3. Cornwall

Matthew Bannister is in a pub near Redruth with the singer and Cornish music researcher Hilary Coleman. She tells him about the tradition of carol singing, especially amongst tin miners, which survives in Cornwall today.

She and Matthew visit Kresen Kernow, to look at “Eleanor Morgan’s book”,one of the sources used by the Cornish carol collector Davies Gilbert for his carol collection which was published in 1822.

The identity of Eleanor Morgan remains a tantalising mystery. Caro Lesemann-Elliot from Royal Holloway University talks about Davies Gilbert’s failure to credit the people whose music he collected.

There’s a version of one of the carols: Hark Hark, What News the Angels Bring.that emerged in Australia. Tin miners from Cornwall emigrated to Australia in the 19th century taking their carols with them. Nancy Kerr brings the original Cornish and migrated Australian versions back together.

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.

Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists”, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They’ve returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way 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