Wet end to Whitby

Friday was wet. Very wet. It started raining in the early hours, and by lunchtime was still coming down in buckets. So much so that most of us didn't do anything in the morning, and then when we did move, had a ride into town courtesy of Pete. I walked - in shorts rolled up as far they'd go, a cagoule and a hat. I must have looked a right sight - but, only my legs were wet! I went to see Meet the Tom McConville Band - a very relaxed hour of music, chat and questions from the audience.

 As all of the dance spots had been cancelled (although I did spot Sallyport Sword dancing rapper in The Station pub, we had to have a couple of drinks in The Elsinore, then made our way up to the Spa for the workshop showcase, where all everyone who's been learning stuff all week get a chance to show it off. The views from the clifftop were somewhat different to the rest of the week:

The Procession was also cancelled, so we had  an indoor, small parade and some dance spots. Then me and Stu went back to the cottage, but picked up pie and mash from (you've guessed it) the pie and mash shop on the way. Steak and stout pie, peas, mass and gravy. Excellent on a rainy day.  Cab to The Spa (well it was still raining) for the final ceilidh.

We established a Sheffield corner and picked up loads of friends to come and join us.  The first dance spot of the night were our good friends Handsworth Traditional Sword dancers who gave an excellent performance which you can watch here:



Apologies for the few seconds blip in the middle - had to change camera batteries!

The garland (made from heather collected from the moors was then paraded in), and the dancing continued. The final band and caller of the night was the excellent Martin Harvey and Peeping Tom. While they were setting up we had the second dance spot from Sallyport Sword who fielded not one, not two, but three rapper teams. After they'd all done a dance they joined into one set for a 16 person curly:

They then attemped to make a giant lock. I won't post a picture of it, but lets just say it didn't go as well as they'd hoped - but an excellent display and good on them for trying.

After some more frenetic dancing, it was time for the last dance - The Willow Tree written by Hugh Rippon. Then the garland was brought into the centre of the room, guarded by Goathland Plough Stots and the various awards given out, for supporting the festival, collecting etc.

Then the final song - Wild Mountain Thyme  - led by Will Noble, and heather handed out to all of us to take home. Not like the old days when the garland was hung from the ceilling and it was a free for all...



A very pleasant walk back (it had stopped raining), one or two nightcaps, and suddenly it was very late (or early depending on how you look at it). But, we managed to get up after a few hours sleep and leave the cottage at the appointed time, have a coffee in Sander's Yard with the Matthews family and buy some kippers to take home.  Had good drive across the moors, passed a fully decorated Christmas tree by the side of the road.  Stopped for lunch on the way back at Towton again, and got home mid afternoon. This time our cats were even more disgruntled than last year, as they hadn't been fed for 24 hours due to a mix up over keys....

Great festival again - already booked cottage for next year.  Just 358 sleeps to go.

Grass skirts, Frapping and Diddling

Thursday started rainy, and I couldn't seem to get moving, so didn't go to an early morning session. Stayed in the cottage for a while, and then had a mooch round the shops, before heading off to see one my favourite artists - me old mate Pete Morton. Good friend to many of us who'd traveled to Whitby, a super singer songwriter with his own distintive style. Pete' recently invented the Frap, or folk rap, and here's a taste of what it's like:



Great concert, with many songs from his new album Economy (economy simply  means well being....).

Then we were treated to a wonderful set from Lady Maisery. I'd never seen them before, but they were stunning, three beautiful voices which blend together really well. As well as singing traditional folk tunes they've reinvented the art of diddling, or singing tunes - have a listen to this excerpt from their CD. I've already mentioned Hannah James clog dancing and we were treated to another amazing performance,  as well a novelty instrument. The ban-sitar, a banjo which sounds like a sitar. Not a brillinat picture as I was sitting the the back, but you should be able to make out Rowan holding it  - it was made by her dad Helmut Rheingans. Strange, but rather good to listen to.

A great concert. Good to see artists doing slightly longer sets than they often do here.

Back to the cottage for a sit down, a regroup and a drink, before setting off for  our friend's cottage. The sun was shining, and it was another great walk along the river.

