Paul Carter, 1932–2012

As an 18 year old, Paul Carter worked on the door of Mick Mulligan’s jazz club in North Cheam. By the late 1950s he had developed an interest in folk song as well as jazz and, with Scotsman Bruce Dunnet (a follower of Ewan MacColl), was running a folk club, Folksong Unlimited, in a central London pub. Having worked for a while in Collector Records, a record shop in Charing Cross Road, he progressed to supervising recordings for the shop’s associated record label. Collector Records specialised in jazz, folk and blues, and put out just a few records each year. Between 1959 and 1964 Carter was involved in recording EPs by traditional Irish and Scots singers such as Joe Heaney and Jeannie Robertson, as well as figures from the folk revival, including Robin Hall, A.L. Lloyd, Shirley Collins, and Bob Davenport and The Rakes, in what was their first ever collaboration. In 1960 Reg Hall of The Rakes (and an important figure in the “discovery” and exposure of rural singers and musicians such as Scan Tester in Sussex, and Walter and Daisy Bulwer in Norfolk) took Carter to a music and song session in Sussex. These sessions, organised by Mervyn Plunkett, but with a major input from Reg Hall, were regular events at the time. Subsequently recordings made by Plunkett were edited by Carter for a Collector EP titled 4 Sussex Singers (Collector Records, JEB 7, March 1961). One of those singers was George Spicer, singing ‘I Wish There Were No Prisons’.

Soon he was also making recordings on behalf of Topic Records. It was Ken Stubbs who initially located and recorded a Romany gypsy family, the Willetts, and brought them to the attention of Topic. They sent Bill Leader and Paul Carter (who had access to better recording equipment than Stubbs) to record them on a caravan site near Ashford in Middlesex, in late 1961. These recordings, of Tom Willett and his sons Chris and Ben, were made available on the Topic LP The Roving Journeymen (12T84, 1962) – a landmark album, as it was the first long-playing record ever released of English traditional singers.

In the autumn of 1962 he went out in company with Ken Stubbs and Steve Pennells, looking for Gypsy singers or musicians to record. The following accounts are reproduced from Philip Heath-Coleman’s notes to the CD Boshamengro (Musical Traditions, MTCD373, 2017):

On Sunday 7 October 1962 Henry Lee – as he is generally remembered by his family and other travellers – was encamped at a favourite stopping place on Marden Plain, near Paddock Wood in Kent, as was his wont at hopping time, as much, apparently, for the occasion as for the work. With him in two unassuming caravans were members of his extended family, including grandchildren and his father-in-law Albert ‘Bullbred’  Smith: some of them at least are said to have travelled from Essex for the season. Returning home at closing time that Sunday afternoon, the men had settled down around the fire with a cup of tea, and Harry may already have taken out his fiddle to entertain the assembled company.

[…]

It was in search of Romany musicians that the collector Ken Stubbs and fiddler Steve Pennells had visited nearby Horsmonden that same Sunday, accompanied by Paul Carter who was there on behalf of Topic Records at Ken Stubbs’s invitation to record any music they found. On another day they might have run into the singers and musicians Minty, Jasper and Levi Smith, cousins of Harry’s wife Sarah Ann – usually known as Sary Ann – or possibly Minty’s husband, the fiddler Frank Smith.

The travellers would usually be in the area for a month or so around the Horse Fair which was held at Horsmonden on the second Sunday in September, to coincide with the hopping season. On the occasion in question Ken and Steve had failed to find any musicians at Horsmonden, but another traveller suggested that they should visit Harry Lee, who was encamped nearby, and persuaded his teenaged son to show them the way.

Carter was able to record 17 tracks in total of Harry Lee playing tunes on the fiddle. Two of these were included on the 1974 Topic LP, Boscastle Breakdown (12T240), and all of the recordings can be found 0n the Musical Traditions CD Boshamengro. Harry Lee is the only Romany fiddler of whom any significant number of recordings exists.

With his wife Angela – also a keen folk singer and musician, and later to become an acclaimed novelist – Paul Carter moved to Bristol and took up a teaching post at the Technical College. He continued to do work for both Collector and Topic – the latter paid him a modest stipend, and he would edit tapes for Topic in his front room. The Carters also started up and ran a couple of folk clubs in Bristol. The second of these, the Folk Song and Ballads club at the Lansdown, pursued a definite policy of favouring traditional songs performed in a traditional manner.

