The Cecil Sharp Collection

Rediscovering the Folk Music of Tewkesbury

Cecil James Sharp (1859-1924) was an English musician, who awakened modern interest in folk song and dance.^[1] What is not recorded in our national history is the contribution to his work made by two people who lived in Tewkesbury.

Cecil Sharp was born in 1859 at Denmark Hill in south London. He studied at Clare College Cambridge before departing for Australia in 1882 where he stayed for nearly 10 years practising law and teaching music. In 1893, after returning to England, he was engaged as a music teacher by Ludgrove School in North London where he worked for the next seven years. On Boxing Day of 1899 Cecil Sharp was staying with family in Oxford where he saw the Headington Quarry Morris Men performing their traditional dances. Fascinated by the music he noted down the tunes from their musician William Kimber. With this single event began his life-long interest in collecting and promoting the traditional songs and dances of England.

By 1901 Sharp had joined the Folk Song Society and, in 1903, began collecting folk songs in Somerset. From this time, until his death in 1924, Cecil Sharp was to become the foremost and most prolific collector of folk music and dance in the country. He noted down a total of 4977 tunes, including nearly 3000 songs from England and over 1500 on his trips to the Appalachian Mountains in America. His publications fostered a growing interest in folk song and country dancing, as well as helping to save the English Morris Dance tradition. In 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society, which later combined with the Folk Song Society to form today’s English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS).^[2]

During his travels, Cecil Sharp visited Tewkesbury on 9-10 January and 10-11 April 1908 and stayed at the guesthouse of Mrs. Moody and Miss Brace in Abbey Terrace (see figure 1). He visited two local singers: Elizabeth Smithers and William Henry Watts.

Elizabeth Smithers (née Haynes) was born at Pamington in about 1845 and baptised at the parish church in Ashchurch on 3 July 1853. She was the daughter of Ann and Thomas (also known as John) Haynes who was a carpenter and said to be a squire’s son. She was one of thirteen sisters and learned all her folk songs from them and her parents. Following her marriage to Joseph Smithers,^[3] a Chelsea Pensioner born in Derby, they lived at 5 Station Street in Tewkesbury (see table 1: 1881 and 1891 Census). Whilst Elizabeth did not have any children of her own, she at times provided a home for some of her sister Amy Artus’ children.^[4] Elizabeth Smithers died in January 1910, only two years after Cecil Sharp’s visit to Tewkesbury, and like her husband Joseph was buried in the town cemetery on the Gloucester Road (see table 2).  

Census	Name	Age	Relation	Occupation	Address	Born
1861	William Henry Watts	24	Lodger	Joiner	High Street	Cheltenham
1871	William Henry Watts	34	Head	Joiner	Folly Gardens	Cheltenham
1871	Harriet Watts	34	Wife	-	Folly Gardens	Cheltenham
1881	Joseph Smilhards	57	Head	Chelsea Pensioner	5 Station Street	Derby
1881	Elizabeth Smilhards	36	Wife	-	5 Station Street	Pamington
1881	William Henry Watts	44	Head	Joiner Foreman	Folly Gardens	Cheltenham
1881	Harriet Watts	44	Wife	-	Folly Gardens	Cheltenham
1891	Joseph	65	Head	Chelsea Pensioner	5 Station Street	Derby
	Smithard
1891	Elizabeth	48	Wife	-	5 Station Street	Pamington
	Smithard
1891	William Henry Watts	54	Head	Builders Foreman	5 Mount Pleasant	Cheltenham
1891	Harriet Watts	54	Wife	-	5 Mount Pleasant	Cheltenham

Name	Date	Age	Reference
Joseph Smitherd	9 April 1909	82	5184
Elizabeth Smithers	31 January 1910	66	5260
William Henry Watts	19 June 1923	86	6222
Harriett Watts	25 October 1930	94	6735

