Sound Recording, North Yorkshire

Description

Frank Weatherill, recorded at home in Danby; sings an unidentified song about farmers' lads; relates anecdotes/stories regarding a dog and a hare, dialect, friends reunited, father quarrying and workmates hearing wedding bells, a Methodist prayer meeting, Chapel repairs, a local preacher, the wrong shoes; recites a poem written by himself ( 'Breck's Crows'); talks of quarrymen and wall dressers; his experience as a stonemason; local mummers, with reference to the West Hill [?North Yorkshire] party and the song 'Poor Little Joe' (one verse), a winding up tune whilst the collection was taken - FW sings the verse and discusses its provenance; talks of Goathland Plough Stots of 1923 (characters, musicians, dancers), performing in Castleton; touring Fryupdale with carol singers, FW playing the fiddle; Christmas time; [collector announcement]; FW talks about throwing the hammer; local legends concerning Wade and his wife building Pickering Castle and Mulgrave Castle, Wade's causeway and stones; hammer throwing and the building of York Minster and Whitby Abbey; local legend about a hammer found at Leversham; talk of North Yorkshire coastal villages and an American staying in Staithes; saying about wallers and walling as far as they could throw a hammer. Frank Weatherill talks further about local legends concerning Wade and his wife; beliefs concerning witches and shapeshifting (hares); discusses William Stonehouse, his book 'Tom Keld's Hole: A Story of Goathland, North East Yorkshire' (Whitby, 1880), and his use of dialect; a (dialect) poet (?Castillo), his ?residence in Lealholm, discussion of two of his poems; FW's grandparents' belief in mountain ash as talisman protecting waggoners from witches; supposed witch from East Moors; belief in giant bird (?location) attacking villagers and they seeking protection from a witch; local supernatural legends, learned from a book; New Year's customs - house visiting, greeting rhyme; First Footing (girls permitted on New Year's Day); bad luck to see a girl first on New Year's morning; talks about Farmer Breck, subject of poem recited earlier, how he learned the story; writing the poem to highlight local dialect. Concludes on tape LAVC/SRE/A632r.

Metadata

Identifier gf93h9x2
IRN 414682
Class Mark LAVC/SRE/A631r
Level Item
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/gf93h9x2
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s) Green, Anthony E
Date 26 October 1973
Size and Medium 1 x 12.7cm open reel spool, Duration: 104' 38".

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