Paul had heard Phoebe Smith sing at Cecil Sharp House in London, and “felt she should be represented in the Topic catalogue. I knew that Frank Purslow knew her quite well and was familiar with her repertoire, so an arrangement was made for Frank and I to visit her. I picked up Frank from Bampton. Frank had decided what Phoebe should be asked to sing. We went to Woodbridge the next day. I was there to press the buttons on my Uher portable, and that’s about all. I’ve no recollection of the visit, but there were things on my mind at the time. It turned out that I had picked up the wrong tape boxes, and what I had was not virgin tape but stuff for recycling. So although these songs played fine on my Uher and on the bigger machine I used for editing, when they got to London the previous recording on them showed through”.¹

This was  in early 1969. Topic decided that the recordings were unusable, so Carter and Purslow went back to Suffolk to record Phoebe again. These recordings were released on Once I Had a True Love, (Topic Records, 12T193, 1970). The LP met a decidedly unfavourable reception in some quarters, with the result that Carter asked Topic to remove his name from the credits. His marriage to Angela Carter had broken down by this point (they divorced in 1972) and Once I Had a True Love appears to have been the last work he did for Topic, or any other recording company. He did however return to taking part in traditional singing events in the years before his death in 2012.

1. Paul Carter, quoted in Mike Butler, Sounding the Century: Bill Leader & Co. Vol. 3, Troubador, 2023, p172-173 ↩︎

Frank Purslow, né Chapman, 1926–2007

Born in Edgbaston, Frank’s early interest in folk song was reawakened when he moved to London after the Second World War – in particular by the singing of Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd, and their Ballads and Blues folk club. It was here that he heard his first traditional singer, Phoebe Smith, whom he subsequently recorded for Topic Records with Paul Carter.

Frank regularly attended events at the EFDSS headquarters Cecil Sharp House, and volunteered in the Society’s Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. It was in the library that he encountered the songs which he recorded with guitarist John Pearse for a 1960 LP entitled Rap-A-Tap-Tap: English Folk Songs Miss Pringle Never Taught Us (when released in the United States the LP was retitled Unexpurgated Songs Of Erotica, although this was presumably a marketing ploy, rather than an indication that the songs on the album are at all shocking). More importantly, it was VWML librarian Sara Jackson who introduced Frank to the manuscript song collections made by Henry and Robert Hammond, mainly in Dorset, and by George Gardiner in Hampshire. Frank indexed these collections, and songs from them were made available – in singable versions – in four very popular and influential songbooks, beginning with Marrow Bones in 1965. Long out of print, these have all now been republished.

Frank moved to Bampton in Oxfordshire in the early 1960s. He fooled, danced and played with two of the village’s three morris sides, and played for almost 30 years in the popular Bampton Barn Dance Band. He died shortly before he was due to receive the EFDSS Gold Badge award; this was presented to his half-brother after the funeral.

Mike Yates, 1943–

Mike Yates is one of the most important post-war collectors. He has recorded singers and musicians in Yorkshire, Scotland and, following in the footsteps of Cecil Sharp, in the Appalachian Mountains of the USA. But the majority of his recordings were made in Southern England, particularly among gypsies and travellers, and while he recorded relatively few singers in Kent itself, he made numerous recordings of singers with Kentish connections.

Mike has written about how he came to be a collector in an article entitled ‘Time Has Made a Change – some reflections’ (Musical Traditions, 2021, https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/time-change.htm). His interest in folk music was initially sparked by BBC schools radio programmes, the songs sung by his father and grandfather, Peter Kennedy’s As I roved out radio broadcasts, James Reeves’ anthology of folk song words The Idiom of the People, then skiffle and blues. He borrowed a tape recorder, and made his first recordings, while doing Voluntary Service Overseas in the Solomon Islands. On his return to the UK in 1963 he worked in the Sound Library at Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, as an assistant to Peter Kennedy.  His parents bought him a Uher tape recorder in 1964, and he used it to make his first recordings of an English singer:

One of my first song collecting trips was to Shropshire, to visit Fred Jordan.  Fred had previously been recorded for the radio program ‘As I Roved Out’ and had sung in quite a number of folk clubs and festivals.  He was quite used to singing into a microphone and was quite happy for me to record many of his songs.  Shortly afterwards I contacted Topic Records in London and asked if they might like to issue an album.  Gerry Sharp, then Topic’s managing director, liked the idea and Bill Leader, Topic’s recording engineer (and a man who taught me a lot about recording techniques), collected Fred en-route to my parent’s pub in Altringham.  We recorded the album -‘Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker’, Topic 12T150 – in my bedroom over a couple of days.  

