Tag: Hamstreet

Seven Joys Of Mary

Mrs Alice Harding i.e. Alice Harden

Collected by Cecil Sharp, Ham Street, 11th October 1911

Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Tunes CJS2/10/2706B

Roud 278

CJS2-10-2706B Seven Joys Of MaryDownload

This was presumably one of the songs which the Beale family would sing when they went out carolling.

Sharp did not note any words, which suggests that Mrs Harden’s text followed a standard pattern – see, for example, the verses printed in the Oxford Book of Carols, available at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.546842/page/151/mode/1up

Albert Beale

Albert Edward Beale, 1875-1961

The son of Charlotte and James Beale, and brother of Alice Harden, Albert was born on 18th May 1875 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone on 18th July. The 1881 census found him living in Hamstreet with his maternal grandparents, Charles and Phoeby Hall. Ten years later, aged 16, he was living with his parents, with his occupation described as “Dealer”.

Interviewed in 19831, Albert’s son Charles said that his father was very bright, especially at Maths, and his teacher at the Orlestone Board School in Hamstreet wanted him to become a schoolmaster. However Albert’s family couldn’t afford to keep him at school, so he left school at 14, and spent the rest of his life doing farmwork – although he never really settled at anything. He’d do a bit of work, then do nothing for a while – one farmer said that when Bert was working he’d give him two men’s work just to keep him occupied. Albert himself admitted in 1954 “I been all over the shop, let me tell you the straight truth. I was a rolling stone”2. Asked what jobs he had done, he mentioned milking cows, and what sounds like “chicken packing”. Charles Beale said that his father used to earn a lot of money “chicken picking” – he would walk 7 days a week from Kenardington to Woodchurch (about 2½ miles) when he was doing that.

In the same interview, Albert’s wife said that he had “been a soldier three or four times”, which seems to be about right. He signed up for the 3rd Battalion of The Buffs – the Royal East Kent Regiment – on 26th October 1891. He gave his age as 18, but was in fact only 16 at the time (at the age of 80 he claimed “well I weren’t only a youngster when I went in the Army, nearly fourteen and a half years old”, but he was exaggerating just how young he had been). He was 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall, weighed 125 pounds, and gave his religious denomination as Wesleyan. His stint in the army did not last long – he purchased his discharge (or more likely, perhaps, his parents did) on 29th October. However on 29th December 1898 he signed up again, this time with the Royal Artillery. His age was recorded – truthfully this time – as 22 years and 5 months. He was now 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 146 pounds, was put down as Church of England and, in the ‘Distinctive Marks’ section, a number of tattoos were recorded, as well as a scar over his seventh cervical vertebra. Again, he did not stay long with the regiment – he purchased his discharge for £10 on 10th January 1899.

By the time of the 1901 census he was back living with his parents, listed as “Ordinary agricultural labourer”. On 9th May 1906 he married Ellen Maria Kingsland at Minster in Thanet. Ellen was already the mother of two children, Percy and Florence – almost certainly illegitimate, as she does not appear to have married previously, and no father’s name was recorded on the baptism certificate for either child.

In 1911, Albert was working as “Farm labourer general” at Martin, East Langdon, near Dover. As well as his two step-children, he and Ellen now had a child of their own, Phyllis Bertha Kingsland Beale, who was baptised at St Matthew’s, Warehorne, on 27th March 1910.

The First World War took Albert back into the Army – he enlisted with the Special Reserve of The Buffs, “willing to be enlisted for General Service”, on 11th January 1915. He gave his occupation as “Labourer”, and his address as The Leacon, Warehorne, Kent. Posted on 19th January, he was discharged on 26th March the same year – “not likely to become an efficient soldier”. One assumes that, as the war dragged on, the Army became less fussy about its recruits, for from 2nd November 1917 Albert was back in uniform again, with the Bedfordshire Regiment. The digitised army service records for Albert Beale from this period are not easy to read, but it appears that he may have seen some action on the Western front, before being transferred in June 1918 to the 11th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment – this was a Territorial Battalion, based at Pakefield near Lowestoft in Suffolk, involved in coastal defence. He was demobbed on 31st January 1919.

These later service records give his address simply as The Bungalow, Warehorne. By 1921 the family was living at Bridge Farm Cottage, Warehorne.  Albert was back working as a farm labourer, for Mr E. R. Todd, and the family had grown: Albert’s step-children had moved out, but he and Ellen now had two daughters and three sons. Local directories from 1922 onwards list him at Tinton Farm Cottage, Warehorne, while the 1939 Register shows the family as living at Tinton Bungalow, Warehorne. Albert is listed as unemployed, rather than retired; two of his sons, Robert and Charles are working as cowmen; the third, Reggie, is a farm labourer.

