Here we go round the Mulberry Tree

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!