In the mid-1970s numerous LPs of Mike’s field recordings were issued on Topic Records. One of the first of these was the 1974 album Blackberry Fold, which presented a selection from the repertoire of George Spicer (long resident in Sussex, but born and brought up in Little Chart) and several compilation LPs featuring multiple Southern English singers. Among these compilations were Green grow the laurels (two tracks recorded at St Margarets at Cliffe from Jack Goodban), and Songs of the open road and The Travelling Songster, which featured songs and dance tunes recorded from English gypsies. The singers on these albums included  Joe Jones and Bill Ellson (both recorded in Kent), Phoebe Smith (recorded in Suffolk, but born and raised in East Kent), and the siblings Minty, Levi and Jasper Smith, who had spent their lives travelling through Kent and Surrey.

Jasper Smith, Bill Ellson and Joe Jones also appeared on the 1985 Topic album, Travellers, as well as Chris Willett, four of whose songs had appeared on the influential 1962 LP of the Willett Family, The Roving Journeymen. Mike wrote of that earlier LP

This was the album that introduced me to the singing of English Gypsies.  When I started collecting songs from English singers, I quickly remembered this album and, to start with, I used to take it with me to Gypsy camps, playing the tracks to any Gypsy who was interested in listening.  It was a good way of finding out if any of the listeners knew any songs themselves, because they were soon singing along with the Willets.¹

In 1984, on a visit to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, the then librarian Malcolm Taylor introduced me to Mike Yates, and I arranged for him to come down to Stone-in-Oxney to record Charlie Bridger. These recordings appeared initially on Veteran Tapes releases, but subsequently – like a lot of Mike’s field recordings from the 1960s, 70s and 80s – have been available via releases on the Musical Traditions label. Copies of Mike’s entire sound recording archive are deposited with the British Library and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

1. Mike Yates, Ten Records that Changed my Life, Musical Traditions, 2006, https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/ten.htm ↩︎

The following appeared in the ‘Thanet Items’ section of the East Kent Times and Mail, 25^th May 1904:

A writer in a county journal says:—”All Kentish people have cause to remember with gratitude a lady who has just passed away at Margate. I refer to Miss de Vaynes, to whom the county is indebted for the existence in collected form of many old Kentish songs and ballads, as well as a large number of fugitive poems relating to Kent. In making this invaluable collection, which is published in two volumes under the title of ‘The Kentish Garland,’ Miss de Vaynes had the benefit of the assistance of the Rev. Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth,  Vicar of Molash, near Ashford, and a great authority on English ballad lore.”

Julia Henrietta Louisa De Vaynes, 1853-1904

Julia De Vaynes was born on 23^rd January 1853, and baptised at the church of St John the Baptist, Margate. Her father, William Angus De Vaynes, had been described in the 1851 census as “Landed proprietor”; her Irish mother Julia, according to a newspaper obituary, “was descended from Conal-Eachwath, King of Munster, A.D. 366” and also from the “royal line of Plantagenet”.¹ She was brought up in the family home of Updown House, St Johns, Margate, and having lived elsewhere in Margate and Ramsgate she returned there towards the end of her life – the 1901 census shows her as “Landowner manor” – and it was there that she died on May 16^th 1904. The Kentish Express, 21^st May 1904 reported her death as follows:

Lovers of old Kentish ballads will hear with deep regret of the death of Miss Julia Henrietta L. De Vaynes, the talented authoress of the “Kentish Garland,” which took place suddenly at Updown House, Margate, on Monday, at the age of fifty-one. Miss De Vaynes was the daughter of the late Captain De Vaynes, and was of Huguenot descent, her ancestors having come to this country after the Revocation of Nantes.

As well as compiling The Kentish Garland she also edited A Huguenot Garland, a collection of Huguenot songs, published in 1890.

Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth

Born on 2^nd September 1824 in Lambeth, Ebsworth trained as an artist, and taught at the Glasgow School of Design before being ordained at York in 1864. He became vicar of Molash in January 1871 and remained there until his retirement in 1894, when he moved, initially to 13 Wellesley Villas, Ashford, and later to The Priory, Sackville Crescent, Godinton Road, Ashford.

Molash was a poor parish – the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography quotes a letter in which he described himself as “choir-master, clerk, sexton, pastor, parish church-warden and sole paymaster”, although the ODNB also records that “he devoted most of his time to literary work at home and to research in the British Museum”.² He became an energetic supporter of the Ballad Society, and was responsible for editing and preparing for publication several volumes of ballads, including the final six volumes of the Society’s edition of the 17^th century Roxburghe Ballads.

Ebsworth died on 7^th June 1908, and was buried in Ashford cemetery on 11^th June.

