The Axford Five

This CD is a celebration of the songs of five women singers who lived in rural Hampshire 100 years ago, who we affectionately call The Axford Five. When folk song collector George Gardiner turned his sights to Hampshire in 1904, he was pleasantly surprised to find a wealth of traditional songs still being sung in this previously untouched area. However, it was his visit to Northeast Hampshire in the Spring of 1907 that was to yield his richest find, as he noted in a letter to Lucy Broadwood:

“The finest are the Preston Candover and Axford songs, particularly those of the women”

One of the reasons that Gardiner was so successful in this area was his meeting with Sarah Goodyear of Bermondspit Cottage, Axford. She hosted meetings of singers at her house so that Gardiner could note the songs more easily, along with Charles Gamblin, his music notator. It was generally much harder for Gardiner to find women singers as they were much less prominent in the pub singing communities he often collected from.

 “It was through the kindness of an old lady of Axford, known for many miles around as a singer and dancer, that I was enabled to record most of the 164 songs that I collected in that district. To that budget she contributed not less than 41, and she thus takes rank with the two singers who last season supplied me with the largest number of songs…I am indebted to [Mrs Goodyear] for her kindness in receiving my musical colleague and myself in her cottage and inviting the best singers of the neighbourhood to meet us”

Through Sarah’s hospitality and contacts, Gardiner was able to collect songs from many local women singers, which would otherwise have been impossible.

In addition to Sarah’s own great contribution, this CD celebrates the songs of singers Marty Munday, Elizabeth Randall, Charlotte Hall and Emma Hopkins. Together these women provided a rich variety of material, from songs of love and loss, murder and mischief to the downright risqué!

 

SARAH GOODYEAR   Aged 72 in 1907

A “noted singer and dancer”, Sarah Ann Oliver was born in 1835 in Preston Candover, next to Axford. She married fellow singer, Daniel Goodyear from nearby Nutley, in 1855 and they were married over 50 years, having eight children. Sarah invited the best singers to their house – ‘Bermondpit, so that Gardiner and Gamblin could take down the songs easier. Sarah was part of a musical family: her brother, Alfred Oliver, provided Gardiner with 17 songs and also was the father of another Axford singer, Emma Hopkins. Sarah contributed 45 songs to the collection.

MARTY MUNDAY  Aged 55 in 1907

Gardiner says of Marty Munday: “she had a rich contralto voice, [and] has a strong instinct for the beautiful in music”. She was born Martha Hutton in 1852, in Nutley village where Daniel Goodyear was also born. In 1873 she married Henry Rose, by whom she had 7 children. After Henry died, she married George Munday in 1898, and at the time of the 1901 census she was living with George and his brother Alfred, 22, as well as her youngest son from her previous marriage, John A. Rose, 8. Marty Contributed 18 songs to the collection.

ELIZABETH RANDALL  Aged 50 in 1907

Born Elizabeth Yarlett/Eliza Yarlot in 1857 in Whitchurch. In the summer of 1876 she married Henry Randall and had 8 children, all born in Overton. At the time of the 1901 census, Elizabeth was living with Henry in North Waltham, but by 1907 they were living in Axford. Two of Elizabeth’s daughters married singers:  Alice Ada married Enos William White in 1903, and Constance married Frank Cole in the autumn of 1907. The well-known singer and collector Bob Copper tape-recorded both Enos and Frank in the 1950s. The Cole family also gave songs to Gardiner, including one from Frank. There is a photograph of Frank in ‘Songs and Southern Breezes’ and one of Enos White with his wife ‘Ada’. Elizabeth contributed 5 songs to the collection.

CHARLOTTE HALL  Aged 71 in 1907

She was born Charlotte Hall in Bentworth in 1836, but her family moved to nearby Herriard when she was young. In 1854 she married William (also Hall), Woodman and Hurdle-maker by whom she had 7 children. At the time of the 1901 census she was widowed and living with two unmarried daughters: Emma 35 and Mary 33, who were both dressmakers. When Frank Purslow checked her manuscripts in the 1960s he thought that her age was beginning to make her singing unsteady. It seems likely that she was becoming very frail as when Gardiner returned to Axford the following year he had trouble finding her, as she had moved to live with a relative in nearby North Waltham. Charlotte contributed 8 songs to the collection.

