A personal blog by me, Chris Sexton, about stuff I do, and stuff I'm interested in. Expect lots on folk, clog dancing, holidays, walks, science and my Dolls House!
Always a shock getting up on the Saturday morning, Friday is always a late night, must have been 3 when we got to bed, and then we have to be out of the cottage by 10am. But, a couple of strong coffees and some toast we were fine. Had a final walk round the town and did some last minute shopping. We always go to our favourite fish shop, The Whitby Catch, to stock up on kippers, fresh crab, smoked salmon in a champagne and raspberry sauce....
Then home, via nice lunch stop at the Crooked Billet, just outside of Towton. There was a famous battle there during the Wars of the Roses involving about 70,000 soldiers. Just across the road is a tiny church, in the middle of a field. Very pretty. And on the way I got my annual Whitby present of jet - this time a sliver neck chain with a piece of jet carved into the shape of the moon. Thanks Stu.
Got home mid afternoon, to be met by some disgruntled cats who hadn't been fed for oh, maybe 3 hours.....
Another bright sunny day when I finally woke up, about half ten. Been really lucky with the weather this year. Shorts on every day, and only Monday rained. Shame it was Regatta Day.
Walked up to the Abbey, and got my favourite views out over Whitby Bay and the estuary of the River Esk. By now I'd remembered that I could take panorama shots with my camera .
Went in Whitby church, which always looks to me as though someone built a church then threw lots of different bits at it.
Really unusual inside, with lots of small enclosures which people sat in.
The posh ones have names on the doors, and some are labelled "for strangers only".
The pulpit has three tiers, and an ear trumpet as the wife of the vicar was deaf and she sat at the bottom with the tubes from the trumpets in her ears.
Walked down the 199 steps from the Abbey to the town and got more great views.
Stuart has a terrible habit of muttering random numbers as we go down, which really annoys the kids as they run up the steps counting them as they go up...
Just past the bottom of the steps is the kipper smoking house, much featured on various TV cooking programmes.
Caught a bit more dancing at the Bandstand, bumped into loads of friends as we wandered round, and then had my fourth Whitby fish for lunch. I've eaten so much fish my brain will be great, but am a bit worried about the waistline....
It was so sunny, I walked along the beach. It's a very traditional seaside beach, with deck chairs and wind breaks for hire, donkeys, ice cream, families building sand castles ( and a sand whale!), and playing cricket.
Friday afternoon is traditionally the workshop showcase where everyone who's been in a workshop during the week learning to play an instrument or learning a new dance tradition gets the chance to perform it in front of an audience. This year we went because my friend Rebekah had been in the clog workshop, learning some great Pat Tracy mixed rhythm steps. Here she is doing the Lancashire Irish ones.
Rapper is always a popular workshop, and this year was no exception, with Snark Rapper having about 8 sets up, some in fancy dress. At the end of the demo, they got all the teams to come together in one giant curly ( you need to be a rapper dancer to understand that). And it was followed by some big multiple locks, some worked, some took longer!
Then the final procession led by the Whitby Garland made with local heather, collected from the moors on Thursday. Traditionally carried by a sword team, this year it was Snark's turn.
Also traditional for them to drink a glass of beer in all the pubs they go past. Glad to say they managed it.
We regrouped back at the cottage and cooked a great fish pie (more fish, even had crab as a starter). Thought we'd better try and drink what we'd got left, before packing the cars tomorrow morning, after all, don't want to take any home do we? Sat around for a while then walked up for a final pint at The Elsinore, then to the final ceilidh. Martin Harvey calling and Hekety playing, a great way to finish. By midnight all of the other events have finished and everyone piles into the Spa. The dance floor is rocking and bar packed. Finished with The Willow Tree again, and then everyone comes in for the closing ceremony.
