Monday, 22 August 2011
Welcome to Our Tales
While you are here why not try our search facility and see what else might interest you. Looking back over the subject covered we seem to be a wide ranging sort of blog. I am not sure I still agree with some of the older articles on politics and elections but they are part of the record and it would be against my instincts to delete them. I have always found librarians who want to get rid of some of their holdings rather disconcerting as how do they know what might be of interest in the years to come. On the other hand I have snapped up a few treasures thanks to their shortsightedness.
Dacier
Monday, 15 August 2011
The Night the Weasels Took Over Debenhams
Having spent a pleasant day with our daughter in Birmingham last Monday we went our separate ways when she caught her train back to London at 18.57. Not long after we had a call from her saying that police were being deployed in Birmingham city centre so we abandoned any ideas of eating out at Jamie’s for the first time.
Earlier in the day we had joked about the Tottenham riot spreading to Ealing where she now lives. Rather like Bournemouth voting Labour we thought. Little did we know. When my daughter went to catch her bus home at Ealing Broadway Tube station, 15 minutes before the shops opposite were trashed, the police presence amounted to two normally clad officers and a van. Whether this meagre presence was a look out posting or an advance party we do not know. But, such was the speed of the descending looters and the absence of advance notice on the part of the police, the results were a ‘free for all’ in Ealing Broadway and other Boroughs. There were no police deployed in many areas where they were needed. West Ealing for example, just along the Uxbridge Road, seems to have become a help yourself festival.
Later that evening when we were back home in the hills we watched the footage of the Debenhams Store in Clapham being looted, rather like an early Christmas sale, and it brought to mind the images from Wind in the Willows and the occupation of Toad Hall by the Weasels from the Wild Wood. Even then I couldn’t help totting up the bill which the Metropolitan Police were going to be presented with under the Riot Damages Act 1886. It now seems that the costs to be borne by the police, and the Met in particular, are going to be much wider. I am however prepared for it to be argued that looting, was not in law a riot.
All this has made me wonder whether the police are suffering from a loss of institutional memory. Yes, responses to public disorder take a time, but not being ready by Monday evening? This recent festival of looting was a unique event. Since the founding of the new police with the Metropolitan Police Act 1928, there is nothing in the books of this scale. But, this is the second time the police have been caught on the hop recently. The first was the slow response to the Millbank invasion. By contrast the riots of 1981 were responded too quite quickly with the Mutual Support system being activated to deal with riots in several major cities during one weekend.
By the time of the Miners strike of 1984 Mutual Support had come into its own as a means of dealing with flying pickets, aided and abetted by inventive, and sometimes illegal interpretations of ‘an, anticipated breach of the peace’. On the other hand, few people knew how few police were left on duty in non mining areas.Very few in fact.
On Monday evening the ‘Flying Looters’ were much more difficult to deal with due to their speed of travel, their modern communications, and a large amount of cheek. The penny had dropped in the twisted minds of gang leaders and aspirational thieves alike, namely, that when the mob strikes quickly in large numbers, in several locations, the police cannot cope. The slower the police are in responding, the bigger the impact on property and individuals.
That the mob can quickly get the upper hand can be seen from the Castle Morton Festival beneath the Malvern Hills in 1992 which started with one or two vans arriving on a Friday afternoon. These were the first of a convoy moving into Worcestershire from Gloucestershire. The result, as explained by local residents in the part of the Committal Proceedings in a prosecution for common law Public Nuisance, I attended, was that by the next day a small town had been created which not only damaged resident’s property but in effect made them frightened prisoners in their own homes for nearly the following week. In the meantime the mob ruled, the common became a no-go area to the police and a major drug exchange seems to have been set up. The West Mercia Constabulary recognised the power of the mob and explained their observing role as, ‘taking a low profile’. By mid-day Saturday they had little choice.
