William Harding at The Lamb Inn, Urchfont in 1978 Part 4 of 4

Stained Glass from All Saints in Marden

In 1978 I spent some time travelling around Berkshire and Wiltshire in the company of fellow folklorist Roly Brown. We were primarily looking for people who remembered folksongs, songs that they had learnt from their parents or grandparents. One lunchtime we called at The Lamb Inn in Urchfont, Wiltshire, where we met William Harding, who not only agreed to sing to us, but who also gave us a dialect poem and a reminiscence of a band that had once played in the village of Potterne.  I have always regretted that William’s recordings have remained unpublished in my collection and am happy that they can now be heard by all. 

                                                                                    Mike Yates. October, 2011

The words to While Shepherds Watched were written by Nathan Tate (1652 – 1715), the son of an Irish clergyman who rose to become Poet Laureate during the reign of Queen Ann. The words first appeared in the 1700 supplement to Tate & Brady’s New Versions of the Psalms of David and they are usually sung in church to the tune Winchester Old, which first appeared in Este’s psalter, The Whole Book of Psalmes, (1592). However, a number of other tunes were written for the hymn and many of these entered the folk tradition. Other “folk” versions can be heard on three CDs issued by Musical Traditions (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/). These are sung by Bob Hart of Suffolk (MTCD 301-2), Walter Pardon of Norfolk (MTCD 305-6) and George Dunn of Warwickshire (MTCD 317-8). An American set, with a tune titled Sherburne, can be heard on a Rounder CD The Alan Lomax Collection. Southern Journey – Volume 9. Harp of a Thousand Strings (Rounder CD1709).

             Interestingly, the tune to Walter Pardon’s version appears to be a combination of the tune and the first harmony part, and this, I suppose, could suggest just how tunes become changed over the years by oral transmission.

William Harding at The Lamb Inn, Urchfont in 1978 Part 3 of 4

Stained Glass from St Nicholas in Wilsford

In 1978 I spent some time travelling around Berkshire and Wiltshire in the company of fellow folklorist Roly Brown. We were primarily looking for people who remembered folksongs, songs that they had learnt from their parents or grandparents. One lunchtime we called at The Lamb Inn in Urchfont, Wiltshire, where we met William Harding, who not only agreed to sing to us, but who also gave us a dialect poem and a reminiscence of a band that had once played in the village of Potterne.  I have always regretted that William’s recordings have remained unpublished in my collection and am happy that they can now be heard by all. 

                                                                                    Mike Yates. October, 2011

The Potterne Band

The village of Potterne lies in the centre of Wiltshire, just to the south of Devizes, and has around one and a half thousand inhabitants. In the late 1800’s the village had a Temperance band, though I suspect that this is not the band described by William in this short narration.

William Harding at The Lamb Inn, Urchfont in 1978 Part 2 of 4

Stained Glass from St John the Baptist in Chirton

Dialect Poem

We have been unable to find an author for this humorous poem, which is set in the area around the village of Bromham, a few miles north-west of Devizes.

William Harding at The Lamb Inn, Urchfont in 1978 Part 1 of 4

Stained Glass from All Saints Church in Marden

Come Christians Now Behold the Lamb (Roud 12,616)

Come Christians Now Behold the Lamb, unlike While Shepherds Watched, is something of a rarity and, because of this, we have decided to include this recording of the tune. The only set of words that I can find for the hymn were sent to the English folksong collector Cecil Sharp sometime around 1904-5 by Miss Susan Holden of The Rectory, Aston-on-Trent, near Derby. According to Miss Holden, the “Husher in” carol was sung every Christmas in her village.

These are the words from Susan Holden:

Come Christians now behold the Lamb

That on this day was born.

Come rise and praise his holy name

And husher in the morn.

From Heaven those glorious tiding came

To mortals here on earth.

God sent his only begotten Son

At his stupendeth birth.

Now to the father and the Son

Let praise and glory be given,

Let saints on earth with angels join

The harmony of heaven.

(repeat 3^rd line, also last line, and sing last line thus – and husher in, and husher in the morn and husher in the morn).

The Journals of Bea Menier

Bea Menier called in at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery with some of the journals she has been writing and drawing every day for the past 6 years. Fascinating stuff, Bea is reporting on her world as she sees it now.   There are millions of blogs that have replaced the sort of thing Bea is doing yet they are not yet able to replace the individuality of pen and paper.

 
                              

Wiltshire Pop Up at Swindon Museum

Thank you to everyone who contributed in whatever way to Wiltshire Pop Up at Swindon Museum, it was great fun and such a success that Pop Up Museum in some form will be visiting other Wiltshire locations in the future.

Please accept this thank you photograph from Wiltshire Pop Up and promise not to mourn too much the demise of something that turned out not to be quite so wonderful after all.

ABANDONED TRAILER on B4192 Hungerford - Swindon road

The blog will continue and now I've caught up with a back log of stuff I can attend to it.  Contributions relating to Wiltshire welcome as always.