The Kentish Garland

In his book Victorian Songhunters E. David Gregory characterised the publication thus:

The Kentish Garland looked back to the vogue for regional collections started by James Halliwell and continued by Davison Ingledew, John Harland, Llewellynn Jewitt, and Thomas Allan. The approach was essentially antiquarian, and there was no material collected directly from oral tradition. The Kentish Garland came in two large volumes, published in 1881-1882, edited by Julia H. L. de Vaynes, a close friend of Joseph W. Ebsworth, who contributed the illustrations and some of the notes. In compiling the books de Vaynes drew on Ebsworth’s personal collection of ballads and poems relating to Kent, and she had no lack of suitable material. This superfluity allowed her to be selective, and one of her editorial decisions was to omit “all coarse ballads.” Recognizing that “the days and modes of speech of our old song-writers were different from our own” and that “words which fall unheeded on the ears of one age jar unpleasantly in the next,” she also felt constrained in a few instances to censor her remaining material, opting to “sacrifice a few lines” or to replace “offensive phrases” by invented substitutes in square brackets. As a result, The Kentish Garland failed to give a comprehensive picture of the popular culture of the county, and the number of vernacular songs included in the publication was surprisingly small despite de Vaynes’s extensive use of broadsides as primary sources.³

In other words, the material in The Kentish Garland was about Kent, not necessarily from Kent. The collection included some content which was entirely literary in nature, and there were relatively few songs which were sung by ordinary people in Kent – at least, not in the 1880s. Having said that, there were some, such as ‘The Rambling Sailor’, which were taken from broadside ballad sheets, but which have been collected from oral tradition, and which one would definitely class as “vernacular song” or “folk song”.

The two volumes were well received at the time. For instance the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 21^st May 1881, posted the following notice:

“THE KENTISH GARLAND.”-A handsomely-bound volume of ballads relating to the county of Kent has just been issued under this title, the work having been edited by Miss Julia H. L. De Vaynes, of Margate. This collection of Kentish ballads is the only one ever issued, and thus it will, in all probability, become exceedingly popular. Miss De Vaynes has put together, in admirably arranged order, a series of songs and ballads dating several centuries back, which are accompanied by interesting notes by Mr. J. W. Ebsworth, M.A., F.S.A., who has written an appropriate prelude entitled “The Men of Kent.”

The ballads and other pieces have been taken from the British Museum and Oxfordshire collections and other printed and manuscript sources; they relate to all parts of Kent, and comprise a great many election ditties, and songs on the Kentish Volunteers, bowmen, hopmen, cricketers, &c. Some of the pieces are exceedingly quaint, and those on election matters will be perused with peculiar interest. Two of these, which conclude the “Election group,” refer to the stormy period of the Catholic Emancipation Act; the first, ” Blue Banners with a green border,” appeared in the Times of October 21, 1828, and, we are told, was sung at the Star Inn, Maidstone, during an Anti-Brunswick Dinner, the Earl of Darnley in the chair, supported by Lord Sondes, etc.” We quote the refrain :

“March, march, Brydges and Winchelsea
Why don’t ye Brunswickers march in good order ?
March, march, Wells ‘of the bloody knee!’
All the blue banners have got a green border!”

There is a sonnet by Wordsworth (1803), and among the authors of other poems are Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dibdin, the elder, Jolin Oxenford, Walter Thornbury, W. C. Bennett, and Mr. Ebsworth. Miss De Vaynes states in her preface that The Kentish Garland is “not long to be left unaccompanied; ” and while congratulating her upon this first collection, we can assure her that another volume of these old Kentish songs and ballads will be cordially welcomed. We ought to say that the work has been well printed by Messrs. Stephen Austin and Sons, of Hertford, and admirably bound by Mr. H. J. Goulden, of Canterbury.

The two volumes were put out by a Hertford publisher, hence the extensive coverage in the Hertford Mercury and Reformer. The issue for 15^th July 1882 quoted at length from an article on ballad illustrations which had appeared in The Bibliographer, “a Journal of Book-lore”:

Miss Julia de Vaynes has collected into two handsome volumes the most interesting and representative ballads connected with the county of Kent, and in her labour of love she has been greatly assisted by Mr. Ebsworth, one of our greatest ballad authorities. Mr. Ebsworth has not been content to throw out the stores of his erudition in notes; but he has contributed a series of woodcuts, which are copied from the original ballads and are greatly improved by the process of transfer. The history of ballad illustrations has still to be written, and we hope that some day Mr. Ebsworth will write such a history. Woodcuts that had become too old and worn for the books they were made for were handed over to the ballad printer, who used them with very little regard to their Illustration of the ballads to which he joined them. Sometimes the block was too big for the purpose required, and it was at once ruthlessly cut in in half; not only that, but the same woodcuts were used over and over again, and the accepted lover of one ballad did duty as the indignant father of another. Mr. Ebsworth has retained the quaintness, but he has thrown a spirit over the whole that undoubtedly will not be found in the original.

