Sound Recordings, Oxfordshire

Description

Harry Lay, recorded at home in Bampton; talks about playing the character Father Christmas in a mummers' play performed in Bampton each year; recites lines from the play, and goes on to talk about his involvement, performing the play in local houses and pubs each Christmas, the costumes worn, drinking beer, the last performance, pre-1914; sings 'Into a Pub Tonight'; talks about singing in pubs, Gypsy Traveller communities, his mother's dancing; sings 'The Merry Ploughboy', learned during the first war in Bangalore; talks about his memory and learning songs; his wife and marriage; anecdotes re. morse-code and signalling, DCM and tattoos; sings 'Three Leaves of Shamrock' [2 attempts]; talks about morris dancing/dancers and the Tanner family; HL's parents, family and the village of Bampton; visiting other villages for music and dance, limited by travel; local singer, ? Shadrach Hayden; bell ringing in Bampton; anecdote; dressing horses; Captain Gough; local horse fair; post-war employment - farmwork; plant used with horses for alertness; dressing horses for sale; caring for horses; racehorses. [Tr. 1] Mr. E. T. Cook and his wife, recorded at home in Oxford. [Announcement before each song.] Mr. Cook sings 'The Phonograph', 'Sweetheart May', 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen', 'Not Tonight Charlie', 'Glorious Devon', 'It Hails It Rains It Snows It Blows', 'Strolling Round the Town' [fragment], 'Not Me', 'Patsy Burke', 'God Bless the Absent One', 'The Volunteer Organist', 'The Bells of Saint Mary', 'The Lincolnshire Poacher', 'Who Killed Cock Robin?', 'Cottage with Roses Round the Door', 'The Woodpecker' (learned at school), 'Good Night', 'The Clock', 'The Rabbit' [recited], 'The Blacksmith' [recited], 'Tommy and the Apples', 'Freddy and the Cherries', 'Galway Bay', 'My Grandfather's Clock', 'Miner's Dream of Home', 'That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine', 'I Passed By Your Window', 'The Gypsy's Warning' [sung as a duet with Mrs. E. T. Cook], 'The Mistletoe Bough'[sung with Mrs. Cook], 'Bless This House' [sung with Mrs. Cook]; Mr. Cook sings 'Friend of Mine'; Mrs. Cook sings 'The Gypsy Countess'. [Tr. 2] 6 of 20.

Metadata

Identifier	z2mhxkhd
IRN	414532
Class Mark	LAVC/SRE/A481r
Level	Item
Type of Record	Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link	http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/z2mhxkhd
Collection(s)	Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category	Archive
Parent Record	Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s)	Baldwin, John R
Date	1966
Size and Medium	1 x 12.7cm open reel spool, Duration: 125' 04".

Related Records