The garland is paraded in
and then guarded by the attendant team, as the company, led by Will Noble, sings Wild Mountain Thyme:
Then, the garland is dismantled by the team and everyone gets a piece of heather as a symbol of good luck and peace, and to make sure you return next year. Now everyone waits patiently for their piece:
Up until about 15 years ago the garland was suspended in the ceiling, and then lowered, and there was a free for all!
Here's me with my heather, not looking as if I've drunk too much at all!
Another bright sunny day yesterday and off to another lecture, this time on "The first music seller in the land", the story of the professional street ballad singer in pre and early industrial society, very erudite for early in the morning! Delivered by Vic Gammon from Newcastle University, it was very interesting. There were thousands of street ballad singers in the 17th 18th and early 19th centuries singing about the events of the time and selling broadsheets to make a living. They were a very important part of our culture and heritage. I was surprised by how many of them were women, especially with young children. I suppose it was an occupation abandoned women could do, you just took the baby with you. It was a job with a relatively small outlay, the singers either bought their ballads from printers or wrote them themselves, and could make 10 times the cost if they sold all of them. It was the commercial music of the day, and what most people listened to. Many of the contemporary illustrations show the singers with a hand cupped to the ear ( not a finger in the ear as people who want to disparage folk singers say), so this wasn't invented by Ewan McColl, but has been around for ages and allows the sound of your voice to be amplified to your ear (try it if you don't believe me).
As it was till sunny, I spent the next hour sitting at the bandstand watching various dance teams. Gog Magog Molly must be the most colourful:
If you don't know what Molly dancing is, it's from the East Midlands and East Anglia and has a very particular style. Here's a clip of Gog Magog doing the Oompa Lumpa dance.
Hexamshire Lasses dance the north west clog style, very similar to the style that my team, Yorkshire Chandelier, dance.
A nice team, and we've learnt one of their dances called Hexham Abbey.
There are allegedly only 5 traditional sword teams in the country, 2 of them from Sheffield ( Grenoside and Handsworth), and one from the Whitby area, the Goathland Plough Stots, so it was nice to see them turn up to dance.
My favourite sword tradition is Rapper, originating from the Northeast of England, and there's some great teams around. It's fast and exciting and you have to be faily fit to do it. I was part of a rapper side for a few years, but we stuck to some of the more sedate figures! Snark Rapper are always good entertainment:
When the weather's good I can sit for hours at The Bandstand watching the dancing, you get some great views of Whitby and the harbour.
Lots of people go out on boat trips - on old lifeboats, fishing boats, small sailing boats. As someone who gets sea sick thinking about it, I stay on dry land.
We'd decided to go out with friends for a posh meal in the evening, so went back to the cottage mid afternoon for a bit of a mong (Whitby speak for doing nothing much) and a pre dinner cocktail. The meal was great, and finished in time for us to get up to the Spa for the evening's concert which started at 9. But, there was already a queue at 8.30.
So we joined it and watched as the stewards counted us to work out how many of the line would actually get in. Luckily we did, and were treated to another great performance by John Kirkpatrick, followed by an hour and a half of the madness that is Les Barker and Keith Donnelly.
Les Barker is a poet. Some of his poems are serious, some are not, and it's the comedy ones he does live. Most are well known to the audience who join in. Last night Keith accompanied him on some, such as No Courgettes, sung to the tune of No Regrets. "Have you got any news of the iceberg? " a sad tale of the polar bear asking about his family after the Titanic had smashed the iceberg which they were traveling on, is one of my favourites.
But his encore was the best, "Dachshunds with erections can't climb stairs".
The concert finished round eleven thirty and then all of us including the kids with us were straight into the late night extra, where for the fourth year running we had a themed ceilidh. The festival's patron Eliza Carthy, puts a band together and they adapt a particular band's music to dance ceilidh dances to. So far we've had Abba, Queen and the Beatles - this time it was Tamla Motown's turn. It was an amazing night, one of the best so far, and if you want to now what it's like ceilidh dancing to Stevie Wonder's superstition, watch this.
Another late walk home, but beautiful clear evening, and a good view of Jupiter, which has been bright all week.