We have a representation of two ballad singers at Sevenoaks fair in olden time. A few names of ballad-singers have come down to us, and some stories which tell of their earnings. Henry Chettle, in his Kind Hart’s Dream 1592), mentions the sons of one Barnes who boasted they could earn twenty shillings a day by singing ballads at Bishop’s Stortford and places in the neighbourhood. ‘Out roaring Dick’ earned ten shillings a day by singing at Braintree fair. A gipsy named Alice Boyce, who came to London in Elizabeth’s reign, paid the expenses of her journey up to London by singing the whole way. She had the honour of singing ‘O the Broom’ and ‘Lady Green Sleeves” before the Queen. The ballad writers were mostly on the side of the king at the period of the Civil War; and in 1648 Captain Betham was appointed Provost Marshal with power to seize upon ballad-singers. After the Restoration, at a time when the Court was out of popular favour, it was discovered that ballad-singers had too much liberty; and as late as 1763 we learn that two women were sent to Bridewell for singing political ballads before Lord Bute’s door in South Audley Street. Dorothy Fuzz was a famous ballad singer at Sevenoaks fair, but we suppose she lived at a later date than the man and woman shown in our illustration. This Kentish Garland does great credit to the taste and research of Miss De Vaynes, who has brought together much interesting matter connected with the ever-memorable county of Kent. Mr. Ebsworth has added two full indexes—one of first lines, burdens and tunes, the other of authors, titles, subjects, etc. At the head of this second index is a woodcut of the female drummer, which we are told may be taken to symbolize the fair editor, with J. W. playing second fiddle or fife and subscribers following. Prefixed to the list of subscribers is a pretty little vignette in which we see a board with this inscription, ‘Notice—no begging allowed here.’ Lower down we that the issue is strictly limited to one hundred and fifty copies, and that a few remain unsubscribed for. We expect that these copies will not remain much longer.

The same newspaper, on 2nd September 1882, contained an even longer article, reproduced from The Times, of which this is but an extract:

Nearer to the heart than the love of country lies the love of county, and there are people with whom it becomes an absorbing and engrossing passion. No one goes so heartily about a grand piece oi literary life work as your fervid county historian, who has money and leisure and pronounced archaeological tastes; who is learned in mediaeval architecture, and curious in legends and pedigrees. Kent, with its Hasteds and Lambardes and their humbler followers, is especially rich in county histories which have treated its manifold attractions—historical, picturesque, domestic, and romantic—with all the minuteness of scholarly detail. But the richer the harvest, the more is left for the gleaners; and Miss De Vaynes and Mr. Ebsworth have supplemented the more serious labours of their predecessors by gathering a variegated Garland of Kentish poetry. They do not profess to stand upon the excellence of the verses in their collection, and many of these are more characteristic than beautiful, as will be obvious when we say that a most miscellaneous collection is contained in a couple of portly octavo volumes, and that the harmonious measures of a Spenser or a Waller are mingled with doggerel catchpenny ballads and effusions disentombed from the poets’ corners of the county journals of former generations. The sole condition of admission consists in the more or less questionable metre being illustrative  of something in connexion with the county. Yet there can be no question that not only to Kentish men, but to archaeologist in general, the quaint medley will be of great interest. Kent has always been in many ways a representative county. To the south it is washed by the narrow waters that divide our Island from the nearest Continental ports, while on the northern side it touches the confines of the metropolis. It was the Kentish men who bore the brunt of the foreign invasions ; who boasted of dictating conditions to the Conqueror, and of bringing his fierce half-brother of Bayeux to reason ; and who, repeatedly mustering in their masses under popular leaders, marched on the Court and the capital in defence of popular rights. Kentish men went to man the fleets that lay at their moorings in the Downs, and the smuggling cutters that ran their cargoes everywhere, storing contraband in the caverns in the chalk cliffs. Kent has supplied to contemporary biography  a superabundance of martyrs, and highwaymen, while it has always been intimately associated with literary men from the days of the munificent Archbishop Lanfranc down to those of Charles Dickens. We have the humours of the Canterbury pilgrimages as celebrated by Chaucer, and the humours of Greenwich fair, as sung for coppers at street corners. There are pre-historic remains like those of Kit’s Coty House ; there are ecclesiastical piles like the Cathedral of Canterbury ; and there arc castles and balls, restored or in ruins, once associated with noble and knightly families which are nothing more nowadays, than a name and a memory. The Kentish bowmen immortalized themselves from Hastings to Agincourt; the wealth of the yeomen of the Weald, represented by Mr. Wardle, of the Manor Farm, in recent fiction, had passed into a proverb in the time of the Plantagenets ; while the fiercely contested battles of the hustings which half ruined more than one of the most ancient families exercised a greater influence on contemporary politics than those of Lancashire or the Ridings of Yorkshire. So that Miss De Vaynes’s industry easily found material for her collection ; while Mr. Ebsworth has contributed a variety of notes full of antiquarian and historical learning.