We were heading out for a meal at The Vineyard - all 17 of us - but had a quick couple of bottles of fizz at Beka and Paul's first.  A lovely meal, lots good seafood (mussels, fish stew and monkfish) as well some nice steaks and a great trio of pork with black pudding. Then back to bekas to get ready for the big night - the Hawaiian ceilidh. We'd gone to town with garlands and grass skirts, as well as some funky sunglasses I'd picked up at a conference years ago:

So, we set off, luckily only a few minutes walk, and noticed the shadows on the church again, of course the boys had to have ago, and ran down from the Whalebones, over the bridge and up the 199 Abbey steps in a couple of minutes,. What it must be like to be fit! After waiting their turn, they made it in front of the lights:

Not a brilliant picture but best I could do from a long way off.  The ceilidh was fantastic. Dancing to Hekety and Martin Harvey who'd dressed up for the occasion:

 Even Manchester Morris Men who had the dance spot performed in pink grass skirts:

 We did lots of dances, and had a great time. Took loads of pictures but most came out blurry, bit like I felt!  Here's a selection.

Humber Keels, RajRajRaj and Music hall

Wednesday morning was another talk at the Coliseum. A couple of years ago we heard Eileen Sherburn talk about the Tom Puddings which worked out of Goole carrying coal on the canals.  This year she was joined by her son Chris, (of conertina playing fame) to talk about The Humber Under Sail. Chris has bought and restored a Humber Keel, a square rigged barge, which have been trading on the Humber since the 18th century. The boat is beautifully restored having taken Chris the best part of 9 years, but took only 6 months to build in the 1920s. Chris and Eileen gave a great account what it was like to be part of the barge community. Eileen on the social and family side, and Chris supplying the technical detail on the boats (I know the difference now between a Humber Keel and  a Sloop....) and they were assisted particularly on how they were sailed by Eileen's husband and Chris's father  Goff who was a bargee and a very experienced sailor for many years. The boats were made different lenghths to fit the locks - a Sheffield boat was 61.5 ft long, as all the locks to Sheffield were 62ft long, allowing just 6 inches spare. Boats bound for Wakefield were slightly smaller, and known as west country boats...

Full of information and amusing anecdotes  - like the lock-keeper who trained his dog to pick up the lock pennies which the bargees would thrown them as tips, who told all new captains that his dog wouldn't touch silver. When they threw down a sixpence to test him, he would shake his head as the dog picked it up and say "he's never done that before".

After spending a very pleasant hour on my own in The Shambles, I met the others at the 422 and friends concert.  422 are a great band, and most of them are involved with the Folkworks Summer Schools which encourage young folk musicians. As well as playing themselves, they introduced a number of their friends to do short spots, including Sam Sweeney and Bryony Griffiths ans Will Hampson, as well as some of the youngsters from the summer schools, some still teenagers but with great musical ability. The middle spot was Raj Raj Raj who as well as being great musicians have some gifted singers:



There's another video of them playing here.

I left the concert at the interval and hotfooted it to The Metropole to see an enormous queue already formed for Cockersdale singing a tribute to Keith Marsden.  Keith was a member of the band and wrote some amazing songs, but sadly died in his early fifties in 1991. Keith's wife Val still sings with them, and although they help keep his songs alive, they are not alone, as they are sung by many people. There are many will sing "Bring us a Barrel" and state categorically that it is a traditional folk song, and will argue with you when you tell them it's not, when in fact it's one of Keith's. The concert was great, and they sang many of my favourites, from The Funeral Song (which despite its title is very funny) to the sad Willy Oil Lad which contains the wonderful lyric, "But he's clogs, and he'll always be clogs lass". As a clog dancer that appeals to me.


Another quick tea of fish and chips at our friend's cottage as we hadn't got time to walk the mile back to ours as we wanted good seats for The Music Hall, and knew there'd be a queue. Ably compared by Johnny Handle in his top hat, it featured many acts all performing music hall or comedy numbers, including Stanley Accrington, Peta Webb and her selection of hats, Green Ginger Clog Dancers and Cosmatheka. A good night, but perhaps not quite as good as last year, or maybe this year the novelty had worn off?

