute. Included in our pages commemorating this wonderful singer are articles written by Damien Barber and Alan Helsdon. There is also a transcription of a recording of Walter made by Sheila Park in the 1970s. Eventually we hope to get this recording digitised and uploaded onto the website. In addition, we came into contact with musicians and collectors Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie who were good friends of Walter. Jim and Pat are now in the process of digitising their recordings of their meetings with several East Anglian musicians and singers and there are very keen to lodge these recordings and photographs with EATMT so these important collections are conserved for the future generations. Jim has also kindly given permission for EATMT to reproduce his 2007 article “Walter Pardon – A Simple Countryman?†which is also available to read on the website.
Local musician, broadcaster, author and folklorist Pete visited EATMT with a number of vinyl records and CDs of key East Anglian musicians and singers. He also kindly had compiled a list of records and CDs that he felt EATMT should have a copy of. In addition, he donated a jig doll made by maker Vernon Rose. Having spent a long time involved in folk and traditional music, Pete very kindly agreed to write an article on ‘his life in folk’ and this can now be read HERE – A Life in Folk.
Music
New articles on Concertinas
We were delighted to have three articles contributed to spotlight ‘the Concertina’ – Roger Digby, Sally Barrett and Mary Humphreys all very kindly gave their time and expertise and together these articles we hope go some way to demystifying the various systems that make up the concertina family. This article can be found HEREwhich is firmly set in the East Anglian Traditions/Instruments section of the website.
Song
Song and Ale Tapes – Dave Cooper Collection
In an attempt to digitise what we thought were local “Song and Ale†tapes, we accidentally stumbled upon some wonderful chorus songs which in fact were recordings of the Whittlebury Song and Ale annual festival that ran from 1988 until 2016. The collection was Dave Cooper’s which he purchased each year he attended the festival. On one of these tapes we found a lovely recording of past Friend and supporter Adrian Hilton who had bequeathed his ‘hoard’ of instruments to EATMT. Thanks to his widow Ann, we were able to find a home for these tapes. We have also added the singing of Adrian to his webpage “Hilton’s Hoardâ€.
Reintroducing Jig Dolls to the Netherlands
In the late spring, EATMT was contacted by Martin Judkins from the not for profit organisation St. Samen Voor Elkaar in the Netherlands which strives to bring folk traditions back into the public eye and make them accessible to all.
Martin’s interest in Jig Dolls has been recently reignited and EATMT has been sharing experiences of taking Jig Dolls into the community. In return for this sharing of information, Martin has kindly written an article about his work in the Netherlands. Martin’s passion for these delightful wooden dancing dolls resulted in the family of UK maker Goff Evans passing over Goff’s entire collection of designs, templates and materials to the organisation. The organisation is now in the process of making dolls to sell, creating a library of jig dolls to loan to others and generally is raising the profile in the country.
To read more about Martin’s journey read his article HERE.
Keep up to date
Do keep checking our website over the coming months with our plans for bringing events to you. For an up to date listing of events across the region, look no further than Mardles online.
There will be mixed feelings about returning to live events – both among organisers and as ticket holders – it’s to be expected. Many organisations are on the brink of collapse and are trying to re-open in a mindful, sensible way. Do try and support these organisations (‘use or lose’) where you can. We are all too aware of how precious ‘The Arts’ are and what good they bring to each of us when available. We are also now aware of the knock on effect to our mental health when this good is prevented from happening. Let’s hope we can move forward with care and kindness and show support all round.
Thanks – A shout out!
The last three months have been very demanding and without the help, guidance and support of the following people, EATMT would not be able to share its achievements with you all:
Eammon & Judy Andrews, Anne Bacon, Damien Barber, Sally Barrett, Colin Beggerow, Richard Blake, Jim Carroll, Ivan Cutting, Fiona Davies, Roger Digby, Royston Emerson, Rita Gallard, Shirley Harry, Alan Helsdon, Ann Hilton, Chris Holderness, Katie & John Howson, Mary Humphreys, Pete Jennings, Ross Kelly, Gemma Khawaja, Nicola Lancaster, Pat Mackenzie, Steve Matthews, Sheila Park, Steve Roud, Frances Smith, Judy Smith, Miriam Stead, Nina Truin, Ellie West. We hope we have included everyone that has got involved over the last few months – apologies if anyone has been missed off!
2020-2021 Supporter Thanks
Friends and Supporters of EATMT
Friends
As ever, we are extremely grateful to our supporters who have taken out a Friends’ membership with EATMT. This is an annual subscription of £15 and since its existence has been a vital part of our income. In addition, we are able to claim back Gift Aid through this scheme. Your support is invaluable and is very much appreciated. If you’re not yet a Friend or if you are a lapsed Friend, please do consider joining/re joining. You will benefit from cheaper event tickets and early bird booking as well as knowing that your contribution to the Trust helps keep traditions alive. Find our Friends’ membership form here.