The two volumes of The Kentish Garland are available to view on the Internet Archive:

• Volume 1
• Volume 2

1. Kentish Gazette, 14 September 1886 ↩︎
2. Ridler, Ann Margaret,  ‘Ebsworth, Joseph Woodfall (1824–1908), literary editor and artist’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32964 ↩︎
3. E. David Gregory, Victorian Songhunters: The Recovery and Editing of English Vernacular Ballads and Folk Lyrics, 1820-1883, Lanham:Scarecrow, 2006, p367 ↩︎

William George Glanfield, 1855-1935

William Glanfield was born at the School House, Sandgate on 29^th March 1855, and baptised at St Paul’s, Sandgate, on 30^th May. His father – also William – was head master at the National School in Sandgate from 1854 to 1884, and this was the school which young William attended. When he left school he was apprenticed to a Folkestone printer, and then worked for a printing company in London. On returning to Folkestone, he joined the staff of the Folkestone Chronicle, subsequently absorbed by the Folkestone Herald (there were four rival newspapers in the town at that time). His association with the Folkestone Herald began in November 1891, about six months after the birth of that newspaper. His obituary in the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 2^nd February 1935, recorded that

In the first special article that he penned for the paper to which he was to devote his life during the next 44 years, there was a touch of romance and drama. It was a graphic account of the wreck of the “Benvenue,” a ship which was wrecked at Sandgate on November 11th, 1891, in a terrific gale. It was this story of the terrible peril of the crew of the wrecked vessel and the gallant attempts at rescue that “Felix” submitted to the then very young “Folkestone Herald.” It was accepted, and in the issue of the paper that week appeared a picture of the rescued crew. “Felix” had taken the precious negative to London and returned to Folkestone with the process block from which the first picture of the kind was printed in a local newspaper. […]

It was a memorable beginning to a great career In which his powers as a descriptive writer were so often brilliantly used.

Under the non-de-plume ‘Felix’, Glanfield was most closely associated with the “About the neighbourhood” columns which appeared in the paper. In these he wrote about local events he had attended, and about characters he had met, and the sights he had seen, on his lengthy walks around the countryside. The events sometimes included harvest homes and hunt suppers, where singing might take place, while the local characters he wrote about were sometimes identified as singers. These included Charley Appleton, James Rye, George Mount, and Tom Catt. He did not himself collect any folk songs; indeed when he reproduced the words of ‘We are all Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough’ in his column, these had been written out and sent to him by Charley Appleton.

Glanfield himself was a singer, for 19 years a member of the choir of Holy Trinity, Folkestone, with whom he took the role of bass soloist: “He had a voice of quality, and could sing some of the best-loved of the older songs with tremendous feeling”.¹ The phrase “older songs” here almost certainly does not refer to traditional folk songs, but is probably reflective of his distaste for more modern musical styles (see the article quoted below, headed ‘The Folkestone Harbour Marine Staff’). His writings about singing events, certainly towards the end of his life, are decidedly nostalgic, but consistently applaud and promote the virtues of “community singing”. For example, writing in 1934 about the singing of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ at an annual dinner of the Shorncliffe Drag Hunt some forty years earlier, he concludes

Singing! Rough and ready it might have been, but what a treat to hear those yeomen “go it.” ²

William Glanfield was knocked down by a motor car in November 1934 and, after having spent some time in hospital, he died at his home, 6 Russell Road, Folkestone, on 29^th January 1935, at the age of 79.

Extracts from Glanfield’s writing

HARVEST HOME AT NEWINGTON.

FARM HANDS ENJOY A SUBSTANTIAL DINNER.

A CELEBRATED BRAND OF BEEF PUDDINGS.

“THE EMPEROR OF NEWINGTON, “KING OF CHERITON,” AND “SHAH OF FOLKESTONE.”

A RATTLING GOOD EVENING.

(By Felix.).

We are just now in the thick of harvest celebrations, both religious and secular. I have no doubt that nearly all the company I had the pleasure of meeting on Wednesday evening at the “Star,” Newington, had been at least reminded of the spiritual lessons of the ingathering of the crops, and thus, in a measure, they had been prepared for the festivity, which, so far as Cheriton and Newington are concerned, marks an annual red-letter day in the lives of those who “plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land.” This harvest home, unique in its way, is given to the men in their employ by Mr. Quested, of “The Firs,” Cheriton, and Mr. F. Graves, of “Pound Farm,” Newington. For six months in the year the past Celebration is a pleasant memory, and during the other half of the twelve months, the coming festivity provides the pleasures of anticipation. Five years have slipped past since I was enabled to accept the hospitality of the founders of this particular feast.

