The Festival of Village Carols

Saturday 7 December 2024

Grenoside Community Centre, 9.30am – 11.00pm (Grand Sing, 7.30pm)

Guest Groups

Redruth Carol Choir from Cornwall
Carollers from the Travellers Rest, Oughtibridge, Sheffield
Nicola Beazley’s Carol Band from Sheffield

Carolling in Redruth
In the nineteenth century Redruth was considered to be at the heart of music-making and carolling in Cornwall. This ascendency was supported by four thriving chapels and several talented carol makers, notably Thomas Merritt of Illogan (1863-1908), whose family had a background in mining copper and tin ore. Just as the mining declined owing to world prices and emigration to Australia, America, and South Africa increased, so Christmas carolling waned. Like many communities in England the local carolling tradition in Redruth virtually disappeared in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fortunately following the leadership of Hilary Coleman, there has been a concerted revival. Our festival welcomes the Redruth Carol Choir and celebrates this remarkable resurgence.

The Festival of Village Carols is a celebration of the exceptional carol singing traditions that flourish in the villages around Sheffield and beyond. Our aim is to help participants learn the vocal and instrumental parts of some of the local carols at workshops during the day. These are performed by everyone at the Grand Sing when there is also the opportunity to hear each of the guest groups perform carols from their own tradition.

Of the carols that have been chosen for the workshops, several are from Worrall and district, where there existed, until the 1970s, a tradition of stringed instrumental accompaniment. The parts are transcribed from family manuscripts used by the legendary ‘Big Set’, the name given to the local carol party, who toured Bradfield, Loxley, Wadsley, Worrall, and Oughtibridge every Christmas Day and Boxing Day, up until the Second World War. The accompaniments together with the ‘symphonies’ capture the intricate and exciting music, both sacred and secular, that village bands created in the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

Carols for all to sing

These include two carols from The Eyam Book of Eighteenth-Century Carols: ‘Fleecy Care’ and ‘Valentine’s’; two Derbyshire carols: ‘Once More’ from Foolow and ‘Curly Hark’ from Eyam, and three from southern Yorkshire: ‘Prodigal Son’ from Ecclesfield, ‘Jesu Lover of my Soul’ from Worsbrough, and ‘Prospect’ from Thorpe Hesley.

Plus the well-known favourites: ‘Hark, Hark! Hark, Hark!’, ‘Egypt’, ‘Lyngham’, ‘Tyre Mill’, ‘Joe Greaves’, ‘Liverpool’, and ‘Merry Christmas’.

The music for the two 18th century carols and the carols from Thorpe Hesley, Ecclesfield, and Worsbrough will be included in the souvenir programme.

All the other carols are included in either The Sheffield Book of Village Carols or The Derbyshire Book of Village Carols. Copies are available here http://www.villagecarols.org.uk/publications/index.html