EMMA JANE HOPKINS  Aged 28 in 1907.

Born Emma Jane Oliver in 1879 in Nutley, she was the youngest of the Axford Five and the niece of Sarah Goodyear. At the time of the 1901 census she was working as a domestic servant in Croydon and in 1902 she married Thomas William Hopkins. Thomas was born in Great Wishford, Wiltshire and his sister in Ramsdale, Hampshire and a nephew was born in Stockton, Durham, so they were a well-travelled family! Emma was very hard to trace as Gardiner noted her age wrongly and there were many Hopkins in the area. However, Malcolm Douglas pointed out that Gardiner noted her father singing ‘Edwin in the Lowlands’ in a major key, which enabled us to trace her to Alfred Oliver. In 1901 Alfred Oliver was living next door to George and Marty Munday, and Charlotte Hall was two doors away, so these to singers must have known each other well. Emma acted as postal co-ordinator to Gardiner for the women, writing out and sending the words to several of her own songs, as well as some of the other women. These can now be found in the Vaughan Williams Library. Emma contributed 7 songs to the collection.

 

1. The Gypsy Laddie
2. He Was Under My Window
3. Long Lankie
4. Down in Fleet Street
5. Bold William Taylor
6. Lord Derwentwater
7. An Old Man Came Courting Me
8. The Lowlands of Holland
9. Abroad as I was walking
10. Beautiful Nancy
11. Tarry Trousers
12. Down the Lane
13. A Famous Farmer
14. Sweet Lovely Joan
15. The Trooper’s Horse

 

THE SONGS

 

Down the Lane 

From Mrs. Hopkins

Vocals: Carolyn, Moira and Sarah

This is one of many adaptations of a song found on late eighteenth century broadsides titled ‘The Maiden’s complaint for the Loss of her Shepherd’. Copies can be seen in the Madden Collection in Cambridge University Library and in Manchester Central Library in The Warblers Garland.  The most famous version is Yorkshire’s ‘Holmfirth Anthem’, but the other versions of the song crop up in different parts of the country, sometimes known as ‘Through the Groves’ (They all have in common rather flowery language and magnificent tunes).

The Lowlands of Holland

From Mrs. Goodyear

Vocals: Carolyn, Moira and Sarah

Gardiner collected other versions of both text and tune in Hampshire. The song exists in many forms. It appears in Herd, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, II, 1776, p 2; and Johnson, Scots Musical Museum II, 1788, p 118 (No.115). The song may have been based in part on a broadside ballad, The Seaman’s Sorrowful Bride, printed in London for J Deacon, Guilt-spur-street, c. 1683.

 

Bold William Taylor

From Mrs. Munday

Vocals: Carolyn, Moira and Sarah

This is a very widely known song, noted by many collectors. In 1908 Percy Grainger made a famous cylinder recording of Joseph Taylor singing the song, though to a completely different tune.   The tale of the adventurous girl, who takes matters into her own hands after being jilted, would surely appeal to many women singers, ensuring the song’s continuing popularity.

Beautiful Nancy

From Mrs. Munday

Vocals: Hazel    Fiddle: Emily

At the time Gardiner was collecting in Hampshire, this song seems to have been very popular in the county and versions of it had started to spread to other counties in the south. Marty Munday’s ‘strong instinct for the beautiful in music” is particularly prevalent in this lovely version of the song. The words for Beautiful Nancy are also among those which Emma Hopkins wrote out and sent to Gardiner by post.

 

An Old Man Came Courting Me

From Mrs. Hopkins

Vocals: Hazel  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

This song seems to have been particularly popular all across the UK, with some versions even as far spread as America and Canada. Emma Hopkins’s version seems to be fairly concise and lacking some of the ruder details found in other versions (or perhaps she just didn’t want to sing them in front of Gardiner!) For a while we thought she was married to an older man, which seemed rather apt, but we eventually found out she was in fact married to a young man, so she had obviously taken the advice of the song! An Old Man Came Courting Me is also among the words which Emma wrote out and sent to Gardiner by post.

