This site is devoted to the musical traditions and customs of Kent. This may in time encompass dance, and seasonal customs such as hoodening, but the focus for now is very firmly on songs. The remit is “Songs sung in Kent” – this includes songs collected or recorded in Kent, but also songs collected in other counties, where the singer had Kentish roots and had learned the majority of his or her repertoire in Kent.
The songs can be described as “vernacular songs”, or simply as “folk songs”. Defining a folk song is notoriously difficult, but this site takes an inclusive approach – we’re not going to waste any time here arguing about what is or is not a folk song, what is or is not traditional…
The first phase of the Kent Trad project has been to transcribe songs which were noted down on paper, rather than recorded on tape, and to collate information about the men and women (and children) who sang them.
The transcriptions, biographies and website have been assembled by me, and any errors are undoubtedly mine. Please get in touch via info@kenttrad.org if you spot an error, if you can provide further information about any of the singers covered here, or if you have suggestions for improvements.
Andy Turner
January 2025
Thanks and acknowledgments
Special thanks to:
George Frampton, who carried out research into many aspects of music-making in Kent, mostly at a time before the availability of modern internet resources, and who has always been very generous in sharing the results of his research.
The staff, past and present, of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, without whose resources this website would not be possible.
Steve Roud, whose Indexes provided a starting point when planning this project.
Thanks also to:
Gavin Atkin; Andy Barnett; Charles Beale; David Boulding; Charlie and Lily Bridger; Gill Bromley; Keith Chandler; Richard Coomber; Paul Cowdell; Vic Gammon; Steve Gardham; Stephen Rowley; Sir Stephen Sedley; Paul Skelton; Vic Smith; Danny Stradling; Rod Stradling; David Sutcliffe; Malcolm Taylor; Kathy Wallwork; Mike Yates; Reinhard Zierke.
The majority of the banner images used at the top of these web pages come from my parents’ postcard collection – see https://bit.ly/turnerpostcards
Andy Turner
Andy is a well-regarded singer and anglo-concertina player. Although he has lived in Oxfordshire for more than half of his life, he was born and raised in Ashford, and has strong Kentish roots. He has long been interested in folk songs from Kent, and the men and women who sang them.
www.andyturnermusic.uk
