We were very lucky to work with our friends from the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust again recently (Apr 2012) at a public workshop on how to go about recording traditions, customs and folklore.
The training day took place at Bures Community Centre in the Stour Valley right in the heart of the project area. We were very pleased to see a large number of particupants at the workshops and a very well set up day for all those attending.
We were very luck to have a number of speakers:
Clive Paine, a well-known and much loved figure in Suffolk history circles. He has influenced countless hordes of students through his work as Advisory Teacher for Local History at the Record Office, and many more adults through his talks, lectures, broadcasts and publications on a broad cross-section of Suffolk historical subjects. He is without equal in his comprehensive knowledge of historical sources for Suffolk and is much in demand as a speaker, as his talks are renowned for being entertaining, thought-provoking and inspiring in equal measures.
Steve Roud was formerly Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society and worked for many years as a Local Studies Librarian. He has extensive knowledge of folklore, calendar customs and superstitions and has been researching British folklore for over thirty years. He is the joint author of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, and has written many other books on traditional drama and folk song, and the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. He is also the founder of the internationally acclaimed databases of folk songs: the Roud Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index. Steve has just been awarded prestigious Gold Badge Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
John Howson is co-director of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust, and a folk song collector with unparalleled knowledge of the folk song, music and dance traditions of East Anglia. For over twenty-five years he has run the Veteran label - specialist in recordings of traditional singers from across the British Isles, which includes both archive and field recordings, and which set the benchmark for other labels in terms of quality and information provided through the CD booklets and the website. His field recordings form part of the Traditional Music in England collection in the British Library's National Sound Archive. John also holds the Gold Badge Award from the EFDSS.
From the feedback we have been given, everyone had a really good time enjoyed the lectures and everything else on offer. We would like to thank Katie Howson for organising such an excellent day, the speakers who were a pleasure to listen to and interact with. We would epecially like to thank the WI for providing refeshments for eveyone, Bures Community Centre for providing the space and of course everyone who attended and made the day as special as it was.
We still have another day planned for Clare in November so don't miss out.
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