( As far as I am aware this case was the last prosecution for common law public nuisance before it was replaced by a statutory offence. A trial was eventually held in Stoke on Trent but I lost track of it due to an illness. If anyone has any information with regard to the outcome please leave a comment as this will probably prove to have been the last spontaneous public assembly of its kind.)
So, if there was an institutional memory, if there was someone somewhere on duty who possessed some of it, I would have expected various contingency plans to be triggered on the Saturday. Yes, this was a ‘public order’ issue, but these often spill over into periods of opportunist looting. Prime Minister Cameron’s purported claim to having made some kind of difference at his first Cobra meeting when he claims tactics apparently went onto a crime fighting agenda is a distinction without a difference, and a claim now disputed by senior police officers. Whatever the parties to this spat might say the facts speak for themselves. A small peaceful vigil marked the beginning of a mobilisation of the mob.
Could there be a connection with all this and the many early retirements, cost cutting already implemented and low police morale? Does the Prime Minister's obvious wish to import an American cop as the new Metropolitan Commissioner stem from a low opinion of British policing and an ignorance of what has been achieved in policing since 1981? I for one, as a policing critic, do not think that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the model. More often than not problems arise from ethical and resource deficiencies. Is Prime Minster Cameron's wish to import an American policeman to Britain's top policing job now saying that the police have deficiencies in the human resources department as well? Present Government policies will do nothing to help any of these deficiencies.
Whatever the causal links, the fact remains that the events of Saturday 6th August 2011 did not bring any more police into London through Mutual Support until Tuesday and by the time they did arrive the scenes of Clapham and Croydon were already emblazoned in our minds. Large scale destruction of this kind is not supposed to happen in Britain. The looters knew they were in control, the police knew they were in trouble, but PM Cameron also apparently knows things will be better next time round, even though there will be fewer police. Such is his knowledge of the history of policing since 1981 he thinks that an American cop, who actually increased police numbers in New York, can come to the rescue with regard to one of the suspected causes of the problem. Unfortunately he has no idea of the lead time for a cure for gang culture. I can also tell you now, he will not like the advice his American buddy will give and I will have no sympathy for him. Those who live by the gimmick often die by the gimmick and our current Prime Minister seems to have a plentiful supply.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Why it is wrong to use Homelessness as a Punishment
Whilst the desire to do something about rioters now the smoke is clearing is understandable, I fear that the Government, led by the PM, are letting their enthusiasm for draconian punishment get the better of them. I have no problem with individual responsibility but there is usually a well established way in which the law can bring that about for the individual concerned. Neither do I have any trouble with parents taking responsibility for the acts of their children, but there are positive ways and negative ways in which this can be brought about.
My particular concern is with parents being evicted as part of this process of attributing responsibility when their child has been charged or convicted with a public order offence. Leaving aside the presumption of innocence, as some have already done, this is wrong. This is because it is a vicarious punishment imposed by way of strict liability.
Since we are told that the Government believes in the family, although not yet enough to give them some tax breaks, I find it difficult to see how making a mother and her child homeless achieves any relevant purpose. If a tenant had been a nuisance to neighbours and has a record of anti-social behaviour, then having a recently convicted 'rioter' in the house could well be the last straw for the landlord and the other neighbours, in which case one might ask why an eviction has not already been sought. If however this is the only cause then to make the family homeless is disproportionate and damaging to any family unit, or what is left of it.
Some of the parents seen on television swearing at reporters as they leave court with their children do not evoke much sympathy, and may well deserve eviction for other reasons. However, when asked where they expect such people to go after they have been evicted the PM simply says the private sector and they should have thought about that, before the child went off to a riot. I suppose this is at least better than ignoring the question as has been the result of my as yet unanswered enquuries of the Housing Minister @grantshapps.
To be vague or silent about these consequences is not only to reveal an ignorance of how traumatic homelessness can be, it is also tantamount to writing people off in the heat of the moment. If a dysfunctional family is at least in their home, there is a possibility, albeit slim in some cases, that there is something to build on. There is at least a chance that worthwhile lives can be built.