Other ways to help
EATMT is a member of Recycle4charity. If you are working from home, you will likely be using up the ink in your home printers far quicker than normal. These can be recycled. BUT the system has changed. This company is no longer accepting the envelopes that we previously sent out. Instead you will need to go directly to their website and print off a label to get your free postage. As a sweetener for your extra efforts, the Trust is promised almost twice as much back per ink jet cartridge than previously, so please do consider this option. Please do get in touch if you would like to get involved in the Trust’s work. We rely heavily on volunteers but more than that, we rely heavily on your knowledge based input. We’d love to hear from you!
Wishing you all a safe return to music, song, storytelling and dance.
Alex Bartholomew, Administrator and the EATMT Trustees
At the end of February, EATMT teamed up with the Burwell Bash – a voluntary organisation that organises in normal times a week long folk music summer school at Burwell House in Cambridgeshire. The partnership is usually with Burwell House but they are still on furlough so EATMT have been approached to fill the gap. This year will be the Bash’s 30th year of running and determined to offer an alternative, the event is running online from Tuesday 27th to Thursday 29th July 2021. Because the usual event pot of money is not available, the Bash organisers have set up a Support Us page – anyone interested in joining the event is encouraged to donate between £60 and £80 for the 3 full days and evenings. If the target is met, then the full plans can go ahead. At the time of writing, we are already more than half way there! Running this event online means there isn’t the usual restriction on numbers. In normal times, it is fully booked within 24 hours of box office opening. Do take advantage of this unique situation! Booking is online via www.burwellbash.info.
After years in the Museum Stables, in a flurry of boxes and labels, the East Music Trust shook off the dust and moved across town to Red Gables
From the Old Stables to Red Gables – We Are Moving!
The beautiful grounds of the Museum of East Anglian Life has been home to EATMT for over 15 years but with a growing archive, a dry and secure space to store collections has become a necessity. It was inevitable that the last year’s crisis will have seen businesses and organisations sadly fold and as a result, two offices on the first floor at Red Gables in Stowmarket have been vacated and offered to EATMT. Over the next few months, we will be gradually moving in to our new home which is owned and run by Mid Suffolk Voluntary Organisations Forum and we will be joining other voluntary/charitable organisations such as Ace Advocacy, BSEVC, Achieving Aspirations, RSVP, Mid Suffolk Axis, Synthesis Media and the Counselling Room.
There will be a small office and an archive room which we hope eventually we will be able to offer as a resource/education facility.
Other Events for 2021
Traditional Music Day – 4th September – POSTPONED TO 2022
It won’t surprise anyone to learn that this event will not be going ahead. With five venues around Stowmarket booked and artists to fill for the day and evening events, EATMT cannot afford to risk either low visitor numbers which is understandably inevitable after this past 12 months, nor can we afford to incur any financial losses that we could face if a further lockdown were to happen. 2022 will be our focus for this event and fingers will be firmly crossed. A new date will be announced in due course.
Smaller events in 2021
We do however hope to run a number of smaller events between September and March next year in various areas around the region provided there is enough demand. We have kept our booking for the John Peel Centre on Saturday 4th September open and are planning on offering a small ticketed event. In October, we hope to run a small event in Great Yarmouth but all of this is still in the planning stages and we hope to bring you more news in the Summer newsletter and of course, details will appear online as and when we have news to share before then. Do keep checking in to our EVENTS page over the coming weeks.
Stepdance Day usually runs in July and because it is so close to the proposed end of restrictions day (perhaps) of 21st June, we have decided that this too needs to be postponed until 2022 but we hope to have a very small presence of dancers and local musicians at the Strumpshaw Tree Fair which is cautiously proceeding with their event this year but with a later date of August 14th and 15th 2021.
We hope to have a stall at FolkEast (20th-22nd August). FolkEast organisers are also proceeding with due care and with many changes planned to enable something to go ahead.
The Chris Holderness Archive We are delighted to announce that Norfolk musician, historian and collector Chris Holderness has offered EATMT his vast archive consisting of over twenty years of articles, transcriptions, recordings, photographs etc from his collecting of musical traditions in Norfolk. Many of Chris’s articles appear on Rod Stradling’s online magazine “Musical Traditions†but Rod’s retirement has prompted Chris ensure this whole unique collection is looked after and made available to all.
