1. Norfolk

Matthew Bannister travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician and academic Nancy Kerr.

Matthew Bannister is in Norwich to visit the Norfolk County Record Office where researchers have found some remarkable manuscripts including an 18th century music book from a village band in Mileham and a ballad written by a woman ousted from her home in the 17th century. Nancy Kerr has made new musical arrangements for her band The Melrose Quartet. As dusk falls, Matthew visits the remains of the magnificent Hales Hall deep in the Norfolk countryside.

We hear from Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway University London and Bridget Yates a local researcher and music performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Matthew Bannister has been the host of Folk on Foot, a podcast which explores folk music and its connection with landscape in the UK, since 2018 and has often wondered about where “folk music” comes from. When he heard about Nancy Kerr’s involvement in a new project, Music Heritage, Place he wanted to know more.

Researchers from Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists”, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England looking for music. They’ve returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it.

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Natalie Steed
A Rhubarb Rhubarb Production for BBC Radio 3