Cecil Sharp - Folk Music

Cecil Sharp was born at Denmark Hill, London, his father was a slate merchant, much interested in archaeology, architecture, old furniture, and music. His mother, Jane Bloyd, was also a music-lover. Sharp was educated at Uppingham, but left at 15 and was privately coached for the University of Cambridge, where he rowed in the Clare College boat and graduated B.A. in 1882. Sharp taught and composed music, he was interested in folk songs and music, and became interested in traditional English dance when he saw a group of Morris dancers at the village of Headington Quarry, just outside Oxford, at Christmas 1899. At this time, Morris dancing was almost extinct, and the interest generated by Sharp's notations kept the tradition alive.

In August 1903 London music teacher Cecil Sharp visted his friend Reverend Charles Marson at Hambridge and heard John England, the vicarage gardener sing 'The seeds of Love'. This started a remarkable adventure in Englsih music. In Somerset over the next 13 years or so, Sharp visted 122 locations and collected songs and tunes fom 358 named individuals, and gathered children's games from twenty schools. His collections from Exmoor and the Quantocks include:

On a visit in 1907 to MINEHEAD AND EXMOOR where he met:

William Sparks. William Sparks (1854-1916) was born and spent all his life in Minehead, at 1 Middle Street, Higher Town. His father John was a blacksmith and William followed in the trade, though he is also said to have rented properties to holiday makers. His song ' The Two Magicians' was the only item Cecil Sharp collected from him, but it was unique in Somerset and rare elsewhere. William became ill 1916 and died in Taunton Hospital.
Interestingly he does not conform to the poor folk singer stereotype, because he received a lengthy obituary in the local newspaper, and one of his sons was serving in the mounted Yeomanry of the district.

Robert Parish: Robert Parish (1822-1909) was among several singers whom Cecil Sharp met in Exford. He was born in the village and spent all his life there, working as a gardener and living in Glebe Cottage, next to the church. His son Robert was a
tailor, and that may be one of the reasons for his smart appearance in Cecil's photograph. Among the songs collected from him was 'The Beggarman', descended from 'Back and Side Go Bare' which was first printed in 1557. Robert Parish remained in good health to the end of his life, and had taken his usual walk, inspected his vegetable garden, and eaten his dinner when he collapsed and died suddenly, while his daughter was making him acup of tea.

Cecil Sharp folk song collector who visted Somerset and Exmoor

Betsy Holland: Betsy Holland was born at Kentisbeare, Devon, in 1880. Her family were travellers, but did not travel widely, circulating around mid and north Devon and western Somerset, though her grandmother had been more adventurous and came from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. It is not known when she married, but by 1907 she was travelling with her husband and
several small children. Cecil Sharp met her near Simonsbath in August that year, and was so impressed that he called her performance of the Execution Song 'the finest and most characteristic bit of singing I had ever heard,' He caught up with the family a few days later, on the road to Bideford, and then in January 1908 tracked down the grandmother, Rebecca Holland, from Betsy Holland whom Betsy said she learned the song.

On a visit in 1908 to The QUANTOCKS he met:

John Short. John Short (1838-1933) was born at Watchet, but became a deep-sea sailor, spending his time on windjammers because he did not consider that steamships produced 'real sailors'. After he retired from the sea he returned to Watchet, became the Town Crier, and devotedly nursed his wife, who was crippled by arthritis. In 1914, he was visited by Cecil Sharp, who in three days collected from him over sixty sea shanties, many of which were not previously known. He was afterwards visited by another sea-shanty collector, Sir Richard Terry. He was a very remarkable natural musician witha deep powerful, yet flexible voice. and retained his singing ability into his nineties. It was only in the last few months of his life that illness confined him to his house. He shares with Cecil Sharp the distinction of having an obituary published in The Times.

Elizabeth Mogg: Elizabeth Mogg was born in Over Stowey in 1830. She was living in Nether Stowey in 1881 and working as a dressmaker, and although unmarried had a son born at Holford. By 1891 she had migrated to Doddington, where she lived in the household of her brother-in- law Henry Chilcott, with James Squires, another singer. Cecil Sharp collected from her in Holford and she was buried from Hilton Cottages, in that village, in March 1921.

A Victorian passion

Cecil Sharp was not the first or the only Somerset folk song collector. Other collectors busy in Somerset include, Kate Lee (1859-1904), a concert and opera singer who was the first Secretary of the Folk Song Society. She collected sea songs in Minehead in the 1890s. Henry Hammond (1866-1910) and George Gardiner (1852-1910 were teachers and educationalists. They began collecting in Bath Workhouse and Hammond in the Taunton area. until they moved on to Hampshire and Dorset respectively. Priscilla Wyatt Edgell (1872-1934) lived at Cowley Place, near Exeter, 1904 and besides work in Devon collected in Minehead and mid-Somerset, sending the results to Cecil Sharp. E.T.W. Wedmore was a Folk Song Society member who collected in Minehead. Cecil Sharp also had a number of collaborators, chiefly clergy and their families like D.M. Ross, a vicar of Langport, Gerald Peppin at Marston Magna, and the Sorby family at Enmore, but perhaps the most remarkable was Alice Snow in Somerton. The daughter and grand-daughter of folk singers, she had risen from a poor background to become a musically-literate elementary school teacher who collected from her grandmother Betsy Pike and others.

Contributed by: Tim Holden