Maud Karpeles visited Albert Beale at some point between October 12th and 17th 1953, when she came to Kent on a song collecting expedition. She subsequently returned with her nephew Peter Kennedy, and they recorded Albert, then aged 80, at Kenardington on 14th January 1954. One of Kennedy’s strategies for finding singers was to look for the descendants of singers from whom Cecil Sharp had collected songs earlier in the century, and his interest in Albert Beale was sparked by the carol ‘The Moon shines bright’, which Sharp had noted both from his father James Beale, and his sister Alice Harden.

Kennedy’s recordings include six songs and a toast, plus talk about his life and where he learned the songs. Asked by Kennedy how he came by his songs, he replied “I used to buy ‘em like… My mother once… I got half a bushel basket full of ‘em, she burnt ‘em”. Kennedy followed up with “But where did you buy them?”, to which the answer was “All over the place. Wherever. Well, you know, when I used to sing, you see…”, while his wife added “You used to buy those penny sheets of songs, out of a newspaper shop, couldn’t you?” Some – such as ‘The Frog and the Mouse’ – were learned at school:

Why it’s a… youngsters, when we was at school, we had it knocked into us, these old songs, with the schoolmaster and that. We didn’t dare say we wouldn’t learn them. Well we had it, or we had a good hiding. That’s how we got ’em…

And clearly some must have been known by several members of the family – perhaps all of the family.

My mother used to lead the choir in Hamstreet Chapel. She used to hang on, you know. You know, now, they stop don’t it when it gets to go from one line to another. She used to turn it. Right round, keep going. Like that. She didn’t stop at all. But by Gor’ she could sing. At the end of a line you used to stop, she only… well she hung on you see, used to go [sharp intake of breath]… but oh, she was high pitched. Yes. Yes.

He’d also go out carolling, “all round here”, with the rest of the family.

Maud Karpeles: How many of you used to go round together?

Albert Beale: All our family.

MK: The whole family?

AB: Yes. We all used to be in the choir at once, ten of us at once, my mother used to sit down in church and lead us…

His wife Ellen pointed out “Ain’t never been [carolling] since we’ve been married… We’ve been married a long time” (48 years at the time of the recording).

Kennedy asks “And your father was a singer too?” to which Albert replies “Yes, yes. So was my brother, he could sing best when he was half drunk, couldn’t he? Oh, he could sing”. Based on information obtained from Charles Beale in 1983, he may have been referring to his younger brother James.

Charles added that his father used to sing mainly at home and family get-togethers, but not often in public. He sometimes played squeezebox (probably the anglo-concertina) when he sang. “He could sing”, Charles said; and his sister was a really good singer too, but “proper music”. It’s not clear if this comment referred to Alice Harden, or another of Bert’s sisters.

Albert knew a lot of songs, but only half a dozen were recorded, because – according to Charles Beale – although Peter Kennedy gave him one or two guineas, he didn’t keep his promise to pay him more when the songs were broadcast on the radio (presumably on Kennedy’s BBC radio programme As I roved out). Kennedy apparently paid several visits to the Beale home, but when he failed to keep his word regarding money, Bert wouldn’t have any more to do with him.

Albert Beale died in the final quarter of 1961.

Songs

Peter Kennedy’s report on his January 1954 trip also mentions

Maud Karpeles noted the titles at least of the following songs, when she visited Albert Beale in October 1953:3

None of these has an entry in the Roud Index.

Discography

The BBC recordings are held by the British Library, and are also available to listen to at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

‘The Moon shines bright’ is available on You Never Heard so Sweet (Topic TSCD673, 2012).

‘The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington’ was included on Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland Volume 1 (Rounder Records 11661-1775-2, 2000).

A fragment of ‘The Frog and the Mouse’ was included on The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 10: Songs of Animals and Other Marvels (Topic 12T198, 1970).

  1. Charles Beale, interviewed by Andy Turner at The Wish, Kenardington, March 1983. ↩︎
  2. Recording of Albert Beale by Peter Kennedy & Maud Karpeles, 14th January 1954 (Folktracks cassette, no number) ↩︎
  3. Maud Karpeles, Folk Song Collecting Expedition Kent October 12th – 17th 1953, https://archives.vwml.org/records/MK/1/2/4907 ↩︎

Alice Harden

Alice Harden née Beale, 1870-1939

Baptised Alice Isabella Beale on 6th February 1870 at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone, she was the fourth child of Charlotte and James Beale. She lived with her parents in Hamstreet until she married David Thomas Harden on 23rd September 1893. He was a labourer, born in Warehorne, and had been living with his parents at 4 Viaduct Terrace, Ham Street. The married couple were living in Viaduct Terrace at the time of the 1901 census; his occupation was given as “Woodcutter & dealer”.

