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Season's Greetings One And All!

Welcome to the festive sixtieth edition of The Parson and the Songmen!

In this episode we tell the story of a special carol service that takes place every year in the Stratton/Bude area of North Cornwall to keep alive a very special set of carols peculiar to the area.

Mike and Jon recorded this year's service so expect some carols that you will most likely be very unfamiliar to you, and to that end here are the words for the carols included in the podcast.

Morwenna Carol

God from on high hath heard, let sighs and sorrows cease,

Lo from the open heaven descends to man the promised peace,

To man the promised peace.

Lo from the open heaven descends to man the promised peace,

To man the promised peace, the promised peace.

Hark! Through the silent night angelic voices swell,

Their joyful songs proclaim that God is born on earth to dwell,

Is born on earth to dwell,

Their joyful songs proclaim that God is born on earth to dwell,

Is born on earth to dwell, on earth to dwell…

Let Christians All With One Accord Rejoice

Let Christians all with one accord r ejoice, and praises sing with heart as well as voice,

To God on high, who wonderous things have done,

In sending us, in sending us, in sending us, in sending us his well beloved son.

That blessed babe and holy child of love, came down from heaven that we might reign above,

The joyful news was brought on angels’ wings,

Of our redemption, our redemption, our redemption, our redemption by the King of Kings.

Three wise men by a star were hither brought, and found the blessed babe they long had sought…

O Come, O come Emmanuel

A deus, A deus, Emmanuel,

Daspren an prisner Ysrael,

Divres, hirethek, trist, a vyw,

Hirneth ow kortos dos Mab Dyw.

Omlowenha, Emmanuel

A dheu dhis skon, A Ysrael…

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

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If you do celebrate, you may well have noticed that Yuletide is nearly upon us... But, if you did need reminding, then this episode of The Parson and the Songmen will do just that for you!

There are plenty of Christmas and Winter Solstice customs and traditions out there, but this edition will hopefully open your eyes and ears to some that are (almost) peculiar to Devon and Cornwall, and may even help to explain the origins of some traditions that we take for granted today.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

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Welcome to Series Three, Episode Twelve. All we will say about this episode is that it involves some early Twentieth Century song collecting, a very enigmatic song collector and two wheeled transport. Listen on...

(By the way, and still trying to be all secretive, if this episode does tickle your taste- buds and you want to find out more then please visit https://bobandgillberry.com)

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

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At this time in November we remember the sacrifice that hundreds of thousands of British soldiers made with their lives as they fought in the First World War (and remember that millions died overall). Many songs are associated with this war, but are there songs connected to earlier battles? The simple answer is "Yes" and in this episode Mike collects together some of those found in the Baring Gould Song Collection.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

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In this episode of The Parson and the Songmen we join Mike at Ashwater Church, in the far west of Devon, for a day of 'ringing and singing'.

One Day In October are the first four words of a very special song that the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould collected, telling of a bell ringing competition that took place at Ashwater church some two hundred years ago.

For the last two years this event has been remembered in the form of a day centred around bell ringing, organised by Jon Bint, Vice-Chair of the Devon Association of Ringers and Marilyn Tucker from Devon-Based Wren Music.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

Send us a text

The poet John Keats called Autumn the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'. A time for reflection and also a time when 'all is safely gathered in' before the onset of winter.

Those words, of course, come from the harvest hymn We Plough The Fields And Scatter, and in this episode of The Parson And The Songmen we discover the origins of what we know as The Harvest Festival church service and find out more about the man behind its creation - Robert Stephen Hawker, the Vicar of Morwenstow in North Cornwall. Hawker was known to The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould who saw something of himself in this larger than life, multi-talented, eccentric figure.

So, let's join Mike, in conversation with local historian and Hawker enthusiast, Matt Thomas, Outreach Officer at the Castle Heritage Centre, Bude.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

Send us a text

'Catch Me If You Can' is the title of a cassette tape, (originally released in 1978 and please search the interweb if you're too young to know what a cassette tape is) released by Pete Coe who spent a week in the company of a Cornish travelling family, recording songs and stories about their way of life in the early 1900s.

Mike has known Pete since the 1960s in Birmingham where they both sang at The Black Diamond Folk Club, held in the Drovers Arms. Pete went on to become, as described by BBC Radio 2, A 'One-Man Folk Industry' and is still sought out by major folk-festivals in Britain to appear to this day.

This podcast focuses on the reissue, this year, of 'Catch Me If You Can' on CD and features a reunion between Mike and Pete at Dartmoor Folk Festival as well as some amazing soundbites from the family about their life on the road.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/

Send us a text

Hello and welcome back after our summer break!

In this episode we focus on William Andrews, a shy farmer from Sheepstor, in a remote part of Dartmoor, Devon. Andrews was not only a farmer though, he was a skilled fiddle player, and was visited by The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould in order to note down some of his tunes that would become known in time as The William Andrews Collection.

Support the show

Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk

Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/

Mike's YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos

Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/

Simon Mayor: mandolin.co.uk

Mike O'Connor: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/

Barbara Griggs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857

Pete Coe: https://petecoe.co.uk/

Castle Heritage Centre, Bude: https://www.thecastlebude.co.uk/

Devon Association of Ringers: https://www.devonbells.co.uk/

Wren Music: https://www.wrenmusic.co.uk/