Chris Holderness Photo A Helsdon
As a result, we have a new page within our Archive section and over the year, will be uploading this collection. We are also delighted that Chris is adding new articles to this and we have uploaded two of these articles to launch the new web pages. The first article is called “Two Sides of the Same Coin – collecting musical memories in Norfolk” which relates to Chris’s collecting years including the Rig-a-Jig-Jig project and the second entitled “The Broads Bros†is an article about brothers Harry and Fred Cox – which was uploaded on to our site just in time for Harry’s 136th birthday (27th March)!
2021 is the fiftieth anniversary of Harry’s death so we will be updating other details from Chris’s archive in due course relating to the great singer.
It should be noted that EATMT’s star volunteer of the year, Alan Helsdon, is also Chris’s neighbour and ‘bubble’, so together they are working through this collection to get it ready for the next stage in its life.
Music
John Brown’s Tune Book– (Brown-Soffe tune book) All of the current dance tunes from this Norfolk tune book have now had links added to the musical ABC notation with thanks to musician Flos Headford (Old Swan Band). This page is in a slightly different format than its original presentation. There is an alphabetical list of dance tunes each with a link that takes you to a new page. Within that page is a photograph from the original tune book and the tunes from that page have 2 different musical notations and a sound file for the original version (warts and all) and then for a playable version – perhaps in a more popular key, or with questionable notes “rightedâ€. The remaining hymn tunes are yet to be uploaded. Flos has dutifully notated them – it is Trust Admin that is holding their resting place up!
Flos offers a number of interesting points that he raises having worked on this manuscript and you can find these within the page. Lockdown has made it tricky to confirm certain physical aspects of the tune book because staff are working from home and don’t have access to the book, but we hope to get further clarifications on some of the questions both Alan and Flos have had once Lockdown restrictions are removed.
The Dave Cooper Collection The second sort of this vast music collection was completed in February and volunteer Alan Helsdon turned his hand to delivery driving and transported Dave’s 1800+ recordings of the Robin Hood Folk Club, Tiger Folk Club and FolkWaves radio show to Folk club organiser Phil Hind who is involved in these Midlands based clubs. The Norfolk West Gallery Quire are now in receipt of the recordings and books that Dave had whilst he was a member of the Quire and the Shape Note music has found its way to Shropshire and to Dr Ian West. Ipswich Online Radio and specifically the ‘Gap Year Show’ features a tune or song from one of the donated albums from Dave’s Global collection of music every week (Fridays 6pm-7pm www.ioradio.co.uk) and Rita Gallard from Norfolk has painstakingly gone through several reel to reel recordings from Dave’s collection and created a list of who features in them. The remaining vinyl and CDs have been bought as a job lot by local record dealer Chris Manning (Misty Mountain Music). Chris can be found on his stall at Bury St Edmunds’ markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at Ely market on Sundays. We now have left the East Anglian part of Dave’s collection which will be added to the Trust’s archive as well as a number of books.
New article on Melodeons Our Friend and regular tutor Steve Dumpleton has contributed to another web page on the EATMT website (www.eatmt.org.uk) about the melodeon. It includes details about the workings of the instrument and gives mention to past and present East Anglian players – of both one and two row instruments and includes photographs, recordings and links.
HIlton’s Hoard Over the last 18 months, several of our friend’s treasured instruments have found their way to new loved homes. One such instrument was Adrian’s Castagnari Mori which Martyn White kindly serviced and altered the tuning so it suited it’s soon to be new owner, Dave Praties. Dave has several recordings on his youtube site – HERE is one with Adrian’s Mori that he recently added.
Recently singer and musician Nick Hart launched Nick Hart Instruments and Nick recently took possession of a few of Adrian’s instruments still in our possession that needed a bit of tidying up and fixing and he will be preparing those for re-sale in the coming months on our behalf.
Song
Bruce Lindsay’s book ‘Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival’ has been on sale for a few months now and Chris Holderness has kindly written a review of this which is now available to read on our website.
The Folk Voice Conference – Traditional Song Forum This conference was due to take place in June 2020 and instead is being presented online over three Sunday afternoons – April 18th, 25th and May 2nd 2021.
The conference looks at the way in which traditional songs have been and are being performed and at the singers of tradition and the revival. There are some very interesting topics covered over the three Sundays with some excellent speakers. Worth pointing out are Bruce Lindsay (mentioned above) whose talk will be on “Some Nights at the Rechabite: How they built Sam Larner” and Katie Howson who will be talking about “A Hundred Years of Singing in a Fishing Community: King’s Lynn 1870-1970”.
