Pippa

Sabine Baring-Gould, who lived just up the road from Coryton, collected a few songs from John Dingle who lived there. Cecil Sharp met John and his wife Elizabeth when staying with Baring-Gould some years later and collected more songs from them. For the full story see my paper in the current issue of Folk Music Journal which lists the songs and gives full versions of two of the songs, 'Pack of Cards' and 'New Mown Hay'. Another of John's songs, 'Come all you Worthy Christians' is on the CD that Shan and I have recently released: 'Dusty Diamonds' - again on the wonderful Wildgoose label. The cover picture of our CD is a painting of John and Elizabeth Dingle by Chris Molan, based on a photograph taken by Cecil Sharp and which you can see on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.

Tavistock Goosey Fair was written by C. John Trythall and you can hear a great version of the song on the new CD by Bill Murray (2 disc, 35 tracks) published by Wren Music. It is a live recording and features guest tracks from Jim Causley, Moor Music, Matt Norman and lots of other local singers and musicians.

There are, of course, other singers from the area who gave songs to Baring-Gould. As suggested above, talk to Wren Music in Okehampton.

Good luck with your search

Martin Graebe