FTX-086 - BABBACOMBE LEE

Songs, dance-tunes, recitations and talk about village life provide an overall sound picture of village life and home-made entertainment in Devon and on both sides of Dartmoor. Included are a local fiddler, Fred Pidgeon of Stockland, a melodeon-player, Will Thorn of Kingston near Modbury and the Chagford Merrymakers Carnival Band. We have our oldest performers, Bill Bailey at 101 and, only twenty years his junior, the two brothers Harry and Bill Westaway of Belstone near Okehampton, whose father sang "Widecombe Fair" to the Rev Baring Gould. Bill sings a fragment about the murder of "an old lady named Keyes", committed by John Lee at Babbacombe. near Torquay. Lee, "the man they couldn't hang", was released after the hanging machine failed three times at Exeter Prison in 1885.

1. THE FARMYARD SONG - Dick Pearce of Kingsbridge (talk after) - 3'49"

2. THE FARMER'S BOY - Chagford Merrymakers Band - 1'30"

3. THE COUNTING SONG (MOWING THE MEADOW) - William Rew, Sidbury (talk bef & aft) - 5'42"

4. Recitation: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT - Bert Edgcombe, Kingston - 1'55"

5. THE STEAMBOAT/ DEVONSHIRE HORNPIPE - Will Thorn (melodeon) Kingston - 1'40"

6. STAG-HUNTING BALLAD - W.J.Heywood, Ottery St.Mary (with hunting horn) - 4'53"

7. BABBACOMBE LEE (1v & ch only) - Bill Westaway, Belstone - 0'43"

8. TEDBURN HILL (JACK HALL) - Jack Endacott, Chagford (talk bef) - 2'08"

9. TOLL THE BELL, SAMMY-O - Jack Hunt, Moreleigh - 0'53"

10. THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL ROUND (TREE SONG) - Dick Pearce (talk before about "repetion") - 5'14"

11. THE MALLARD - Bunny Palmer (Intro by Bernard Fishwick) rec at Village Barn Dance, Sidbury 1950 (talk bef) - 3'28"

12. MORTY UNLUCKY OLD CHAP (W.Weeks) - Jack Hunt (talk before) - 2'10"

13. Talk about himself by Bill Bailey (age 101), Totnes, including about getting married, telegram from the Queen followed by song: WIDECOMBE FAIR - 7'36"

14. WIDECOMBE FAIR - Bill Westaway, recorded near a stream, talks about the Rev S. Baring Gould - 1'37"

15. THE GAME OF ALL FOURS Harry Westaway, Bill's brother (talk aft about his age) - 2'54"

16. THE THREE ROGUES George Endacott, Jack Endacott's cousin, S.Zeal - 1'29"

17. Country Dance: THE LADIES BREAST KNOT Fred Pidgeon (fiddle), Stockland (talk bef explaining dance) - 2'01"

18. Talk about LAST SHEAF Ceremony: Dick Pearce - 1'18"

19. THE HARVEST-TIME SCHOTTISCHE Chagford Merrymakers Band - 0'55"

20. THE BARLEY MOW Dick Pearce - 4'15"

Recorded & edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax Cassettes 1975.

RICHARD PEARCE, recorded in Exeter in 1954, lived in the village of West Alvington, between Kingsbridge and Salcombe, and seems to have had a particular devotion to the Cumulative or Repetitious type of song, which was considered in that area to be something of an accomplishment for the soloist.

THE CHAGFORD MERRYMAKERS, also rec in 1954, were a street band using melodeons, harmonicas, piano accordion and drums.

WILLIAM REW, rec in 1954, was a singer and Anglo concertina-player with an extensive repertoire of country songs and dances which were revived and encouraged by schoolmaster, Wyn Humphries, in the village of Sidbury near Sidmouth.

BERT EDGECOMBE & WILL THORN both took part in the Village Barn Dances held at Kingston, near Modbury in the mid-fifties, encouraged by Peter Kennedy and the local post-master (Bob Rundle's father) - FT-124).

BILL & HARRY WESTAWAY, rec 1950, were two brothers with a family singing tradition which had previously been located for collector, Sabine Baring-Gould, by local solicitor, Mr. J.D. Prickman of Okehampton. Bill tells how a coach was sent out to Belstone to collect his father who sang the now well-known WIDECOMBE FAIR. However when it was published, rather than use the Westaway's version, Baring-Gould printed a local brass-band version of the tune that was popular at the time, which is thought to have been played by the Kingsbridge Band.

JACK & GEORGE ENDACOTT also came of a well-known singing family. George, the postman at S.Zeal, had an unusual voice and was the inspiration for Jon Pertwee's character in a radio programme, "Puffney Post Office", who said "If you can't read 'em, tear 'em up"!

FRED PIDGEON, a master-baker and fiddler, has recorded his repertoire of some 30 local Stockland dance-tunes, which can be heard on FT-087