Music Box Archive Megan Wisdom has recently added Rob and Lesley Neal and Tracey and Paul Wisdom to the Music Box Archive. An interview and recordings of each singer appear on each singer profile page. Megan will be back in Suffolk recording again over the summer.
Sea Shanty Article We are extremely grateful to Debbie Jones, press officer for the Harwich International Shanty Festival, for kindly writing an article about Sea Shanties. The festival committee are busy planning their 2021 Festival. Details can be found within the article on the Sea Shanty.
Jig Dolls
Jig Dolls in care homes in Stowmarket We are delighted with our new Jig Dolls in Care Homes resource presentation that Katie and John Howson created for EATMT. Volunteer Nina Truin is now in the process of booking the package into care homes across Stowmarket. There is clear guidance – including video and music clips – for care workers to learn, then “show and tell†on social afternoons in care homes and of course, the box of jig dolls will be included in the full package.
Interesting Jig Doll find
EATMT recently received an email and photos (above) from a lady who had been busy house clearing her parents’ home. In their possessions she found a jig doll that she had vaguely recollected seeing in her childhood. Her parents hailed from East Anglia – Mr Smith from Ipswich and her mother from Hartest near Bury St Edmunds but had moved away from the area in the 1950s. There is no patent number on the wooden doll – we thought perhaps it was a type of Jolly Boy. It is quite different from any of the images EATMT have in its archive. If you think you might know more, do get in touch!
Norfolk’s The Flying Folk Club Geoff Roberts sadly died at the end of February after a short illness. Damien Barber has kindly written a tribute to him which is on our website and Friend Pete Rushmer has written a tribute to the Norfolk Hero on Mardles online.
Geoff (on melodeon) with Mike Barber Photo K Woods
Keep up to date
Do keep checking our website over the coming months with our plans for bringing events to you. For an up to date listing of events across the region, look no further than Mardles online. And if you know that your favourite festival is not going ahead this year, or you don’t quite feel ready to attend your usual events, why not visit the regular stall holders’ websites instead.
East Anglia’s PJ Music has used the past year to update their website. Pete writes: “I am now about half way through the refurbishment of my new website. About 830 music books ranging from simple tune books, detailed instrument tutor books, maintenance and construction, English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, French, Eastern European, Scandinavian, and American tune, dance and song books. Many Whistles, Accessories, including Strings, and other interesting items have been added and there is still much more to come…â€
You can visit PJ Music on www.pjmusic.co.uk or telephone 01379 890088. PJ Music will be at Ely Folk Festival this year.
Hedingham Fair is another locally based company that many will know from folk festivals up and down the country. Their website will be having a major overhaul over the summer months but you will still be able to shop online with them at hedinghamfair.co.uk.
Volunteer Thanks
EATMT are grateful to the following volunteers who have given their time to help during the first 3 months of 2021: Eammon and Judy Andrews, Damien Barber, Ivan Cutting, Fiona Davies, Steve Dumpleton, Rita Gallard, Frances and Neil Hammond, Flos Headford, Alan Helsdon, Chris Holderness, Debbie Jones, Gemma Khawaja, Roderick Mansel, Lesley Neal, Rob Neal, Judy Smith, Miriam Stead, Nina Truin, Lindsay Want, Maria Windsor, Megan Wisdom, Paul Wisdom, Tracey Wisdom.
2020-2021 Supporter Thanks
The Scarfe Charitable Trust The Alfred Williams Charitable Trust Friends and Supporters of EATMT
Friends
As ever, we are extremely grateful to our supporters who have taken out a Friends’ membership with EATMT. This is an annual subscription of £15 and since its existence has been a vital part of our income. In addition, we are able to claim back Gift Aid through this scheme. Your support is invaluable and is very much appreciated. If you’re not yet a Friend or if you are a lapsed Friend, please do consider joining/re joining. You will benefit from cheaper event tickets and early bird booking as well as knowing that your contribution to the Trust helps keep traditions alive. Find our Friends’ membership form here.
Other ways to help
EATMT is a member of Recycle4charity. If you are working from home, you will likely be using up the ink in your home printers far quicker than normal. These can be recycled. BUT the system has changed. This company is no longer accepting the envelopes that we previously sent out. Instead you will need to go directly to their website and print off a label to get your free postage. As a sweetener for your extra efforts, the Trust is promised almost twice as much back per ink jet cartridge than previously, so please do consider this option. Please do get in touch if you would like to get involved in the Trust’s work. We rely heavily on volunteers but more than that, we rely heavily on your knowledge based input. We’d love to hear from you!
Wishing you all a safe return to a non lockdown life Alex Bartholomew, Administrator and the EATMT Trustees
The Scarfe Charitable Trust