William Henry Watts was born in Cheltenham on 8 July 1836 and learned to be a joiner in his father’s workshop. In his youth he worked in various parts of the country before coming to Tewkesbury and first lodging in the High Street (see table 1: 1861 Census).⁵ On the 9 December 1865 he married his wife Harriet in Cheltenham and moved to live at Folly Gardens in Tewkesbury (see table 1: 1871 and 1881 Census). At about this time, he started working for the local builder Thomas Collins, becoming a foreman in 1864, later running the joinery department, and finally being made the local works manager. From at least the 1891 Census until his death in 1923, William and Harriet lived at 5 Mount Pleasant. His interest included cycling⁶ and the town’s many historic buildings, several of which he personally restored. He was visited by Cecil Sharp on 11 April 1908, a year before his retirement in 1909. William Watts died on 16 June 1923 and was buried at the town cemetery on 19 June (see table 2) following a funeral service at Holy Trinity Church.  His obituary in the Tewkesbury Register (Saturday 23 June 1923) reveals him to have been a respected member of the local community:^[7]

“Death of Mr W H Watts 

It is with sincere regret that we have to record the demise of another old and valued resident of Tewkesbury. On Saturday morning last, Mr William Henry Watts passed away at his residence in Mount Pleasant after having suffered with heart trouble for a number of years, during which period he maintained his natural cheery spirit in a characteristically plucky way. Born at Cheltenham on July 8^th 1836, he left school at an early age and learnt the rudiments of his business in his father’s workshops. On leaving Cheltenham, Mr Watts worked in various parts of England and Wales, before becoming foreman to the late Thomas Collins in 1864. He eventually took charge of the joinery department for several years and finally became local works manager from which position he retired some fourteen years ago. In the last capacity he became a very familiar figure throughout the neighbouring country-side. Thus, for many years he was associated with the above firm, but owing to his advanced age and long retirement, he had somewhat faded into the background. In his time, however, he was very widely known and to the end was highly esteemed. A man of marked ability and antiquarian tastes, he was possessed of a wonderful fund of humour. He always took the keenest interest in the ancient architecture of the town, and was personally responsible for the restoration of several of the timber fronts of the old houses. Although urged on several occasions he did not take an active part in the public life of the town. In his younger days he was an ardent cyclist, and was the first to introduce the safety bicycle into Tewkesbury. He was for years the captain of a very popular Cycling Club, which flourished in the borough during the eighties of the last century. On more than one occasion, accompanied by his wife, he journeyed to London on his tricycle, no mean task for a man approaching sixty years of age, especially when one considers the state of the roads. At that time steam-rollers were unknown. Moreover, he was particularly sympathetic with the poor and the afflicted. He had celebrated his golden wedding on December 9^th 1915, and his wife who survives him, has the sympathy of all. The funeral took place on Tuesday at noon at Holy Trinity Church, the Vicar (Rev G S Winter) conducting the obsequies…” [Obituary followed by a list of mourners and floral tributes]

Performer: SMITHERS (SMITHERD), Elizabeth Place: Tewkesbury County: Gloucestershire
Country: England Date: 9-10 January and 10-11 April 1908
Song Title	MSS Song Words	MSS Song Tunes
New Mown Hay O	1417, 1418	1571
A Sailor and Beautiful Wife	1419, 1420	1572
Green Mossy Banks of the Lea	-	1573
Still Growing	-	1574
As Jockey on a Summer’s Morn	-	1575
The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter	-	1576
It’s of a Young Damsel	1421	1577
The Cuckoo	1479	1626
Poaching Song	1480, 1481	1627
My Bonny Bonny Boy	1482	1628
Our Captain Called All Hands	1483, 1484	1629
The Miser	1485, 1486	1631
O Once I Courted a Fair Pretty Maid	1487	1630
The Unquiet Grave	1492, 1493	1640
Jack Williams	1494, 1495	1641
A Brisk Young Sailor	1496, 1497	1642
In Shepherd Park	1498	1643
Green Grows the Laurel	1499	1644
The Virgin Unspotted	-	1645