By 1911 they had moved to Newberry Farm, Tonge, where David took up the post of farm bailiff. They had three children: Ethelbert, Ronald and Athelstan Raymond. Alice and her husband appear to have stayed here until his retirement. She died in the second quarter of 1939.

Having noted down a number of songs from her father James Beale in September 1908, Cecil Sharp returned to Hamstreet in October 1911 – round about the time of her father’s death – and noted down three carols from her. Sharp recorded her name as “Mrs Alice Harding of Sittingbourne”, but her married surname was definitely Harden, not Harding.

Her brother Albert Beale recalled in 19541 that their mother led the choir in Hamstreet Chapel, and that the entire family used to sing in the choir, and also go out carolling at Christmas. The songs collected from Alice Harden were presumably part of the repertoire of the carolling party.

Songs

In his English-Folk Carols (1911) Cecil Sharp noted of ‘Sons of Levi’ (Roud 2430) that it was “Sung by Mr. James Beale and Mrs. Harding at Ham Street”, although he does not appear to have taken the song down from Alice Harden, possibly because her version was identical to her father’s.

  1. Recording of Albert Beale by Peter Kennedy & Maud Karpeles, 14th January 1954 (Folktracks cassette, no number) ↩︎

James Beale

James Beale, 1836-1918.

James Beale was Cecil Sharp’s most important find when he made his visit to the Hamstreet area on 22nd and 23rd September 1908, providing eight songs for the collector.

Interviewed in 1983, his grandson Charles Beale said that, according to family tradition, James had been a “caravan-dweller” until settling at Hamstreet. This may well have been the case, although there’s nothing in the official records to confirm it.

The family came from Sussex. James’ father Thomas was baptised at Barcombe on 3rd May 1801. He was probably the “Thomas Beal” who married Hannah Saunders at Heathfield, Sussex in 1827; she died and was buried at Heathfield in October 1832. He was certainly a widower when he married Elizabeth Welfare – 21 years his junior – in her home town of Wivelsfield, on 14th November 1840.

James was baptised at Wivelsfield on 4th April 1841. A couple of months later, at the time of the 1841 census, the family was living at Cains Wood, Wivelsfield. James had one older brother, two older sisters, and two step-sisters. His father’s occupation was given as “Railway Lab”. There are two other men given this occupation on the same sheet of the census. Almost certainly these men were employed in the construction of the first railway line from London to Brighton, which was completed in September 1841, and ran close to Wivelsfield.

By 1851 the family had fallen on hard times: James and his parents were residing in Chailey Union House – i.e. the workhouse – at Ringmer. They were described as “Pauper ag lab”, “Pauper ag lab wife”, and “Union house child pauper”. Elizabeth Beale died in 1855, but it appears that Thomas may have survived until 1882 – still “Ag lab pauper”, and residing in the East Chiltington Workhouse.

The next record we have for James, however, is his marriage to 18-year old Charlotte Hall at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone, on 28th July 1860. The groom, his father, and the bride’s father are all described as labourers. At the time of the 1861 census they were living at Ham Street – address not specified. Ten years later they’re still in Ham Street, and now have 6 children under 10 years of age: William, Charles, Febee, Sarah, Alice, and Henry. James had been listed as agricultural labourer in 1861, but now appears to described as “Fruiterer” (the census enumerator’s handwriting is far from clear).

Still listed as a labourer, and living in Ham Street in 1881, James now has another two children, Sarah Ann and James. Two more would follow before the 1891 census, Thomas and Frederick. In 1901 the family’s address is given as Ruckinge Road, Ham Street, and James’ occupation is listed as “Wood Dealer Timber D (Own account)”. Two years later, the 1903 Kelly’s Directory of Kent lists him as “poulterer”. In truth, he probably turned his hand to a variety of work to earn some cash. Indeed, when taken to court in 1889 by Robert Relf, a coachbuilder from Ashford – presumably to settle unpaid debts – he was described as “higgler, Hamstreet”1 (a higgler is “An itinerant dealer; esp. a carrier or a huckster who buys up poultry and dairy produce, and supplies in exchange petty commodities from the shops in town” – Oxford English Dictionary).

James’ wife Charlotte died in 1905. At the next census, in 1911, now aged 70, he was living with his son Henry at Cyprus House, Ham Street. Both James and Henry are listed as “General dealer”. He died later that year, and was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone on 17th October 1911.

Cecil Sharp collected three songs from James’ daughter Alice Harden on 11th October 1911. We don’t know the circumstances of this visit, but it must have very nearly coincided with James’ death, and this may well explain why Alice had come to Ham Street from her home at Tonge, near Sittingbourne.

In the 1950s, Peter Kennedy and Maud Karpeles, consciously following in Cecil Sharp’s footsteps, recorded a number of songs from James’ son Albert Beale.

Songs

  1. Kent County Examiner and Ashford Chronicle 22 November 1889 ↩︎

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