I spent Wednesday afternoon at a concert, the 422 Extravaganza. An excellent concert, full of young musicians, don't think any were older than 30 and some much younger. We got the chance to see the excellent Raj Raj Raj again:
as well as 422, who I've not seen doing a concert for ages, as they've been on a lot here but mainly playing for ceilidhs. Aren't Sophie Ball's shoes wonderful?
Then another Whitby quiz, this time Family Folktunes, loosely based on Family Fortunes with two folk families, The Unthanks and The Prices competing, hosted again by the great Stanley Accrington. Last time I saw Rachel Unthank it was on the BBC Best of Glastonbury programme, so she's quite famous now, but there's no standing in ceremony in Whitby. They'd asked 100 folkies answers to questions ranging from what's your favourite folk festival to what might you do in a concert (interestingly the top answer to that one was sleep!).
As we wanted to get into another concert and knew it would fill up fast we only had 20 minutes to get something to eat, so the answer was obvious - fish and chips eaten on the move. I didn't dare tell the rest that's what Id had for lunch.... But you can't beat Whitby fish, freshly caught. Most chip shops even tell you which trawler it came in on that morning.
The concert was the highlight of the festival so far for me - an Old Time Music Hall. Lots of acts all doing shortish spots, all of the right period. John Kirkpatrick set then scene with an opening sone entitled " What noise annoys an oyster", and it sort of went downhill from there....
John Cocking told some excellent monologues, including one about the Ramsbottoms, which you have to have in any music hall show. This was The Recumbent Posture, made famous by Stanley Holloway. You can find the lyrics here, but they have to be said in the right accent!
Keith Donnelly told his normal mixture of funny stories ( my favourite being villages with names where you wouldn't want to be in their women's institute including Ugly and Loose) and sang some funny songs including an audience participation one which had us all waving our arms in the air pretending to be God ( he moves in mysterious ways....)
Camden Clog did a clog routine including a sailors hornpipe and some wonderful Lancashire Irish steps which I've never been able to master. The video below is just of the Hornpipe steps:
Various other music hall songs including the Galloping Major and the Man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo, which had everyone belting out the choruses, and then it was the final act, Stanley Accrington. he is one of the funniest people I know, writing his own songs. Some of them remarkably up to date including references to things that had happened in the last couple of days. A whole song dedicated to Folk Week clashing with the Regatta for example. But the best, and for me containing the best line of the festival, was one made up of opening lines or titles of country songs. "Take your tongue out of my mouth cos I'm kissing you goodbye". I had to look it up as I didn't believe it, but it was apparently written by John Denver!
Then we all piled down to the Late Night Extra, and ended up staying till the end again, and getting a few dances in.
Wednesday morning started fairly ordinary, the sun was shining, and I decided to wander round town watching some dancing. I caught Hexamshire Morris by the Bandstand and then noticed a lot of commotion on the beach including coastguards and saw an ambulance arriving and all the crowds being moved back to let a Sea King rescue helicopter land.
Lots of activity on the beach with coastguards and paramedics running about, obviously someone seriously injured being lifted into the helicopter which took off straightaway. I found out later that 3 teenagers had got into difficulty in the water in a dinghy. A rescue had taken place, but sadly one of them died in hospital, a 17 year old boy. Very sad, maybe some family's holiday being tragically ended.
I'd not realised exactly what was happening, and had tweeted that some sort of drama was unfolding together with a picture of the helicopter on the beach.Within an hour I'd been contacted by the BBC and 2 newspapers asking if I had any more photos and could they use them. I sent them what I had but they were fairly poor quality because I'd taken them on my phone, but didn't hear back, so not sure if anyone used them. Was really surprised though at the way they picked it up from one tweet, guess that's the way they get their news stories now.