Performer: SMITHERS (SMITHERD), Elizabeth Place: Tewkesbury County: Gloucestershire
Date: 11 April 1908
Song Title	MSS Song Words	MSS Song Tunes
A Sweet Country Life	1488	1632
Banks of Sweet Dundee	-	1633
Erin’s Lovely Home	-	1634
The Jolly Waggoner	-	1635
Gossip Joan	1489	1636
The Baddenham Umbrello	1490	1637
The Leather Bottell	1491	1638
Cissiter Fair (Morris Dance)	-	1639

Cecil Sharp collected the following song (more commonly known as The Lincolnshire Poacher) from Elizabeth Smithers on 10 April 1908.^[9] It is thought by many to be the finest of her 19 folk songs:

When I was bound apprentice,
In famous Somersetshire,
I served my master truly,
For nearly seven year,
Till I took up to poaching,
As you shall quickly hear.
For ‘twas my delight of a shiny night,
In the season of the year.

As me and my companions, Were setting of a snare, The gamekeeper was watching us, But for him we did not care, For we can wrestle fight, my boys, Jump over anywhere. For it’s my delight of a shiny night, In the season of the year. As me and my companions, Were setting for a five, In taking of them up again, We caught a hare alive, We popped her in the bag, my boys, And through the woods did steer. For it’s my delight of a shiny night, In the season of the year.

We threw her across our shoulders, And wandered through the town, And called into a neighbour’s house, And sold her for a crown, We sold her for a crown, my boys, But dared not tell you where. For it’s my delight on a shiny night, In the season of the year. So here’s success to poachers, For I do not think it fair, Bad luck to every gamekeeper, That will not sell his deer, Good luck to every landlady, That wants to buy a hare. For it’s my delight on a shiny night, In the season of the year.

William Watts not only provided songs but also a Morris Dance tune, which he said he had learnt from an old pipe and tabor player, a bricklayer who often used to whistle the tune, and make the rhythm of the tabor with his trowel on a tin. Cecil Sharp collected the tune on 11 April 1908, along with seven other folk songs. However, the identity of the original pipe and tabor player was not recorded.^[10]

The pipe and tabor was the medieval one-man band. The pipe is a three-holed flute similar to a penny whistle or recorder, whilst the tabor is a small drum with a gut snare across the drumhead. The pipe is played with one hand, normally the left, leaving the right hand free to play the tabor. Also known as the ‘Whittle and Dub’ it has long been played in Gloucestershire to accompany Morris Dancing. Interestingly, we have evidence of the pipe and tabor in Tewkesbury Abbey. The vault in the nave of the church was constructed in about 1340 to replace an earlier wooden ceiling. The 15 bosses of the central rib tell the story of the life of Christ. However, 16 of the bosses on the subsidiary ribs depict angels playing a variety of medieval musical instruments, including the pipe and tabor (see figure 2) located near the west window.^[11]

Cecil Sharp’s visits to Tewkesbury in January and April of 1908 have left us with an invaluable record of some of the traditional songs and ballads that were sung in and around the town during the 19^th century, with some of them dating back to the previous century or more. However, by the turn of the 20^th century these traditional songs were dying out in favour of Music Hall songs and printed sheet music. Elizabeth Smithers provided a total of 19 folk songs including The Poacher, whilst William Henry Watts provided seven songs and one Morris Dance tune. Today the pipe and tabor can once again be heard in Tewkesbury (played by the author) providing the music to accompany the Tewkesbury Mummers on their Boxing Day tour around the town.

Acknowledgements and References

The author is grateful to Sharon Morris of Tewkesbury Borough Council and Phil Mayall at Tewkesbury Cemetery for their help in locating the burial records and graves of Elizabeth Smithers and William Henry Watts, and to the staff of Tewkesbury Library for their help with the local studies collection.