OPPORTUNITY, HOWEVER, OFFERED ITSELF

on this occasion. Accordingly I found myself at the celebrated hostelry referred to on the evening in question. Here I had the pleasure of meeting Alderman Banks, a number of invited guests, and about fifty sons of toil. The dining room was a picture and a reminder of the special nature of the celebration. From the ceiling were suspended huge specimens of gourds, mangold wurtzels, marrows, cow cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, etc., whilst autumnal flowers added yet another touch of colour and brightness to the scene, which was lighted by means of oil lamps and candles. When the senior Alderman of Folkestone, surrounded by several old and young friends, sank into his comfortable arm-chair, he received a right down hearty welcome from the assembled company. Dressed all in their Sunday best, each wearing a flower or wisp of corn in their coats, these workers, with their ruddy, shining faces, presented a typical picture of the English agricultural labourer. The clear air of Wednesday last will be remembered for its exhilarating qualities, and this, coupled with the healthful calling of the men, will readily account for the fact that appetites were in perfect condition. No supper at the “Star” would be complete without a supply of Mrs. Maycock’s special brand of Newington beef puddings.

THESE DELICACIES ARE FAMED THE COUNTRY ROUND,

and the farm hands swear by them. Offer these sons of toil clear or thick ox-tail soup, turbot, and shrimp sauce, or salmon and cucumber, and their faces would probably wear a look of disgust or wonderment, , but substitute beef pudding for these, and then they will understand matters, adding, perhaps, by way of comment: “Ah! That’s the tackle, There’s summut there to lay hold on.” Therefore, when the stalwart sons of Mr. Maycock entered the room, each bearing on a dish a mammoth and steaming beef pudding, knives and forks were seized almost involuntarily. Mr. “Freddy” Graves and Mr. Councillor Quested,

EACH ARMED WITH A CARVER,

proceeded to cut the light crust of the puddings, and as the water gushed out of the rock at the touch of Moses, so did the delicious gravy at the hands of the gentlemen mentioned. Thereafter the puddings (during the short time they remained) were as islands of beef and crust, surrounded by rich gravy. Mashed turnips, floury potatoes, and tender cabbage, also contributed to the first course, which a neighbouring ploughman remarked, was very well by way of foundation. Puddings are generally supposed to be satisfying. One helping is generally thought to be amply sufficient to meet the requirements of an average townsman, but with the “man on the land,” it is a mere “paving of the way.” Thus it was that when rounds of roast beef and boiled legs of mutton made their appearance, only to disappear, that somewhat Nelsonian command

was strictly obeyed : “Newington expects that every man, this night, will do his duty.” Just by way of settling these substantial courses, “Christmas” puddings were then discussed with astounding vigour. Now

EMPTY PLATES AND SATISFIED EXPRESSIONS

told their own eloquent tale. Mr. Evans, the ever genial manager of the Royal Pavilion Hotel, graced the company with his presence, and I doubt, with all his experience of banquets, and their tempting menus, if he ever gazed upon a company that did better justice to a spread than did the guests over at Newington. The Alderman having “returned thanks,” tables were cleared, “Churchwarden” pipes, “jugs of beer,” and beverages from the Emerald Isle and North of the Tweed, were now much in evidence. “Minerals” also there were in plenty for those who needed them. The Chairman, in spite of the 76 years that weigh lightly upon him, was in his best form—full of “go,” racy, and witty. In glowing Ianguage he proposed the health of “The Queen,” and in doing so he expressed his opinion that in 50 years’ time the English language would be almost universal. The toast was accorded the usual loyal honours, Mr. Percy Greenstreet presiding at the piano. Thereafter

SPEECH AND SONG ALTERNATED.

Dick Mount, a farm hand of some seventy summers, in a twenty-verse song, told the story of a bashful swain and an innocent country lass, whilst another follower of the plough related in a ditty the doings of a certain little tailor of Dover³, much to the amusement of the company. Other successful vocal efforts were also duly enjoyed, and notable amongst these were the contributions of the ill-used Folkestone minstrels. A few toasts were proposed. One ancient countryman, in lieu of a song, was heard to express himself to the following effect :-

“Here’s to mountains of beef
And rivers of beer,
A good-temper’d wife,
And a thousand a year.”

Perhaps the first three he has realised, but whether the thousand will ever come to him time alone will prove. Let us hope so, but perhaps, after all, he is just as happy without it.

