3 December 2024
The Morris Ring has been asked by EFDSS if we would publicise their Christmas 2024 fundraising campaign which runs from 3 to 10 December. We would be grateful if this could be circulated around your side members in case anyone is moved to contribute. Please note that one of the three specified aims of this campaign is to catalogue the Roy Judge dance collection.
Best wishes
Nigel Strudwick
Squire, The Morris Ring
Hidden Gems
Making available some of the hidden folk dance and music gems in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library's archive including Victorian music hall song sheets, 20th century folk dance and late 20th century folk song. A rich seam of musical history to inform and inspire researchers and artists of today.
https://www.efdss.org/about-us/what-we-do/news/14404-big-give-2024
Situation
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) holds the designated collections and archives of the folk arts providing a historical record of songs, dances and customs practiced over the past 400 years and invaluable source material for artists and researchers of today.
However, most collections are donated, and our current resources greatly limit the speed with which we can make them publicly available, creating a backlog of historically important collections that the public cannot view.
Solution
With extra income the EFDSS will be able to employ additional cataloguers to make these valuable collections available to the general public. We have identified three collections in our
possession which if catalogued would fill gaps in the VWML materials which are currently publicly available.
These collections span over 150 years of folk song, dance and customs and until they are catalogued they remain inaccessible to everyone.
The EFDSS are setting a target of £12K (£6000 donations, all of which will be doubled with guaranteed matched funding). The money will be used to catalogue:
– Roy Judge dance collection
– Cyril Tawney song collection
– John Earl's music hall music collection
Roy Judge's collection, which was donated by Roy himself in 2000 (the year of his death), will be particularly of interest to members. A historian and folklorist of morris and calendar customs, especially May Day celebrations, his collection incorporates research papers, personal correspondence, writing, subject files, source materials and
ancillary materials on morris, calendar customs and May Day customs.