Comments for Gloucestershire Christmas

Comment on Contact by admin

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:08:46 +0000

Hi we have tidied up the diary now and it should all be easier to navigate. I’ll contact you concerning the mummers visit to the Royal Willian.

Comment on Contact by Gwilym

Gwilym — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:21:37 +0000

Hello Malcolm,

I’m glad you ran in to Virgil as he has been looking into songs collected in the Isle of Wight, including wassail. It seems that the IoW was unusual in having both visiting and orchard wassails, but only scraps of the words have survived. Good luck with your song and as you say, it may catch on. Our website is concentrating on Gloucestershire, of course, and on the old traditions rather than the recently-introduced ones.

If ever I make it over to the Island one day, I’ll let you know.

Regards

Gwilym

Comment on Contact by J whitton

J whitton — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:43:32 +0000

Hi Gwillam

I was going to advertise on the village notice board the Dec date of the event of the mummers visit to the Royal William. Cannot find any events listed under whats on in the diary??

Comment on Contact by Malcolm Brown

Malcolm Brown — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:40:51 +0000

A friend of mine, Alan Phillips, who includes amongst his wide range of highly regarded authorship the traditions of the Isle of Wight, was talking to Virgil Philpott of the Dollymopps who mentioned to him your excellent web site. Alan very kindly passed the link to me and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and listening to all your research and songs.
I thought you might be interested to hear that Wassail is now being revived on the Isle. References to Wassailing having taking place on the Isle before the recent ‘revival’ are extremely sparse, but I think it is reasonable to assume that the ceremony would have taken place during the late 19th century and the very early years of the 20th if not before. And equally it is likely there would have been one or more local adaptations of Wassail songs sung at such events. Unfortunately all such songs have now been lost.
So I wrote one! As a (very) amateur composer, I wrote the music and to keep the song in line with the Wassail tradition across the country, drew on other Wassail songs to write the lyrics. These lyrics have been further developed with the kind help of Alan to weave in the rich and unique dialect of the Isle. (The result is unable to attach to site)
I know of three Wassails including my own that now take place every year on the Isle and I am sure there are others. My hope is that this song will be adopted by those Wassails (it certainly will be by mine!) and developed further with new verses and tunes – I have published it under a Creative Commons License so it can be copied, sung and adapted as people wish for free. It might even become a tradition!
You will find a very basic musical rendition of the song at:
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11953098
(I produced this using computer software for both the music and vocals, so I am afraid the quality is not that good!)
I do hope you find this of interest and my sincere thanks again for creating such a wonderful resource in your website.
Best Regards Malcolm Brown (Lyle Music)

Comment on Contact by Martin Galton

Martin Galton — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:24:51 +0000

Stuck in traffic I flicked to Radio Glos to see if they could tell,why and behold a couple of voices I recognised coming through the ether even singing very interesting it was too
Happy Christmas
Martin

Comment on Gloucestershire Wassail by Beth Alden

Beth Alden — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:36:49 +0000

Really interesting. Thanks for putting this online. I live in Leighterton, and would love to find out more about this tradition in the village.

Comment on List of Songs & Carols by Linda Hall

Linda Hall — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:04:31 +0000

Fantastic website. I’ve been to lots of “Carols in August” workshops at Sidmouth and Whitby, singing the Sheffield area carols, but it’s great to have something local. I was born in Bristol, lived in Almondsbury for some years, and now live across the river in Redwick, a tiny village between Newport and Chepstow. And yes, we do still go carol singing round the village every year. One group goes by car to all the outlying farms and houses, while another group walks round the centre of the village, ending up in the pub, followed by refreshments at someone’s house while the church treasurer counts the money. There is always great rivalry between the two groups as to who raises the most! Carol singing this year is Monday 19th, meet 5pm at the church. And this year there will be carols in The Waterloo Arms at Nash a few miles away on Tuesday 20th at 7.30pm. Haven’t got anyone singing WG carols yet apart from Joy to the World, which has escaped into the mainstream tradition.

Comment on Contact by Mhairi Strauss

Mhairi Strauss — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:52:59 +0000

A new Mummers group to add to your listings. Petty Heglers Mummers will be performing on the 19th December. Venues as follows:-

7:00pm The Anchor at Epney
8:00pm The Tudor Arms at Slimbridge
9:00pm The Bell at Frampton
10:00pm The Red Lion at Arlingham

Thanks Gwilym

Mhairi