If the Government is saying that is nothing to do with them, then they might as well write off an awful lot of dysfunctional people, wash their hands of them, and hope they go away. They may do so for a while, they may be out of sight, but in such instances, unless someone can help achieve a breakthrough in providing hope for such ‘punished’ human beings, yet another seed is sown for a whirlwind which will inevitably return. This harsh, disproportionate and indiscriminate punishment not only shows a degree of callousness, it is also marks the absence of governmental compassion from people who probably never have been, and never will be, homeless. It lowers Government to the level of the thoughtless and unfeeling looters who cared nothing for their fellow citizens’ property or lives.
Dacier
My particular concern is with parents being evicted as part of this process of attributing responsibility when their child has been charged or convicted with a public order offence. Leaving aside the presumption of innocence, as some have already done, this is wrong. This is because it is a vicarious punishment imposed by way of strict liability.
Since we are told that the Government believes in the family, although not yet enough to give them some tax breaks, I find it difficult to see how making a mother and her child homeless achieves any relevant purpose. If a tenant had been a nuisance to neighbours and has a record of anti-social behaviour, then having a recently convicted 'rioter' in the house could well be the last straw for the landlord and the other neighbours, in which case one might ask why an eviction has not already been sought. If however this is the only cause then to make the family homeless is disproportionate and damaging to any family unit, or what is left of it.
Some of the parents seen on television swearing at reporters as they leave court with their children do not evoke much sympathy, and may well deserve eviction for other reasons. However, when asked where they expect such people to go after they have been evicted the PM simply says the private sector and they should have thought about that, before the child went off to a riot. I suppose this is at least better than ignoring the question as has been the result of my as yet unanswered enquuries of the Housing Minister @grantshapps.
To be vague or silent about these consequences is not only to reveal an ignorance of how traumatic homelessness can be, it is also tantamount to writing people off in the heat of the moment. If a dysfunctional family is at least in their home, there is a possibility, albeit slim in some cases, that there is something to build on. There is at least a chance that worthwhile lives can be built.
If the Government is saying that is nothing to do with them, then they might as well write off an awful lot of dysfunctional people, wash their hands of them, and hope they go away. They may do so for a while, they may be out of sight, but in such instances, unless someone can help achieve a breakthrough in providing hope for such ‘punished’ human beings, yet another seed is sown for a whirlwind which will inevitably return. This harsh, disproportionate and indiscriminate punishment not only shows a degree of callousness, it is also marks the absence of governmental compassion from people who probably never have been, and never will be, homeless. It lowers Government to the level of the thoughtless and unfeeling looters who cared nothing for their fellow citizens’ property or lives.
Dacier
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Understand Looting? No thanks: it’s much easier to Condemn
Trying to explain the new phenomenon of ‘consumer looting’, is often seen by some, as condoning it. This is clearly nonsense and often comes from people who are strong on condemnation generally and short of the talents required to explain. Sadly, Prime Minister Cameron and Home Secretary May, reveal this failing when they say that the disorder on the shopping streets is, ‘crime, pure and simple’. If only it were. Anyone who has eavesdropped on conversations between young street people or taken vox pop interviews of unemployed youngsters seriously, will soon realise that many of them are suffering from a serious disconnection from what no doubt Cameron and May would describe as ‘the standards of normal society’. Having seen quite a few employed ‘adults’, of whom it is tempting to say should have known better, leaving court, I think the problem goes back across several governments.
Unfortunately in the world of disaffected youth and their parents, or parent, the standards of comfortable Britain are difficult to find. Serial bad parenting over two or more generations can produce a very different person to that which members of ‘normal society’ would like to have living next door. How many people in ‘comfortable Britain’ have heard of the need to teach some failing parents basic parenting skills like how to wash themselves or prepare food. This might explain why such places on such courses, if they still exist, are very hard to find by hard pressed social workers trying to help the disfunctional families among their impossible case load.
