Kate Oliver

Kate Oliver, née Buckman, 1881-1967

Between 1943 and 1952, Francis Collinson collected nine songs or song tunes from a Mrs Oliver of Bethersden. Collinson included her tune for ‘I wish I wish’ in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 1946, writing:

Mrs. Oliver of Bethersden, Kent, comes from a naturally musical family each member of which played an instrument, either violin, concertina or piano, and all of them self-taught. She played the airs of the tunes to me on the English concertina and spoke the words to me afterwards. She learned the songs from her father, who knew upwards of a hundred songs. I have noted a number of songs from her in addition to the incomplete one below, including “Blackberry Fold,” “The Cottage in the wood,” ” Mary at the garden gate ” and “The sprig of thyme.” Mrs. Oliver is a woman of middle age.¹

Looking at records from the 1939 Register, there are at least three married women in Bethersden, with the surname Oliver, who could meet the imprecise description “a woman of middle age”. The most likely seemed to be Mrs Kate Oliver, if only because Horace Buckman, who George Frampton has identified as having taken part in musical activities in the village before the First World War², was her older brother. In fact, George has been able to positively identify Kate Oliver as Collinson’s singer – in an article in Bygone Kent he quotes Mrs Oliver’s daughter Mrs Rhoda Sargeant (born 1925), who remembered Francis Collinson visiting the family to note down the songs, and later hearing them sung on ‘Country Magazine’:

My mother learnt the songs as a young girl from her father who played them on his concertina which she learnt to play when she was quite young — it was a natural talent, as she had no lessons except a few tips from her father who was also a natural player.³

Kate was born in 1881, the eighth child of agricultural labourer Jeremiah Buckman, originally from High Halden, and Sarah, née Russell. The 1881 census (shortly before Kate was born) showed the family living at Paris Cottages, Bethersden. In 1891, they were at Bateman Lane, Bethersden, but Jeremiah and his two youngest daughters were back at Paris Corner in 1901 (Kate’s mother Sarah had died in 1896). Kate, now 19, was working as a domestic help.

In 1906 she married farm labourer John Charles Oliver, and at the next census were to be found living at Paris Corner, with a baby son. Her father, Jeremiah had died in November 1910, so John was shown as head of the household. In 1921 their address was 5 St Peters Row, Bethersden; they had another three sons and one daughter. John was now working as a Roadstone Carrier for H Godden Contractor, while Kate’s occupation was shown as “Home Duties”. In September 1939 they were at 5 Council Houses, Bethersden; Kate’s occupation was “Unpaid Domestic Duties”. Three children were still in the parental home, including their youngest child Rhoda, who was approaching fourteen.

Kate Oliver died aged 85, on 20^th March 1967. She was buried at Bethersden Methodist Church. An obituary in the Kentish Express, 31^st March 1967, gave her address at the time of her death as Bailey Field, Bethersden.

Jeremiah Buckman, 1833–1907

As noted above, Kate learned her repertoire of songs “as a young girl from her father who played them on his concertina which she learnt to play when she was quite young — it was a natural talent, as she had no lessons except a few tips from her father who was also a natural player”. The age given for her father Jeremiah in census records generally points to him having been born in 1832 or 1833, but this is not consistent and he could have been born as late as 1836. When his death was registered, his year of birth was stated, somewhat improbably, as 1831. At all events, his baptism, at St Mildred’s church in Tenterden, did not take place until 19^th March 1838. His parents were Henry, a labourer, and “Cesilia”, or Celia, née Gladish or Gladwish. They had been married in February 1828 at Rolvenden, her home village, but now lived at High Halden.

The 1841 census found Cecelia (listed as “Ag Lab Wife”) living on Tiffenden Road, High Halden, in the household of William and Charlotte Buckman. Neither Henry nor Jeremiah is listed at the same address however, and both have so far proved elusive. Cecilia was still at Tiffenden Road in 1851, as was Henry, now the head of the household, plus four sons, two daughters and a grandson. Jeremiah however was now eighteen, and working for local farmer William Carpenter as a Waggoner, at Rausley Farm, High Halden. In all subsequent censuses he is shown as “agricultural labourer” or “farm labourer”.

Jeremiah married Matilda Potter towards the end of 1856, but she died in January 1859, and was buried at Bethersden. The following year, 1860, he remarried, with Sarah Russell, and they settled in her home village of Bethersden. By 1871 they had two sons and two daughters; by the time of the 1881 census, when they were residing at Paris Cottages, Bethersden, they had another three daughters, and Kate was born a few months later. In 1891 Jeremiah, Sarah, and four children including the youngest, Kate,  were living at Bateman Lane. Sarah died in 1896, and the 1901 census found Jeremiah back at Paris Corner. He died in the final quarter of 1907, at the age of 76 according to the registration record although, as discussed, he was probably closer to 74.

Songs

• The Aged Pair (Roud 21862)
• Come All Ye Ladies (Roud 0)
• Dear Kate (Roud 21868)
• Fill, Fill (Roud 21897)
• I wish I wish, but it’s all in vain (Roud 495)
• It Rains, It Snows (The Cottage in the Wood) (Roud 608)
• Lazerus (Roud 815)
• Mary at the Garden Gate (Roud 418)
• Unnamed tune (Roud 0)
• The Violet (Roud 21886)

In his article for JEFDSS, 1946, Collinson mentioned having noted ‘Blackberry Fold’ and ‘The sprig of thyme’ from Mrs Oliver. Neither of these appears to have survived in his collection.

Rhoda Sargeant told George Frampton that her mother sang a song which started “As I walked out one summer morning”. This might have been a version of ‘The Banks of Sweet Primroses’.

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1. Songs Collected by Francis M. Collinson, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), pp.13-22 ↩︎
2. George Frampton, The Millen Family of Bethersden, Kent, Musical Traditions, https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/millens.htm ↩︎
3. George Frampton, Country Magazine in Kent, Bygone Kent, Vol. 16, No. 7 ↩︎