Take a look at what was on show in Swindon from the the page link to the right.

DELAYED POSTING

Sadly once Swindon Pop Up had finished I was back in the studio on a back log of work so haven't been able to finish off with a final analysis of the 8 days.  When things have cleared up a bit I'll do that and get back up to more Wiltshire Pop Up nonsense, this time Wiltshire wide rather than Swindon based.


In the meantime you might be interested to read Rob Ryan's personal blogspot on his visit to the gallery and Swindon during week 1.


You Can Still do a lot with a Small Brain

A day off in Swindon is good for you

WEEK 2 DAY 5 exhibit

Artist Meryl Ainslie joined Pop Up today and after recent trips around the old Regents Circus and Victoria Hill campuses of Swindon College she has made 2 luscious photo sequences of the old building and beautiful wax casts of the small and lesser seen parts of the building. 

For the Wiltshire Pop Up point of view read below;

DEVELOPMENT, DECAY AND DESTRUCTION

Visiting the derelict Swindon College buildings on Regents Circus and Victoria Road we respond to what we can and what we choose to see.  Each person will see a different world in the desolate melancholia or ecstatic joy which breathes out of every surface.

The 1890s Technical College is listed and will be saved while the 1960s annexe building will be demolished.  There might be a case to save them both but just as much of Victorian Swindon was laid waste to the trends and fashions of the 1970s now the most distinctive architecture of that time becomes dust.  Across the road seemingly sparkling in its newness is Swindon Library, the pride and future of the Borough we are told.

What evidence is there of the beginnings of the old Technical College, can we see anything of its original ethos or of the people who went there to teach or learn?  It seems the final users leave the greatest mark on a building.  Walking around the disused site there are signs of hard work and industry that would have formed the day to day of college life in the offices, workshops and broken equipment.  The alumni can hardly be seen, in the dereliction what we find are the things nobody wanted, abandoned artworks, textbooks and pages of writing.  The most striking images are left by the night time invaders who break security to wallow in vandalism and wrecking.  These people write their names up large, break doors and smash through wall panels. Exposing one room to another or to the outdoors where the world is less static and oblivious to the crunching of feet over the bones of the past.  Out of this seemingly wanton destruction there is beauty, a trail of paint, electrical fittings wrenched from ceilings and walls all have the wonder and charm of unrecognisable artefacts from an ancient Egyptian tomb. 

Do the wreckers really know what they are doing? Maybe, as they sign their names just as an artist might in the corner of a painting.  They use spray paint, marker pen and even their own shit.  Approbation they might never have had before, these buildings were for the benefit of the town but not the whole town could use them.  Those that were excluded can now climb through a broken window and say, ‘here at last’ and claim the place if only for a night.  Or do they resent a place they once loved being given over to the commercial interests of developers; are they angry that it is no longer theirs?  After all what harm is there in destroying a building which is waiting for annihilation?

Government departments will happily let their buildings go to ground and vandals help them in the process.  The power of destruction must be equally exhilarating to both.

Let us know what you think about the new development.

WEEK 2 DAY 5

1 DAY TO GO and Wiltshire Pop Up will be joined by artist Meryl Ainslie who has been revisiting the old Swindon College sites at Victoria Hill and Regents Circus.  It's a chance to look at an old building in a new way and consider the future at these much loved sites. 

More to come on Days 6, 7 & 8.

WEEK 1 IS ALMOST LOST

Week 1 of Wiltshire Pop Up at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery went very quickly but all is not quite lost.  Four accompanying videos which were shown in the gallery each day are available to see on the WEEK 1 page to the right.


Day 2 looked at things lost with  a collection of items from the lost property department of Thamesdown buses.  Visitors were also asked to record things they had lost via post it note on the galllery wall, here is an example for more go to page LOST on the right.

If you have lost something, don't expect Witlshire Pop Up to find it, but do tell and send to wiltshirepopup@gmail.com

Photo from Day 2

Some visitors to Day 2 sent this photo which shows a view through the cabinet of Lost Property to someone watching the DVD relating to the first 4 days.

 

COUNTDOWN

day to go

and 

Wiltshire Pop Up 

hits

Swindon Museum and Art Gallery


starting Wednesday 7th September
at 10 am until 5 pm.

Wednesday features the invasion of a little known museum from the heart of Wiltshire

Thursday is a good day to go if you have lost something

Friday stars an artist and her creepy obsession

On Saturday there is a special guest with some of his mechanical friends.

COUNTDOWN

DAYS TO GO

Wiltshire Pop Up comes to Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

Starting on Wednesday 7th at 10 am.

An invasion from a little known and unusual museum in Wiltshire

COUNTDOWN

STARTING AT SWINDON MUSEUM AND ART GALLLERY on

WEDNESDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER between 10am and 5pm each day.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

SOMETHING STARTLING

SOMETHING SOMETHING

MEMORIES

Anyone have a memory of this museum that remembered things agricultural.  The poster somehow looks as dated as the stuff that was probably on show.