The range of factors causing the cultural disconnection is wide and runs from the inability to read, through to an inability to escape the hold of the local gang, drug addiction, let alone an inability to find or keep a job. And all this takes place in a context of materialism and its attendant advertising based on the notion that to be worth anything you must have the product being advertised. No wonder levels of self esteem and hope plummet. Such an individual has no future and nothing to lose.
Excluded people looking in on ‘normal society’ from the outside, sooner or later, will be tempted to break in, or break it up, in some way, you break themselves up. Some get a lucky break but they are hard to come by. Aspirational looting, as I have heard it described today, is now one way of achieving both the break in and having a ‘smashing time’, all at the same time in the company of similarly disconnected youngsters possibly in your gang. These youngsters get some feeling of worth according to their own distorted view of where they are.
To those in normal society they are ‘feckless’, ‘anti-social’, ‘a-social’, ‘a-moral’ and many other things. Judging by the values of the Cameron Government they do not appear to be a sub-class worth investing in. Condemning their social origins as sick Dr Cameron is easy. Do you have a modern Dr Finlay to find a cure? Like so many of the cuts I fear there will be rather a lot of false economies in the pipeline. John Major said we should ‘... condemn more and understand less’. His wish seems to be coming true. Unfortunately, failing to understand something through fecklessness or ignorance, or both, usually has a big price.
Dacier
Unfortunately in the world of disaffected youth and their parents, or parent, the standards of comfortable Britain are difficult to find. Serial bad parenting over two or more generations can produce a very different person to that which members of ‘normal society’ would like to have living next door. How many people in ‘comfortable Britain’ have heard of the need to teach some failing parents basic parenting skills like how to wash themselves or prepare food. This might explain why such places on such courses, if they still exist, are very hard to find by hard pressed social workers trying to help the disfunctional families among their impossible case load.
The range of factors causing the cultural disconnection is wide and runs from the inability to read, through to an inability to escape the hold of the local gang, drug addiction, let alone an inability to find or keep a job. And all this takes place in a context of materialism and its attendant advertising based on the notion that to be worth anything you must have the product being advertised. No wonder levels of self esteem and hope plummet. Such an individual has no future and nothing to lose.
Excluded people looking in on ‘normal society’ from the outside, sooner or later, will be tempted to break in, or break it up, in some way, you break themselves up. Some get a lucky break but they are hard to come by. Aspirational looting, as I have heard it described today, is now one way of achieving both the break in and having a ‘smashing time’, all at the same time in the company of similarly disconnected youngsters possibly in your gang. These youngsters get some feeling of worth according to their own distorted view of where they are.
To those in normal society they are ‘feckless’, ‘anti-social’, ‘a-social’, ‘a-moral’ and many other things. Judging by the values of the Cameron Government they do not appear to be a sub-class worth investing in. Condemning their social origins as sick Dr Cameron is easy. Do you have a modern Dr Finlay to find a cure? Like so many of the cuts I fear there will be rather a lot of false economies in the pipeline. John Major said we should ‘... condemn more and understand less’. His wish seems to be coming true. Unfortunately, failing to understand something through fecklessness or ignorance, or both, usually has a big price.
Dacier
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
FolkWorkshops August Newsletter
Dear Supporter,
Let’s start by welcoming all of you who have just joined the mailing list. We hope you will be able to come along to some of the events mentioned here and that you might have an instrument you would like to play or a voice to get into condition. If you have neither then as always come along to develop you’re listening skills, your knowledge of folk music, and have a pleasant evening or two out. As always, if at any time anyone wants to be taken off the list then please let us know. Equally if you know of anyone who might like to be on the list then get them to send in an e-mail request.
Let’s end by thanking all of those who turned up and sang at the Songs and Poems Among the Flowers evening at St. Margaret’s Church on July 18th. This was very much an experiment but very favourable feedback has come in and it looks as though another evening for early November is planned with the provisional theme of Memories and Remembrance. A big thank you goes to our singers, Black Hill Folk for doing such a good job. Don’t be surprised if we get asked to do a few more things at St .Margaret’s. Thanks also go to Jim Neale for singing songs which were just right. I think he had better consider organising a fan club up here in the hills.
