Canning Town Folk

[seaJane]

Canning Town Folk opens at Cecil Sharp House on the 15^th of September. http://www.efdss.org/events/eventsdetails/eventsId/415/displaydate/2011-09-15

This groundbreaking exhibition looks at the key role played in the early days of the English Folk Dance Society by three extraordinary women with strong ties to Canning Town and Plaistow in East London. Maud Karpeles' Canning Town girls demonstrated a wide range of folk dances at the 1911 Stratford upon Avon Summer School, as the Society was being founded. Daisy Caroline Daking's work with the troops in France during the First World War helped establish the widespread popularity of folk dancing. Elsie J. Oxenham documented Daking's teaching in Plaistow, along with the Cheltenham Summer School and the Chelsea Christmas School.

[tom compton]

Hello Jane. I was wondering if there are any old folk dancing films from 1911 we could see.Tom

[Martin Bennitt]

Morris dancing in the trenches? Sounds a bit Pythonesque

cheers Martin B

[Maricourt]

Not that "Pythonesque"!

Radio 4 transmitted a play "Morris on the Somme" - October 1991 by Mick Jones and recently Adderbury Morris group did a tour of the battlefields to commemorate group members who lost their lives in the Great War, including brothers Percy and Ronald Pargeter. Morris dancing was badly hit by the war and never really revived afterwards as so many of the village and town morris dancers had lost their lives in the conflict.

Indeed, Lt R [Reggie] J E Tiddy, 2/4 OXBLI did give some impromptu performances of morris dancing in the trenches. The Ox & Bucks had a liberal amount of performers in its ranks. Apparently, according to one of his letters home, his men enjoyed this and it took their minds away from thoughts of the war. An Oxford Don, Tiddy was also an expert on Mummers' plays. He was killed on the 10th August, 1916 aged 36, five days after his friend, Capt George Butterworth, DLI, the composer - both friends of Cecil Sharp who did much to collect folk music and dance history before it faded away from living memory. There is still a Tiddy Hall in Ascott-under-Wychwood, recently renovated and originally built with a legacy from Tiddy's will, that is still going strong today.

It's all quite fascinating once you start researching it!

Sea Jane - Many thanks for the news of the Canning Town Folk Exhibition. I look forward to visiting it.

Regards ... Maricourt

[Martin Bennitt]

Thanks Maricourt for putting me straight.

I'm not agin Morris dancing or folk dancing in general -- Mrs B was a member of a Morris

side, in Hong Kong of all places, and I used to go along for the beer.

I think it's the thought of doing it in service dress that makes it appear a bit

incongruous.

cheers Martin B

[seaJane]

Hello Jane. I was wondering if there are any old folk dancing films from 1911 we could see.Tom

Hi Tom,

You'd need to get in touch with EFDSS directly, I think - I'm not connected with them, but had the notification from a children's literature listserv I belong to (via the Elsie J. Oxenham connection).

sJ

[CGM]

Elsie J Oxenham.

I just had to go and find one of my Abbey books. I am sitting here, aged 10 again. Such a warm feeling.

[RAFDean]

Hello Jane. I was wondering if there are any old folk dancing films from 1911 we could see.Tom

Tom, I am trying to get in touch with you regarding your family research but your inbox is full and I cannot send you a message.

Please clear it out and send me a message or email.

Thanks

Dean

[David_Underdown]

Butterworth was a noted folk dancer (particularly sword dancing) in addition to his composing. I think his ODNB article says none of his fellow officers were really aware of his musical side, though he gave his occupation on his application for commission as "musician"