Down to the Late Night Extra for some more dancing to 422 and Will Hall, then the long walk home, past the outdoor session at The Middle Earth which is rocking whatever time of day or night we walk by it. Glad I'm not in the cottage next door!

Oh, and I forgot to mention, there's two small  pipe players who've been sitting by the swing bridge for the last few days. I had a chat with them, they're Irish and 10 and 11 years old. Very good players, and very cute. They seem to be making a packet, as all the Mums and Dad's throw coins into their hat. I hear rumours that they were doing the same in Sidmouth Festival last week. Good for them.

Whitby

There are some views of Whitby I never tire of, especailly when the sun's shining, most of them from the same spot!

All of them under the watchful eye of Captain Cook

Zombies, lobsters and kilts

Tuesday was cloudy, shock horror! But, still warm enough for shorts. Off to the Fisherman's Rowing Club for a session on Stories and Ballads of Magic and Transformation by Dave Arthur. It was really good, covering all sorts of transformations, with a lot of talk about ghosts and the walking dead. Apparently people who come back to life are called revenants, I didn't know that. I thought they were zombies! It was a widely held belief for many years that if you had a bad death, as opposed to a good death of course, then you could come back as a revenant, and there are many good stories and songs about them. To kill them you had to chop off their heads and cut their hearts out apparently. Staking them down also helped to keep them in their graves! Another common belief was the fairies, and we listened to some recordings of old storytellers talking about them. There's a common story about getting lost and walking around in circles which is a state known as a fairy straying. Dave's theory was that much of these beliefs could be explained by the dirty wheat used for making bread which contained hallucinogenic plants. Once threshing machines were invented, the fairies disappeared! Apparently there's a good book about it call Bread of Dreams.

Then off for some important business, shopping for tea. I bought crabs, lobsters, anchovies, smoked salmon, prawns and smoked mackerel, so nice to have so much fish around, and not expensive. Dressed lobsters at £4.50 is not something you see in Sheffield!

I wanted to catch Ray Hearne, a local singer songwriter at some point during the week but was finding it difficult, so dashed off to a session on songwriting which he was singing at. He's written some great songs, and one of the ones he chose to sing was written for the Radio Ballads series, the programme on Steelworkers. Called Pudding Burner, it was about the women who drove the cranes in the steel works during the Second World War. Pudding Burner being the nickname for any women who dared to turn up at the Sunday lunchtime gatherings in the Working Men's Clubs. Great song.

A large gathering of friends and family in the Shambles in the afternoon was good fun, and then it was off to Family Folk Tunes. Again MCd by Stanley Accrington, and based on Family Fortunes.




And yes, they had asked 100 folkies the answers to the questions. Guess what the top answer to "which instrument would you most like to run over?" was...


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Yep, Banjo.






Then home for a very large seafood salad. By the time we were ready to walk to the ceilidh it was raining, and by the time we got there we were soaked. It was that wet rain, the kind that wets you. Dancing in soaking wet jeans is not a pleasant experience, but the kids were up for dancing and the band were great. Gallus again, and this time kilts had made an appearance. Even Martyn Harvey the caller was wearing one, describing it as liberating. Thought he was very brave to stand so close to the edge of a very high stage in it though! Great fiddle playing from Aidan Broadbridge:



Then Stu and I walked up to The Metropole for a very late night concert starting at 1130. It was packed,but we managed to get two seats right at the front. An excellent line up starting with The Young Uns, 3 lads who couldn't half sing.




Then 422 who played some cracking tunes,




and then The Wilsons who were on great form as usual.

Amazingly powerful singing, and again lots of banter. They've just appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in the folk prom, and I suspect they were rather difficult to manage. The musical director in a rehearsal said they'd lost 8 bars, to which they retorted that they'd never lost a bar in their lives.

Here's a clip of them singing Biker Hill



When we came out it was still raining, so we got a cab home. Funnily enough no one else was up, but it was past 2am.