Woke up this morning late, but we had stayed up till the early hours, to find the rain had gone and the sun was out again. Walked into town with Julie and Andrea for a session called When This Old Hat was New which was about life in the Nineteenth century, illustrated by songs of the period. Started with the Napoleonic Wars, including a lovely rendition of Bonny Light Horseman, a song I've been listening to for years, but never really thought about the meaning before. Then the industrial revolution, and some interesting stuff about the building of the railways by the navvies. A very hard life, I didn't know that it took a year to go from being a labourer to a navvy as you had to build up the strength and stamina to shovel 20 tons of earth a day by hand.
The industrial revolution had many casualties. The hand weavers were skilled craftsmen, who had a good wage and a high standing in the community, and suddenly found their jobs were no longer needed as the looms were now in the factories and powered by steam. They had to make a choice
Transportation was the standard punishment for any crime, including very petty ones, until it was a noticed that this was just shipping people out to take part in the gold digging! Some great songs from this era and it was interesting hearing the background to them explained. Of course the other thing of note in this century was the Beerhouse Act which was passed in 1830, allowing anyone who paid a small excise tax to set themselves up selling beer. 45,000 new establishments sprung up to sell beer including many front rooms. Less than 3 years later the government had to set up a select committee to inquire into the causes of drunkenness in the working classes.
After this educational event I went to some storytelling. I love
storytelling, very relaxing, and today it featured my favourite storyteller, Taffy Thomas. I remember Taffy from years ago when he was with the Fabulous Salami Brothers and used to come the folk club I helped run, Hefts and Blades. They had a great juggler with them who we knew as Richie 3 Balls Salami. He used to ask for any 3 objects from the audience and juggle with them. I've seen people pass him anything from apples to collapsed buggies and he's done it. About 20 years ago Taffy had a very bad stroke, and has used storytelling as a form of therapy. I love him, but was sad today that I left before he put his tale coat on.
A regroup for lunch in The Shambles, then a quick walk through the park. There's a tree on the edge of the park which most people walk past, but I, and a few others in the know, look up into it, reach up and grab beautiful ripe Mulberries from it. It's the only Mulberry tree I've ever seen and a well kept Whitby secret.
Then to Dance Diversity Challenge, a folk version of University Challenge which today featured pitted Snark Rapper against the Chiltern Hundreths. Ably refereed by Stanley Accrington, it was very funny as usual. The picture rounds were pictures of dance teams from strange angles or only showing a small piece of kit, and we were pleased to see the black boots and gaiters of Handsworth Sword team in one, but nobody except us got it right.
Came back for our annual seafood salad tea of lobster, crab, prawns, mackerel, smoked salmon and baked herring, but unfortunately we'd been given the wrong bag in the fish shop so only had half of what we'd bought, so no crab. Very disappointing!
Back again to the festival along the river - we walk the mile or so into the town about twice a day, so keeps us fit and the views are worth it.
The evening concert featured the last night in Whitby this year of The Wilsons, and they were determined to enjoy it. Their slightly anarchic humour had me in stitches, especially when they uncovered a screen at the back of the stage and pretended it was a green screen like weather forecasters have. Guess you had to be there. Very powerful singing as always. two clips below, a short one of them singing Close the Coal House door, and one of their humour.
Then off to the late night extra where 422 were the band and my favourite caller, Martin Harvey called our favourite dance The Willow Tree to finish with. Then to round things off, Kingsmen rapper burst in as everyone was leaving and gave a great impromptu performance. Sorry about glitch in middle of video - got so excited by double tumble, pressed pause by mistake!
Our latest night so far, being nearly 3am when we finally decided to get some sleep!
When you wake up in Whitby on Regatta Day, there are some surprises. The pier and quay area have been transformed into a giant funfair, brought overnight. This morning we woke up to something else as well, very heavy rain. I managed a short walk to The Middle Earth for a songwriting workshop with Mike Ryan and Steve Tilston. Not that I want to write songs, but am interested in how other people do it.
Then a look round the shops, mainly to keep out of the rain. Lots of jewellery shops, mainly selling Whitby Jet and Amber. Not all of them though!
