I posted a couple of Bledington morris tunes recently. Here’s another one – a jig this time. I learned it from Son of Morris On, where the arrangement is based around Martin Carthy’s guitar-playing. Back in the 1980s Bernard Brown, always one of Oyster Morris’ most athletic dancers, used to dance this jig, although unfortunately I don’t think I ever had the pleasure of playing it for him to dance to.
George Butterworth collected the tune in 1912 from fiddle-player Charles Benfield.
Charles Benfield was the main informant for the Bledington tunes, most of which were noted by Cecil Sharp at Benfield’s house at Bould (Oxon), a hamlet about a mile from Bledington (Glos). William and Nancy was also collected by George Butterworth, who is our only source for Trunkles and Ladies of Pleasure.
CJ Sharp wrote, 2 September 1909
“Ch. Benfield was fiddler to the Bledington Morris till it lapsed about 15-20 years ago. He afterwards taught some younger men but could not induce them to continue. He is an agricultural labourer and a keen morris dancer. His fiddle was bridge-less and bow-less so he half hummed and half whistled this & following 2 tunes.”
Here’s the tune from Butterworth’s MSS
Ladies of Pleasure, as played by Charles Benfield, from George Butterworth’s MSS.
Two morris tunes from Bledington. I’ve known these (to hum at least) since the 1970s: ‘William and Nancy’ was on John Kirkpatrick’s excellent LP Plain Capers, and ‘Gallant Hussar’ was on Son of Morris On, both of which were released in 1976. I’m pretty sure that Son of…was the first record of morris tunes that I heard, and it had a really big impact – not least because many of the tracks feature anglo-concertina, played variously by John Rodd, John Tams and the wonderful John Watcham. Although if you want to hear lots of really good anglo playing close-up, without the distraction of electric guitar, bass and drums, you absolutely need to check out Plain Capers.
Before recording these tunes, I went back to the Black Book to check how they’re supposed to go. So the number of A’s and B’s is probably correct, but they’re played much too fast for the serious dancer.
Here’s three (and a half) versions of a well-known morris tune. They’re all basically the same but with morris tunes – folk tunes in general – it’s worth celebrating the differences.
First up, the tune as played in Bampton.
Highland Mary – Bampton
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
Next, Bledington, where it’s used for a jig.
Highland Mary – Bledington
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
And now the version which Cecil Sharp collected from John Mason of Stow-in-the-Wold, who had formerly played for Sherborne, and possibly some other village teams. Mr Mason didn’t have a name for this one – Sharp labelled it “Country Gardens?”. And he was also missing a bar in the B music. This sounds odd to start with but you soon get used to it.
Untitled tune (“Country Gardens?” – actually ‘Highland Mary’) collected from John Mason, 1907.
Highland Mary – from John Mason
Played on Bb/F anglo-concertina
I first learned this tune in the 1980s at the famous Wednesday night English music sessions in Eynsham, and we used to play it with Geckoes. I’m not sure who added the missing 8th bar but it could well have been Dave Townsend. I’m biased, but to my mind it works better than the 32 bar reconstruction given on the GlosTrad website.
I’ve known ‘Young Collins’ pretty much forever; which in this case means since about 1977. It’s on Morris On, which I heard after Son of… and, I think, before Plain Capers.
Then in the 1980s South Downs, with Roger Watson as musician, started to dance ‘Young Collins’ with a very odd modal / minor key version, which I remember being told came from Bledington musician Charlie Benfield. I always assumed that Roger, or Phil Everett the side’s founder, had dug up this tune from some obscure source. But recently, to my surprise, I discovered that it was there in the Black Book all along, as an alternative to the more usual major key tune. I was also rather surprised to learn that both versions had been collected from Charlie Benfield, albeit 14 years apart. How could two such different versions of the tune come from the same musician? Well, here’s what I’ve discovered (I should point out that this isn’t the result of any in-depth research, just a bit of Saturday morning Googling).
Cecil Sharp first met Benfield at Bould (literally just down the road from Bledington) in September 1909. He collected three morris tunes from him, including ‘Young Collin’. Here it is from Sharp’s Folk Tunes.