Fairy stories, Dancing and Yorks

Monday was another sunny day, so put shorts on for the 4th day running, a bit of a record. Went to a talk entitled There was in England a Princess by Martin Graebe which was about Sabine Baring-Gould's work for children. Late start as no-one could get the projector and laptop to see each other. They needed a good AV technician! Once it got started it was very interesting. He had a father who believed that imagination was bad for children, but then went on to published some of the classic works of fairy tales. His first book in 1894 had stories such as Tom Thumb, Sleeping Beauty and the Three Bears (which were at that point all male) and was the first time they had been widely published to British children. Then he brought out the first collection of English fairy tales, some gathered from medieval manuscripts, and some from ballads. And then he published a book of English Folk songs for schools, which apparently caused some controversy with those who thought Folk songs weren't suitable for children to sing. baring Gould was obviously a character - he had 15 children, and did extensive research into childrens stories, nursery rhymes and songs. But at a children's party at his house one day  he met a child on the stairs and asked "who's little girl are you?" and she answered, "your's Daddy..."

The sun was still shining so we caught lots more dancing at the Scoresby Monument. Boojum, a womens rapper side:

 Handsworth, again

 Manchester Morris Men

 

and Seven Champs again:

This time I managed to get a video of 7 Champs and their distinctive form of molly dancing



John Kirkpatrick was next presenting his Farmers Year show, where he sang some of the songs he'd done on the Victorian Farm BBC show.

Suitably dressed in farming attire, including string round his legs which we had an interesting debate with the audience about what they were called, (Yorks being the most popular suggestion).

Dance Adversity Challenge was next, loosely based on University Challenge and MCd by Stanley Accrington. Earlsden Morris took on Sallyport Sword. Slightly silly, but very entertaining. The picture rounds also consist of pictures of bits of morris teams and you have to guess who they are.

Back to the cottage then for a wonderful mutton curry which had spent all day in the slow cooker.

Back out again to the Rifle Club where we managed to get into a very full concert and saw Sam Sweeney and Hannah James.




Hannah being one of the best clog dances I've seen, her performance of the Sam Sherry jig bore no resemblance to steps I can just about muddle through at half speed. The concert finished with The Wilsons. No microphones needed, and over 10 pints of beer lined up on the stage (2 each, and the one they were drinking when called up to sing).




As usual they were fantastic, and the banter between them as good as ever.




We made it to the spa for the end of the Late Night Extra and ended up dancing for the next hour almost non stop to Peeping Tom and Will Hall, a great caller.

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Sunday at Whitby

Sunday was another glorious day. Walked into town and noticed that the Penny Hedge wasn't looking too healthy. Hope it managed to last the obligatory 3 tides! Had a wander round the lovely old streets and shops on the East Side in the morning while Stuart went to a banjo workshop. Then caught up with some more dancing, Hansdworth and Boggarts the two Sheffield teams again.




Walked up to the spa, and saw the lifeboat coming back in apparently after some sort of rescue.




Saw our friends sons in the playing for a session workshop, which was huge and sounded really good.

Then went into a concert to see who was on and walked in to hear one of my favourite songs being sung by INPO, The Last Dance, which I haven't heard for ages. Then caught Jim Causley



and Andy Casseley who were both good, (but one sang a song about Leeds Becoming a Seaport Town, and said that in the broadsheet the town had been left out so that it could be sold in more places. Then the next came on and sang when Birmingham became a seaport town...). Finally Raj Raj Raj were on, a great group of young musicians who met at the Folkworks Summer School.




Then outside to join to queue for Sid Kipper do his Two Faced and Gutless show, which pretty much describes a kipper. Very funny, and much better than last year, and as well as the walnut shells he had a new percussion instrument, sea shells.




Back to the cottage for sausage and mash. And then to the spa for the evening ceilidh, where the Witchmen danced - an excellent Border team. I took some video of them dancing outside earlier - very energetic.




We wanted to see Gallus, a Scottish band play, but some of them couldn't make it so half of them played with Peeping Tom. Disappointed that the kilts hadn't made an appearance, but the fiddle player was pretty good.