I usually get a piece of jet to take home with me, I've got lots of earrings, necklaces, brooches etc courtesy of my lovely and very generous husband. One of my favourites is a pair of jet earrings in the shape of coffins.
Was hoping to catch the Red Arrows demonstration for Regatta, but the weather was so bad they were grounded and couldn't take off from their base.
Then it was off to another concert, Pete Morton, Chris Parkinson and Maggie Boyle.
I've known Chris for years, he used to live in Sheffield and went out (and then married) a fellow clog dancer. Pete is also a good friend and sang at our wedding, so it was nice to see old friends. An excellent concert, Pete is a great singer and songwriter, Maggie sings and plays flute and borhan, and Chris is an ace squeezebox and harmonica player. They were joined for one number by one of the Wright family who play the Jews harp. An interesting instrument and one they're trying to revive.
Then I had to leg it up to the Metropole, and I mean leg it. One thing you get used to in Whitby is moving quickly between venues, and no matter where you start from it normally includes a steep hill. I wanted to see the Wilsons doing a special concert to commemorate 25 years since the miners strike. They're 5 Geordie lads with huge voices. Today someone had thought to give them microphones which was scary. You could probably hear them in Robin Hoods Bay. Some great songs about miners including a fair number about mining disasters. Apparently the National Coal Board used to define an accident as when more than 12 miners were killed, and a disaster when it was more than a hundred! Lots of very poignant stuff , including Close the Coal House Door Lad written by Alex Glasgow about the Abervan disaster which although I was only 10 I remember vividly.
I walked back in the rain to the house, and saw some sad sights that you only get in seaside resorts in the wet. A family playing crazy golf in the pouring rain, and a sideshow stall with soft toys as prizes which looked like drowned rats, they were dripping.
The tide was very high, and I noticed that the penny hedge had withstood it, so Whitby is still safe.
Later we went to a concert in the Spa Theatre. John Kirkpatrick, squeezebox player extraordinaire, and Steve Tilson again.
Last on was a group that weren't in the programme so we didn't know what to expect, Raj Raj Raj. Turned out they were 15 young musicians, playing an assortment of instruments, at one point 8 fiddles and an mixture of squeezeboxes, flutes, whistles and percussion. There was even a Jamie Cullen lookalike in the front row.
They were great, incredibly enthusiastic and talented. Took video of them here, which may not be good quality but I hope gives an idea of how good they were.
As those of you who know me well know, I'm a passionate believer in the English folk tradition and the need to keep it going and see it evolve and develop. It really pisses me off when people, usually the English, make fun of it, especially Morris dancing. I've been to many folk festivals all over the world, and I've never met a nation more scathing and embarrassed by its own traditions than the English. So, it really cheered me up tonight to see Raj Raj Raj, made me feel our traditional music is in good hands for the future.
In the centre of Whitby is the famous swing bridge, joining the east and west sides of the town. It even has its own web site and webcam. I must cross it 4 or 5 times a day during folk week, the only alternative being a couple of miles walk to the "new bridge' on the outskirts of town. Every half hour during the day it opens to let the boats pass in and out of the harbour. A couple of weeks before folk week it was broken, stuck open! Thank goodness it was fixed in time.
All round Whitby, especially in the old town, are narrow passages between buildings leading to cottages. They're called yards, (is it because they're a yard wide?). There's 80 of them and are well worth exploring. There's a map of them here.
Beautiful sunny day this morning and had a great walk into town along the estuary of the River Esk. Went past the Penny Hedge, and as usual wondered how many people walk past it and either don't notice it, or don't know what it is. On the morning of the eve of ascension day every year the ceremony of the horngarthis carried out, more commonly known as the building of the penny hedge. Apparently if the hedge does not last three tides, the land that Whitby is built on reverts to the ownership of the monastery. Luckily it's not done it yet.