We are just about to go off on a trip to the Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in search of some Folk Clubs to sing at so see you later in the month. In the meantime should any of you feel like buying the Bridge Inn at Michaelchurch we are sure that FolkWorkshops supporters will be only too pleased to boost your sales.
Keeping the dream alive,
Regards from all @FolkWorkshops
Events:
Wednesday 17th August: Newton Church Room 7.30 pm: Turn up and Sing Evening. John Biggs has a new song we might like so he will bring along a CD player to get us started. Dont forget to bring your song files with you. New members should not be put off by this as we can always find some lyrics for you.
Saturday 20th August: Longtown Show: FolkWorkshops Stall & Caravan: Look out for the sign and drop in for a chat and a drink. We will have various promotional leaflets from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, a display of musical instruments, and literature. A CD player playing folk music will provide the background music. Depending on who turns up, occasional outbursts of song and strumming on the hour from 2pm, will occur.
If you have any promotional material you would like to add to our collection then get it to us by Friday 19th or on the day of the show. Flyers, posters, and cards can all be found a place. Old books on music or artists you no longer want can also go on display for sale on your terms. If you have any old musical instruments you would like to sell or just bring along to add to the display, feel free. If it’s raining we will take shelter in the caravan! If it’s also blowing a gale we will see at the Crown Inn later getting warm and sampling the Butty Bach. It is August after all. If you have any ideas we have missed for the stall please let us know. We have no idea what to expect but we are looking forward to it!
Wednesday 28th September: Newton Church and Room 7.30 pm: Singing Workshop with the Village Quire: Your chance to try out part singing. Absolute beginners and above welcome. This is an evening which can really convince you that it is worth giving your vocal chords an outing. Tickets £5. All proceeds of this event as well as the concert below will be shared between the two churches.
Saturday 1st October: St.Margarets Church 7.30: Concert by the Village Quire High days and Holidays Along the Welsh Border Marches if you come to nothing else during the next twelve months this is the event not to miss. You can read a review of this concert on our tag link below. Heard in the setting of St. Margaret’s Church in sight of the Cat’s Back as it forms the sky line from Hay Bluff, via Black Hill and Red Darren to Hatterall Hill, we cannot imagine a better setting. Tickets £10. Combine it with the Workshop ticket and pay £13. To reserve any ticket either send your request to john.baxter87@virgin.net or telephone John on either 019812510388 or 01981 510629
Saturday 15th October John Kirkpatrick presents
The Victorian Farmer’s Year in Song
Songs about farmers, and songs sung by farmers; songs about the work on the farm, and songs to make that work easier; songs celebrating particular days in the country calendar, and songs celebrating the daily miracle of life, death, and renewal. And the world we are shown here is not a romantic pastoral idyll viewed through rose-tinted spectacles—this is a world full of sweat and muck, a world with dirt under the fingernails, a world full of snorting, and grunting and heaving. And then there’s the animals ...
John Kirkpatrick, winner of the ‘Musician of the Year’ award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In the popular TV series Victorian Farm John popped up now and again contributing folk songs, squeezebox tunes, dances and snippets of information about folklore and traditional customs.
Saturday 15th October, 7.30 pm at Gwernyfed School Drama Studio, Three Cocks, Nr Hay on Wye LD3 0SG. Cost £7.50
Folk Harmony Singing Workshop - John will also be running a vocal workshop from 2 - 5 pm at the school. Suitable for anyone who likes a good sing and can hold a tune! 'Dots' will be available if needed, but the afternoon will be suitable for those who prefer to learn 'by ear'. Cost £10 or combined workshop / concert ticket just £15. Workshop places must be booked in advance.
