FTX-087 - THE LADIES BREAST KNOT

FRED PIDGEON - Devon Fiddler

In the early hours of the morning, although tired from a long night of fiddling for local dances, Fred used to go straight from the hall to his bake-house to prepare the villager's daily loaves of bread. The master baker & fiddler of Stockland gives us more than 30 local dance tunes with descriptions and talk about the people and places he played in Devon, Dorset & Somerset. #1-14, recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1954, and #15-41 in 1951, including dancing in the village hall, with Fred's wife, Fanny, on piano.

1. THE TRIUMPH (last part of dance) & PK noting down his particulars - 1'15"

2. THE ORDINARY (or PLAIN) SCHOTTISCHE - 2'05"

3. THE LADIES BREAST KNOT (Country Dance) - 3'08"

4. THE HEEL AND TOE POLKA - 2'20"

5. DOUBLE CHANGE SIDES (Country Dance/ Tune: "Oats, peas, beans") - 1'31"

6. THE POLKA MAZURKA - 0'54"

7. CIRCASSIAN CIRCLE (Tune: "John of Paris") - 1'13"

8. THE HIGHLAND FLING (Tune: "The Keel Row") - 1'18"

9. THE TRIUMPH (or "Follow your lovers") - 2'11"

10. THE SCOTCH POLKA - 0'41"

11. THE DOUBLE SCHOTTISCHE - 1'22"

12. Talk about his cousins and playing for dances - 1'06"

13. Talk about baking and other jobs - 2'12"

14. THE GALOPEDE - 0'56"

15. THE BARN DANCE - 0'30"

16. THE VARSOVIANA - 1'05"

17. THE BARN DANCE - 0'29"

18. THE DANISH WALTZ - 0'22"

19. THE LANCERS - Figure #1 - 0'35"/ 20. #2 - 0'35"/ 21. #3 - 0'27"/ 22. #4 - 0'33"/ 23. #5 - 0'51"/ 24. #5 "The Chain" (Tune:"Buy a box of matches from the poor old man") - 0.51"

25. CIRCASSIAN CIRCLE - 0'32"

26. THE PLAIN QUADRILLE - Figure #1 - 0'53"/ 27. #2 - 0'27"/ 28. #3 - 0'33"/ 29. #4 - 0'47"/ 30. #5 - 0'33"

31. OLD CHURCH STRATTON WALTZ (with humming) - 0'50"

32. DOUBLE SCHOTTISCHE (with humming) - 0'45"

33. BARN DANCE (with piano) - 1'06"

34. PLAIN SCHOTTISCHE (with piano) - 1'37"

35. RING THE BELL, WATCHMAN (with piano) - 0'28"

36. POP GOES THE WEASEL (with piano) - 0'19"

37. THE LADIES BREAST KNOT (with piano & dancers in Village Hall) - 0'41"

38. BARN DANCE (as previous) 1'26"

39. THE HEEL AND TOE POLKA (as previous) - 1'11"

40. WALTZ (as previous) - 0'30"

41. THE TRIUMPH (as previous) - 0'57"

Tracks #1-14 were recorded at Stockland by Peter Kennedy 12/10/54 & #15-41 recorded at a dance in the village hall 11/5/51. Recorded & edited by Peter Kennedy & first published on Folktrax Cassettes 1975.

FRED PIDGEON (1880-1970). Both his father and grandfather were bakers at Stockland, and, at the time he was recorded by Peter Kennedy, he was highly regarded as a master baker. There were then 3 shops and 2 bakers in the village. On the 1951 recording, Fred is joined by his wife, Fanny, who was a Miss Pimm before she married, and it was her brother, Joe Pimm, who played fiddle with Fred at the village dances in the early days.

The village of Stockland is in East Devon, only a few miles from the point where the borders of Devon, Dorset and Somerset come together. Situated halfway between Honiton in Devon and Chard in Somerset, it is the centre of a fairly isolated rural community with its own form of dialect speech. This is an area which once maintained a lively tradition of local music and dancing. The Country Dance, known in Stockland as THE LADIES BREAST KNOT, was noted by Peter's aunt, Maud Karpeles, and published in the Revised Edition of Cecil Sharp's "Country Dance Book 1" (Novello, 1934). Sharp noted a version, called THE BONNY BREAST KNOT, in Somerset.

See also FT-411 THATCHER'S TALK from Beaminster, Dorset and Churchingford, Somerset & FT-412 FOLKLORE & DIALECT OF THE WEST COUNTRY.