Young Collin [Young Collins], collected by Cecil Sharp, 2nd Sep 1909
Benfield was 68 years old when visited by Sharp, who wrote
Ch. Benfield was fiddler to the Bledington Morris till it lapsed about 15-20 years ago. He afterwards taught some younger men but could not induce them to continue. He is an agricultural labourer and a keen morris dancer. His fiddle was bridge-less and bow-less so he half hummed and half whistled this & following 2 tunes.
As well as the morris tunes, Sharp collected several songs from him (including this rather nice ‘While Shepherds Watched’). He visited him again to collect morris dance tunes and steps, as did Clive Carey and George Butterworth. Then in 1923 the Travelling Morris danced their reconstructed versions of the Bledington dances to both Charlie Benfield and another old dancer, John Hitchman. It was on this occasion that Charlie played the unusual variant of the tune.
Robert Kenworthy Schofield, who was with the Travelling Morris on that trip, wrote about it in an article entitled ‘Morris Dances from Bledington’, in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society , December 1934.
The visit of the Travelling Morris led to the collection of a number of dances not published in The Morris Book, some of which are recorded below. Of the tunes, the first version of “Young Collins” [the usual, major key version] was noted first from Richard Bond of Idbury and later from John Hitchman. The second version was obtained by Dr. A. F. Richards from Charles Benfield and later verified by the writer, but was not recognised by the other two men. It may have originated because Benfield’s old fingers found certain intervals on his fiddle easier than others, but be that as it may, the tune has somehow slipped into a very unusual mode, and for this reason alone is worth recording, although the first version is certainly nearer the original.
Given that Benfield’s tune was not familiar to either Richard Bond or John Hitchman it seems a pretty good bet that its idiosyncrasies can be attributed to age – and possibly lack of practice. We know that his fiddle was in a state of disrepair in 1909, suggesting that it wasn’t in regular use at that time. Sharp’s initial visit might have inspired him to restring his instrument and start playing again, but by 1923 he was into his eighties and, after a lifetime’s work as an agricultural labourer, probably not in the best of health. I wonder if, when this tune was collected from him, his fingers were struggling to remember a tune he’d not played for a decade.
The Windsor Morris Fool’s introduction to one of their dances used to include the line
In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of…
morris dancing
Well that’s certainly true for me. I haven’t danced regularly since 1988 but I still really miss it, and I often find myself playing a lot of morris tunes at this time of the year. Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through the Morris Ring “Black Book”, trying out some unfamiliar variants, and revisiting some old favourites. ‘Balance the Straw’ certainly comes into the latter category, although it was so long since I’d played the tune that I had to look in the book to refresh my memory. Which is why I’ve ended up recording three different versions.
The one I remembered (but had temporarily forgotten) was the Field Town stick dance, which Oyster Women used to dance back in the 1980s.
Balance the Straw – Field Town
Played on G/D anglo-concertina
Actually Lionel Bacon says in the Black Book that “a new version of Balance the Straw has appeared during the post-war years, and has become an accepted and effective part of the morris man’s repertoire. The tune is a composed, or at least a modified one.”
Which I suspect means that some bright spark deliberately or otherwise turned a 4/4 tune into 6/8. Well, it certainly works. In 6/8 this is pretty much an archetypal morris tune, and I’m very glad I thought to reacquaint myself with it.
At Ascott-under-Wychwood where, again, this was a stick dance, a 4/4 version of the tune was used.
Balancy Straw – Ascott-under-Wychwood
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
And the same is true of Bledington, where it’s used for a jig.
Balance the Straw – Bledington
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
In my youth I used to think that morris tunes were somehow a special breed, unrelated to country dance tunes. Utter nonsense of course. ‘Balance the Straw’ was in the repertoire of 18th century fiddler William Clark of Lincoln – see the Traditional Tune Archive – and, no doubt, other musicians who never played for the morris.
And, like ‘Double Lead Through’, this quintessential English folk tune comes from an operatic source. The melody itself, and its title, derive from a song which appears in an opera, TheReprisal, by Scottish composer James Oswald (1710–1769), first performed in London in 1757:
From the man whom I Love, tho’ my Heart I disguise
I will freely discribe the Wretch I despise
And if he has Sense but to ballance a Straw
He will surely take the Hint from the Picture I draw
![Young Collin [Young Collins], collected by Cecil Sharp, 2nd Sep 1909](https://media.vwml.org/images/web/CJS2/SHA-01-2338.jpg)
Squeezed Out 