FTX-110 - THE HORN DANCERS

JIM FOWELL OF ABBOTS BROMLEY

A remarkable documentary recording made by Peter Kennedy in 1954 of an ancient processional ritual, performed annually on Wakes Monday in Staffordshire during September. Jim Fowell talks about the custom, with a depth of feeling, about its social & religious meaning to him, and gives all the technical details. With actuality recordings of music, on melodeon and triangle, together with "The Old Tune" which was originally played 1857-1858.

1. THE OLD TUNE: Helen (concertina), Peter (triangle) & Douglas Kennedy (clappers) with talk over music by Jim Fowell (67), leader, about the meaning of the ritual for him - 2'39"

2. Further talk by Jim Fowell: Names of participants/ Weights of horns/ Maid Mar ian/ Jester/ Bow-and-arrow/ Hobby Horse/ Names of present team/ Their occupations/ Training the youngsters/ Promotion/ Keeping up the tradition/ The 1914-18 War/ Grandparents/ Originally for the poor of village/ 3 days/ Route followed/ What it has become today/ Collection pays for missing work/ Encouragement from his wife/ Wrong for people to talk etc. - 11'27"

3. Further talk over actuality music: The Traditional Route/ Giving the vicar a dance/ In the market place/ Going down the village/ Admaston/ Blithfield Hall/ for Lord and Lady Bagot/ (music up)/ Back to Bromley calling on neighbours, farms, cottages, aerodromre, market place, "Coach and Horses" / Day's work done/ (music up) - 3'42"

4. Actuality recording in market place: THE FARMER'S BOY (etc.) played by Douglas Fowell (melodeon) and Brian Grimley (triangle) 4'50"

5. Close-up recording of tunes: BAGOT'S TUNE/ SO EARLY IN THE MORNING/ HER GOLDEN HAIR/ WAIT FOR THE WAGON/ COCK O' THE NORTH/ UNCLE MICK/ WONDERFUL KATIE/ WHEN THERE ISN'T A GIRL ABOUT - 5'01"

6. Dance ("Yankee Doodle") with typical BBC commentary in 1947 - 2'52"

7. Dance tune ("Cock o the north") on accordion & triangle - 1'49"

8. Interview with Jim Fowell, the leader - 1'49"

9. Interview with musician - 1'44"

10. Inrterview with "Maid Marian" - 1'22"

11. Talk about the horns - 0'41"

12. Talk about "the characters" - 1'16"

13. "The Old Tune" played by Elsie Avril (violin) rec in studio 1937 - 0'47"

Recorded by Peter Kennedy at Abbots Bromley 1954. and for the radio in 1947. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax Cassettes 1975.

THE OLD TUNE was noted by Robert J.Buckley from "the fiddling of William or Henry Robinson, the wheelwright, who was famous at the time as the only man who could play the air". It was sent to Cecil Sharp who published it in SWORD DANCES OF NORTHERN ENGLAND Book 2 (London: Novello, 1912). In 1954 it was no longer played by the team, but instead they played an old tune passed on to them by the Bagot family, together with popular minstrel airs which the team regard as being more rhythmically suitable for present-day performances using a melodeon.

However THE OLD TUNE, with its haunting quality, has frequently been used at Festival performances by members of The English Folk Dance and Song Society and The Country Dance and Song Society of America, who have performed it in the half-light at dusk, or under floodlights in a forest clearing. A similar tune, also played by Mr. Robinson and sent to Sharp, called THE FLAXLEY GREEN DANCE, was probably played for a similar dance in a neighbouring village. - Sharp published this in SWORD DANCES OF NORTHERN ENGLAND 1911 p36 as one of the tunes for the Swalwell, Earsdon and Beadnell Sword Dances. Other neighbouring villages mentioned on this recording include Admaston, Hoar Cross, Yoxall, Hamstall Ridware and Newborough in Needwood Forest.

The custom takes place each year on the first Monday after the first Sunday after September the 4th, starting at about eight in the morning and finishing about seven in the evening. Written references to a "Hobby Horse Dance" at Abbots Bromley go back to 1686. One of the existing set of reindeer horns have been radio carbon-dated to 1065 AD plus or minus 80 years.