Tickets and further details from 01497 847676 or any member of the Village Quire / www.villagequire.org.uk
Let’s start by welcoming all of you who have just joined the mailing list. We hope you will be able to come along to some of the events mentioned here and that you might have an instrument you would like to play or a voice to get into condition. If you have neither then as always come along to develop you’re listening skills, your knowledge of folk music, and have a pleasant evening or two out. As always, if at any time anyone wants to be taken off the list then please let us know. Equally if you know of anyone who might like to be on the list then get them to send in an e-mail request.
Let’s end by thanking all of those who turned up and sang at the Songs and Poems Among the Flowers evening at St. Margaret’s Church on July 18th. This was very much an experiment but very favourable feedback has come in and it looks as though another evening for early November is planned with the provisional theme of Memories and Remembrance. A big thank you goes to our singers, Black Hill Folk for doing such a good job. Don’t be surprised if we get asked to do a few more things at St .Margaret’s. Thanks also go to Jim Neale for singing songs which were just right. I think he had better consider organising a fan club up here in the hills.
We are just about to go off on a trip to the Somerset, Devon and Cornwall in search of some Folk Clubs to sing at so see you later in the month. In the meantime should any of you feel like buying the Bridge Inn at Michaelchurch we are sure that FolkWorkshops supporters will be only too pleased to boost your sales.
Keeping the dream alive,
Regards from all @FolkWorkshops
Events:
Wednesday 17th August: Newton Church Room 7.30 pm: Turn up and Sing Evening. John Biggs has a new song we might like so he will bring along a CD player to get us started. Dont forget to bring your song files with you. New members should not be put off by this as we can always find some lyrics for you.
Saturday 20th August: Longtown Show: FolkWorkshops Stall & Caravan: Look out for the sign and drop in for a chat and a drink. We will have various promotional leaflets from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, a display of musical instruments, and literature. A CD player playing folk music will provide the background music. Depending on who turns up, occasional outbursts of song and strumming on the hour from 2pm, will occur.
If you have any promotional material you would like to add to our collection then get it to us by Friday 19th or on the day of the show. Flyers, posters, and cards can all be found a place. Old books on music or artists you no longer want can also go on display for sale on your terms. If you have any old musical instruments you would like to sell or just bring along to add to the display, feel free. If it’s raining we will take shelter in the caravan! If it’s also blowing a gale we will see at the Crown Inn later getting warm and sampling the Butty Bach. It is August after all. If you have any ideas we have missed for the stall please let us know. We have no idea what to expect but we are looking forward to it!
Wednesday 28th September: Newton Church and Room 7.30 pm: Singing Workshop with the Village Quire: Your chance to try out part singing. Absolute beginners and above welcome. This is an evening which can really convince you that it is worth giving your vocal chords an outing. Tickets £5. All proceeds of this event as well as the concert below will be shared between the two churches.
Saturday 1st October: St.Margarets Church 7.30: Concert by the Village Quire High days and Holidays Along the Welsh Border Marches if you come to nothing else during the next twelve months this is the event not to miss. You can read a review of this concert on our tag link below. Heard in the setting of St. Margaret’s Church in sight of the Cat’s Back as it forms the sky line from Hay Bluff, via Black Hill and Red Darren to Hatterall Hill, we cannot imagine a better setting. Tickets £10. Combine it with the Workshop ticket and pay £13. To reserve any ticket either send your request to john.baxter87@virgin.net or telephone John on either 019812510388 or 01981 510629
Saturday 15th October John Kirkpatrick presents
The Victorian Farmer’s Year in Song
Songs about farmers, and songs sung by farmers; songs about the work on the farm, and songs to make that work easier; songs celebrating particular days in the country calendar, and songs celebrating the daily miracle of life, death, and renewal. And the world we are shown here is not a romantic pastoral idyll viewed through rose-tinted spectacles—this is a world full of sweat and muck, a world with dirt under the fingernails, a world full of snorting, and grunting and heaving. And then there’s the animals ...