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Whitby day one

Saturday was another lovely day, and a very pleasant drive over the moors, the heather bright purple in the sun. As usual, we're all childishly excited when we get the first view of Whitby and the sea.

Arrived too early to get in the cottage, but managed to get the meat we'd bought that morning from the butchers in the fridge. Drove to the Co-op, had a coffee in Sherlocks, noticed with horror that the other supermarket had turned into a Poundland, and played spot the Sheffielder. Whitby Folk Week is also known as Sheffield by the sea! Did the shopping, and then walked back along the Esk for lunch in The Duke of York- an enormous crab sandwich!


One of our local dance teams is here, and many of our friends dance with them, including a couple of people sharing the cottage, so we climbed up to the Captain Cook monument to catch Handsworth Sword Team dancing.





And not just the traditional longsword dance this year, but also the Mummers play known as The Derby Tup, which of course has the obligatory man dressed as a woman!






Good to see another Sheffield team dancing as well, Boggarts's Breakfast with their painted blue faces and energetic drummers!




Then off to the Craft Fair so that Stu could enquire about having the skin on his banjo tightened, and I could look at ordering some new clogs. My dancing clogs are nearly 25 years old and have finally given up the ghost!

A drink in the Elsinore, and we watched the procession go past of all the dance teams, led by a bagpipe player. The obligatory tray of beer for the passing sword teams was slightly larger than usual as there were more of them.




Was really pleased to see Seven Champions Molly dancers in the parade, they were one of the first Molly dance teams to be formed in the revival, but went back to the treacle mines where they live about 7 years ago. Luckily they reformed last year.





Back along the Esk for fish and chips at the cottage, which was as usual wonderful. You can't beat local Whitby fish. Then up to the Spa for the opening dance and a chance to meet up with everyone. On the way up we noticed strange shadows on the tower of Whitby Church and realised it was people standing in front of the floodlights making shapes - very funny but could get camera to focus so no pictures.

Seven Champs were the performing dance team and were great, just as I remember them from about 15 years ago which was the last time I saw them. Very distinctive style. Will post a video when I get home.

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Temples, terraces, walled gardens and wine

Off to Whitby Folk Week, this time via Helmsley for a couple of days with our friends Andrea and Donald. Staying at The Feathers in the market square. Thursday we drove up, had lunch in The Feathers, and a look round the lovely shops. Then we walked to the Walled Garden which I've seen at various times of year, but the herbaceous border looked particularly good at the moment.






There was also a beautiful wild flower meadow.



We had diner in The Feathers, and then a quick pub crawl round the Market Square in the rain. Well, a quick dash to the only other pub which is all of 2 mins away.

Friday was a lovely day, and we had a quick look round the Market, bought provisions for a picnic, and set off to walk to Riveaulx Abbey. The walk was lovely, and took about an hour and a half, with a coffee stop along the way. I took the opportunity to rejoin English Heritage while we were there, and we had a good look round the ruins.


Then, on the way out we spotted a fridge full of cold beers. Knowing that we had some climbing to do, we bought a couple as we thought they might come in handy. We were right! We climbed up to the terraces and temples, and went up the "summer path" rather than the road. It was a 1 in 4 slope, on a narrow, muddy, slippery path. To say I was out of breath at the top was an understatement, and we could all barely speak as we went into the temples. But, it was worth it.



The views were fantastic, and the cold beer to wash the picnic down with was very welcome.



We walked from one end of the terrace to the other and back, which was covered with wild flowers and butterflies.






Then it was back to Helmsley, an 8 mile walk in total, and you can see it on runkeeper here.

We'd been looking for a cottage for our girls weekend away in November, thought we'd found a good one on the Internet, so went to have a look. Nice place, perhaps I'll write about it in a few months if we can work out how to get to Helmsley by public transport. Suspect getting back on the Sunday might be a problem.

Then a was and brush up, posh clothes on, and off to The Feversham Arms for a nice meal. Cocktails, some amazing food, and some nice wine made for a very pleasant evening. Nice to be recognised by all of the staff, but Stuart was a bit disconcerted to hear the maintre 'd tell the waiter that "Mr Sexton likes a lot of wine".



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