Went to a workshop by Sara Grey and her son Kieron Means called Cowboys and Outlaws, Pioneers and Prospectors and was about songs of the old American west. Great workshop. Lots of good cowboy songs, and some interesting information about their life. Non of the clean shirted cowboys of the John Wayne era, they were much rougher in real life.
Then off to storytelling, and someone I'd not seen before - Racker Donnelly. Very funny Irishman and told his stories in rhyme including one he'd written himself about being an ace tennis player.
This week folk week coincides with Regatta weekend, doesn't happen very often, and it's all to do with the tides apparently but it does mean Whitby is very busy, and there's more events etc. Today there was supposed to be a fly past of various world war one planes, but apparently they couldn't get the spitfire working so there was just the hurricane, and we missed it.
Bumped into lots of people we know. Some we only see here, but lots from home. Sheffield by the Sea is what we call Whitby this week.
As the weather was so good we watched some more dancing, including clog team I'd not seen before, Clogarythm from Harrogate who had two old friend who used to live in Sheffield in. Then back to the house for a BBQ. Thought we'd better make the most of the good weather as it's not set to last.
After that, a swift walk to the Rifle Club for a concert. Quite a few acts on, we caught the end of The Askew Sisters who were very good, but the person we'd really gone to see was Steve Tilston. An excellent singer songwriter and very good guitarist.
Relatively early finish for us (2330), but by the time we'd walked back and had a nightcap and a chat it was still late.
Had a really good meal Friday night in Lastingham, finishing off with a huge Raspberry Pavlova. In the bar later Alec and Donald played their squeezeboxes and we sang a few songs.
Bedtime was livened up by discovering our bathroom had water on the floor which had leaked into the dining room downstairs. Couldn't find the source so went to bed, only to discover it was the saniflow system when I flushed the loo and water (clean!) poured everywhere again. Landlord was on phone to a plumber at half past midnight who agreed to come the next day, but until then we couldn't use the bathroom, and had to go into the pub in the middle of the night to use the facilities! Quite spooky, and really surprised their two pedigree Persian cats who are obviously used to having the pub to themselves in the night.
Next day, Saturday, drove to Whitby. I love the drive from Pickering over the moors which are purple with heather at this time of year, and we always get excited when we come over the hill and get a view of Whitby in the distance, especially the Abbey and the Metropole.
After shopping we had our traditional crab sandwich lunch in the Duke of York. Love Whitby crab.
Then watched some dancing - including Snark rapper up with two sets and performing rapper in stereo:
The we walked up to the Elsinore and watched the opening parade of all the dance teams - about 15 teams in total, and the pictures are of Snark Rapper, Silkstone Green, Gog Magog Molly and Gaorsach Rapper:
Tea was more traditional fair of fish and chips, and unusually for Whitby it was warm enough to eat in the garden. Then we dashed to the Pavilion Theatre to see Sid Kipper (aka Chris Sugden), a spoof Norfolk singer and storyteller. Usually he's hilarious, but I didn't think he was on his normal good form. He obviously had a bad cold which affected his performance, and was quite difficult to follow. Songs were still funny though. Then into the spa for the first dance of the festival. Martin Harvey on good calling form as usual, and the band, Heckety, were excellent. Well of course they should be, coming from Sheffield.
Walked home Andrea's way through the Whalebones - there are so many different ways back to our cottage we have to take it turns to chose. Quick nightcap, and in bed for 0140, quite early for Whitby!
Hopefully the weather will say good, the light on the way to the concert was wonderful.
couple of strong coffees and some toast we were fine. Had a final walk round the town and did some last minute shopping. We always go to our favourite fish shop, The Whitby Catch, to stock up on kippers, fresh crab, smoked salmon in a champagne and raspberry sauce....
via nice lunch stop at the Crooked Billet, just outside of Towton. There was a famous battle there during the Wars of the Roses involving about 70,000 soldiers. Just across the road is a tiny church, in the middle of a field. Very pretty. And on the way I got my annual Whitby present of jet - this time a sliver neck chain with a piece of jet carved into the shape of the moon. Thanks Stu.