SWINDON STORY 09

09

I was recently browsing in a Swindon charity shop when I came across a copy of the children’s book Pepper and Jam by Reginald Pepper. 

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

Shopping Lists Part 04 QUIZ

A stray bit of paper found in the bottom of a supermarket trolley can be very revealing, but what does it reveal.  Turn detective in the latest Quiz of Quizzes.  

To see the Wiltshire Pop Up collection and play

go to the SHOPPING LIST page on the right.

CLATFORD & STUKELEY

Many have thought that the 18th Century Antiquarian of Avebury and Stonehenge fame William Stukely to be unreliable in some of his recordings of Ancient sites around Wiltshire.  


A group of archaeologists are currently looking at one of his drawings in reference to a site at water meadows, Barrow Farm,  near Marlborough that might change some of that opinion.  A few metres away from where Mike Parker Pearson (Sheffield University) and his colleagues (from other Universities including Leicester, Southampton and Bristol) are working, is the site which Stukeley recorded below.  The large Sarsen stones are no longer there, but there is evidence to support their existence and of the roadways marked.

The team of archaeologists are hoping to find evidence of more Sarsens which would form a causeway across the ford for the crossing of large stones on their way to Stonehenge.  In the picture below holes are being bored to find evidence of Sarsens that would have been used to make the causeway.

SWINDON STORY 08

08

GUERILLAS

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

Wiltshire M4

The Wiltshire M4 from Burderop Bridge

Reading from 'Botanical Interest Created by the Construction of the M4 Motorway in Wiltshire'

by Philip Horton, Joan Swanborough, Stephanie Tyler.  1972

Taken from the Wiltshire Archaelogical and Natural History Magazine 

Volume 67, 1972, Part A; Natural History

FIGHT

A Sparrowhawk assaults a Magpie in the apple tree of a Wiltshire garden, the noise that follows is loud as the Magpie fights in an effort to escape, but it seems to be in vain.  Quietly the Sparrowhawk takes his prey to ground and grinds it to the floor, he takes an occasional rest and looks in the distance.  20 minutes of fighting are interrupted by a cat who runs towards the birds, as the Sparrowhawk flies off with the Magpie in his claws they separate and the squawking stops.  The Magpie has escaped.

SWINDON STORY 07

07

What are the 7 wonders of Swindon?

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

Shopping Lists Part 03 QUIZ

A stray bit of paper found in the bottom of a supermarket trolley can be very revealing, but what does it reveal.  Turn detective in the Quiz of Quizzes.  

To see the Wiltshire Pop Up collection and play
go to the SHOPPING LIST page on the right.

A Field near Fosbury

03.00 pm Wednesday 10.08.11

PARADISE STREET, WILTSHIRE

HOW DO YOU GET TO PARADISE STREET?

Paradise Street can be wherever you want it to be

and many people know how to get there

for directions go to the 'PARADISE WILTSHIRE' page on the right.

SWINDON STORY 06

06

I knew Dave pretty well, thought I did anyway, we got on and even though I stopped speaking to him it was more out of my embarrassment and disappointment in his behaviour. 

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

RONNIE COX

Ronnie Cox was a farm worker from Wexcombe near Ludgershall.  In 1995 he appeared on the BBC Wiltshire programme 'Down Wiltshire Way' with Gerry Hughes to hear him use the video panel below.

Shopping Lists Part 02

A stray bit of paper found in the bottom of a supermarket trolley, bag, on the street or crumpled up in the bottom of your pocket can be very revealing.  

To see the Wiltshire Pop Up collection 
go to the SHOPPING LIST page on the right.

SWINDON STORY 05

05

Not a story but a limerick from an octogenarian cricket lover.

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

AERATED WATER BOTTLES

These two aerated water bottles were found in a garden in South Wiltshire, one is marked 'Swindon, Wiltshire', the other 'Lowestoft, Beccles, Yarmouth'.

This painting shows aerated water being bottled.

THE BASSETT BUNNIES

Royal Wootton Bassett is known for many things and now we can put the discovery of The Bassett Bunnies to the list.  An unassuming house contains an extensive collection of rabbit like creatures constructed in a variety of methods, the collection is fascinating as you don't really know where to look as there are so many bunnies on display but we managed to pick a few gems.

SWINDON STORY 04

04

Swindon could beat Arsenal they’d done it before, the last time was in the League Cup and this time it’s the FA cup so why not?  It makes sense; Swindon will beat Arsenal in all the cups, obviously.

To read more go to the SWINDON STORIES page on the right.

PARADISE STREET, WILTSHIRE

HOW DO YOU GET TO PARADISE STREET?

Paradise Street can be wherever you want it to be

and many people know how to get there

for directions go to the 'PARADISE WILTSHIRE' page on the right.

SWINDON STORY 03

03

The Closing of the Swindon Works 1986

To read more go to the Swindon Stories page on the right.