Down in Fleet Street

From Mrs. Munday

Vocals: Hazel  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

Another murder tale, this time warning of the dangers of jealousy. Versions of this song were collected all over the country, often known as ‘Oxford City’ or ‘Poison in a Glass of Wine’. Percy Grainger made a famous recording of Joseph Taylor singing a version in 1908 known as ‘Worcester City’. However this rather jaunty version is set in London’s Fleet Street, the historical centre of the printing and publishing worlds (and also the home of another murderous young man, Sweeney Todd!)

 

Sweet Lovely Joan

From Mrs. Hall

Vocals: Hazel  Fiddle: Emily  Gothic Harp: Hazel

Lovely Joan became very well known after Vaughan Williams collected a version in Norfolk in 1908 and used the tune for his ‘Fantasia on Greensleeves’, as well as publishing it in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. However, there were in fact a variety of other versions sung all over the UK, including this beautiful one from Charlotte Hall.

 

Tarry Trousers

From Mrs. Hall

Vocals: Sarah and Hazel  Fiddle: Emily

This song shows a timeless discourse between a mother and daughter over the suitability of a prospective husband. It was particularly popular in the south of England, as well as in America and Canada. Frank Purslow also notes that mother/daughter dialogues were very fashionable around the early 1800s and probably even later than this as Dickens shows Captain Cuttle singing the second half of the third verse in ‘Dombey and Son’.

 

The Gypsy Laddie

From Mrs. Hopkins

Vocals: Hazel, Sarah, Carolyn and Moira Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

This song was very common all over the country, also known as the ‘Raggle Taggle Gypsies’, or ‘Draggle-tailed Gypsies’. The appeal of the gypsy way of life probably helped its popularity – the romance of living a wandering, independent existence would have appealed to anyone bound to work and place.

 

Lord Derwentwater

From Mrs. Goodyear

Vocals: Sarah  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

James Ratcliffe, third Earl of Derwentwater, was beheaded in 1716 for his part in the the 1715 Jacobite rising.  The song is sometimes also called ‘Lord Ellenwater’ (Vaughan Williams collected it under that name in Cambridgeshire).   The song describes the ill omens that foreshadow his untimely end at the hands of the executioner.  It also mentions his generosity. We doubt that he really had “fifty thousand pounds all in one pocket to be given away to the poor”, but you get the general idea…

 

Abroad as I was walking

From Mrs. Goodyear

Vocals: Carolyn  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

Gardiner lists this as Down by the Riverside.  Mrs Goodyear remembered the tune and the last verse, and Gardiner obtained the rest of the text from Alfred Porter of Basingstoke.   It is a song of innocence betrayed, and must have reflected the bitter experience of more than one young woman of the time.

 

He Was Under My Window

From Mrs. Munday

Vocals: Carolyn  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

A delightful waltz, albeit with rather sad words.  So far we have not been able to trace any other information about this song so if you know any, please get in touch! Alternatively, take your partners and dance…

 

Long Lankie

From Mrs. Goodyear

Vocals: Moira  Fiddle: Emily

In some versions of this ballad, we hear of how Lord Wearie hires Lankin (a mason) to build his castle, but then refuses to pay his fee.  This brings down a terrible revenge on the family, which is often told with far more gory detail than Mrs. Goodyear includes.  The song appears in Child’s ballad collection (Child 93).

 

The Trooper’s Horse

From Mrs. Goodyear

Vocals: Moria  Chorus vocals: Sarah, Carolyn and Hazel  Fiddle: Emily  Melodeon: Hazel

A version of ‘The Trooper Watering his Nagge’, which was printed in “Pills to Purge Melancholy” in 1720.  We wonder what Gardiner’s reaction was when Mrs. Goodyear sang this for him, and have a mental picture of the other women egging her on…”Go on…sing ‘im the one about the nag…”

 

A Famous Farmer

From Mrs. Randall

Vocals: Sarah

The story of the unfortunate young man, murdered for the ‘crime’ of being in love with a woman of a higher rank, has overtones of an ‘honour killing’.  Who says folk song does not deal with contemporary issues?  The story goes back to the 14^th century and maybe even earlier.  It is found in Boccaccio’s Decameron, and was even put into a poem by Keats (Isabella and the Pot of Basil).