John Kirkpatrick, winner of the ‘Musician of the Year’ award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In the popular TV series Victorian Farm John popped up now and again contributing folk songs, squeezebox tunes, dances and snippets of information about folklore and traditional customs.
Saturday 15th October, 7.30 pm at Gwernyfed School Drama Studio, Three Cocks, Nr Hay on Wye LD3 0SG. Cost £7.50
Folk Harmony Singing Workshop - John will also be running a vocal workshop from 2 - 5 pm at the school. Suitable for anyone who likes a good sing and can hold a tune! 'Dots' will be available if needed, but the afternoon will be suitable for those who prefer to learn 'by ear'. Cost £10 or combined workshop / concert ticket just £15. Workshop places must be booked in advance.
Tickets and further details from 01497 847676 or any member of the Village Quire / www.villagequire.org.uk
Friday, 5 August 2011
What is FolkWorkshops?
We are an informal group of people who like music from the Folk Music Tradition. Some of us play musical instruments, some of us sing, while others like coming along to listen. We hold regular folk music evenings at Newton Church Room and at other locations such as the Crown Inn Longtown.
Singing: We are not a choir, although when we sing as a group we are known as Blackhill Folk. We also hold regular rehearsals when we have been asked to sing at a particular event. Supporters regularly attend Susie’s Song School near Glasbury during the winter months. We are also strong supporters of the Village Quire from Glasbury who organise occasional singing workshops. There is no need to be able to read music.
Singing Workshops: The Village Quire organise occasional guests to run these in Glasbury and also lead workshops themselves. Please see the Newsletter for the latest details.
Instrumental Workshops: We hope to run occasional workshops for specific instruments at beginners and improvers level as the number of players increase. We will be holding a Guitar Workshop sometime during the winter and other instruments will be added when possible.
Events: We are not a Folk Club but we can look like one at times. We have organised events such as our own Ceilidh, and helped with last year’s Concert and Workshop by the Village Quire from Glasbury in association with St. Margaret’s and St. John’s Churches.
Dancing: some of our supporters are folk dance enthusiasts and most of us try to support events run by Foxwhelp Morris whenever we can. Our members also attend singing workshops organised by other groups and individuals.
The e-Newsletter: through this and our twitter feed @FolkWorkshops we keep in touch with the growing number of fellow enthusiasts. We try to give early notice of folk music events and car sharing is often possible. We receive mailings from the English Folk Dance and Song Society as well as other groups. To register for the e-Newslettter send a request to john.baxter87@virgin.net
Singing: We are not a choir, although when we sing as a group we are known as Blackhill Folk. We also hold regular rehearsals when we have been asked to sing at a particular event. Supporters regularly attend Susie’s Song School near Glasbury during the winter months. We are also strong supporters of the Village Quire from Glasbury who organise occasional singing workshops. There is no need to be able to read music.
Singing Workshops: The Village Quire organise occasional guests to run these in Glasbury and also lead workshops themselves. Please see the Newsletter for the latest details.
Instrumental Workshops: We hope to run occasional workshops for specific instruments at beginners and improvers level as the number of players increase. We will be holding a Guitar Workshop sometime during the winter and other instruments will be added when possible.
Events: We are not a Folk Club but we can look like one at times. We have organised events such as our own Ceilidh, and helped with last year’s Concert and Workshop by the Village Quire from Glasbury in association with St. Margaret’s and St. John’s Churches.
Dancing: some of our supporters are folk dance enthusiasts and most of us try to support events run by Foxwhelp Morris whenever we can. Our members also attend singing workshops organised by other groups and individuals.
The e-Newsletter: through this and our twitter feed @FolkWorkshops we keep in touch with the growing number of fellow enthusiasts. We try to give early notice of folk music events and car sharing is often possible. We receive mailings from the English Folk Dance and Song Society as well as other groups. To register for the e-Newslettter send a request to john.baxter87@virgin.net
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