ALDERMAN BANKS,

in a humorous speech, proposed “The Founders of the feast,” Messrs. Quested and Graves. The former gentleman is generally known as Chairman of the Cheriton Urban District Council, but the Alderman has conferred upon him the title of the King of Cheriton, whilst the owner of Pound Farm is henceforward to be known as the “Emperor of Newington.” Thus the senior Alderman orders it. The Chairman then proceeded to give a learned dissertation on matters generally appertaining to agriculture, and, in the course of his remarks, proceeded to tell the labourers that they were better off than their masters, that was, “If they could only see it.” He had known both Mr. Quested and Mr. Graves for several years, and from what he knew of them both, he had no hesitation in describing them as “jolly good fellows.” The company, now warming up to the occasion, appeared to agree with this latter opinion, for the men burst out in loud applause.  The “The Emperor of Newington” replied and acknowledged, in grateful terms,

THE GAME OLD ALDERMAN’S

remarks, expressing a hope they would be able to welcome him on many similar occasions. “The King of Cheriton,” not to be outdone in courtesy, expressed the pleasure it gave him to listen to Alderman Banks’ remarks, and before sitting down he felt he was only interpreting the wishes of all when he conferred upon the Alderman a fresh title. A few days since, at a meeting at the Town Hall, Sir Ed. Sassoon had described the chairman as The “Grand Old Man of Folkestone,” but he (Mr. Quested) would go a step further in exchange for the honours accorded both himself and his colleague by conferring upon the Alderman the title of “The Shah of Folkestone.” Amidst loud laughter the speaker concluded by proposing the Chairman’s health. “The Shah,” in acknowledging the honour, said although he did not possess so many wives as the eastern potentate, he was very well satisfied with one. He could assure them all he was proud of his new title, and would do his best to be worthv of his exalted position. The speaker concluded a characteristic racy speech by declaring that although at his advanced age he could not expect to be present at many more such gatherings, yet he hoped they would meet for many years in a similar manner, for it was well that men and masters should gather round the festive board. The hour’s extension (11 o’clock) having been reached, the company separated, the farm hands to dream of beef pudding; the royalty” and other guests of a more pleasant diversion from the ordinary trammels of daily existence. ⁴

The Folkestone Harbour Marine Staff.

On Saturday night I found myself in the company of as jolly a lot of young fellows as could wish to meet. They were the rank and tile of those that do duty in handling the goods traffic when, as a rule, Folkestone is sleeping. They celebrated their existence on Saturday evening by enjoying what might be described as a “cut and come again” kind of repast. There were no printed menus, but there was a choice of roast or boiled (the latter with trimming,). There were no “hedgers.” Every man did his duty in this respect, and after their hearty repast they could adopt the lines of the song

“I feel content with all mankind,
For life’s a sea of pleasure.”

But although this kind of sentiment may be of a transient nature, yet it is wonderful how these little functions draw people together. In the long run it all tends to friendship and comradeship. On this occasion there was a flow of songs, not of the American jazz order, but those good old British ditties, that stand the test of time—”the songs my mother used to sing.” Time after time have I attended pleasant little functions where songs have a place, but invariably I have heard people express themselves after a fill of jazz. “Ah! After all, there is nothing like the old songs.” This gathering I was at on Saturday night was at the Harvey Hotel, where it was my lot a year or so ago to sit out an after-dinner programme. In the afternoon I had listened at the Pleasure Gardens to that great artiste, Mr. John Coates, who rendered in his incomparable style some of those now little known old English songs of periods long ago. It was a delightful experience. In the evening I had to hear the following twentieth century composition set to “jazz ” music:-

“I love doughnuts with jam in the
Jam in the middle, jam in the middle.'”

The contrast was great, and the more so owing to the rendering of another ditty termed, “They think I’m not all there.” But on Saturday last we had the “good old timers” including “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,”  “The Farmer’s Boy,” “The Village Blacksmith,” and others of that ilk. As a sturdy harbour porter remarked to me: ” Say, Felix, there is ‘something to eat’ in those kind of songs.” Yes, that event at the Harvey Hotel reminded me of the good old sing-songs and “friendly leads” of years ago. I would like to see more of them. I firmly believe there will be a revival in this respect. ⁶

Further extracts from “About the neighbourhood” columns by ‘Felix’ can be found in the articles on Charley Appleton, James Rye, George Mount, and Tom Catt.

1. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 02 February 1935 ↩︎
2. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 03 March 1934 ↩︎
3. This song was most probably Roud 570, known under various titles including ‘The Bold Boatswain of Dover’ and  ‘The Boatsman and the tailor’. ↩︎
4. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 06 October 1900 ↩︎
5. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 19th February 1927 ↩︎
6. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 28th January 1928 ↩︎