What’s new on your website?

Here we keep you posted on how your website is progressing. Today you’re in the Phase 2 Website of over 120 songs and variants. Your comments, corrections and suggestions for additional songs will be greatly appreciated. Hit ‘Advise us’ on the top toolbar for general comments, ‘Contact us’ for specific queries, suggestions or corrections, or ‘Join us’ to participate in our work as a volunteer. We do take notice of your comments : thanks to your input the ABC scores are now in plain text ABC format and ‘The Tailor’s Britches’ score has been corrected.

The Yorkshire Garland Group Committee and some of our Volunteers

Standing left to right: Bill Sowerby, John Greaves, Mark Ellison and Jim Potter (Volunteers);. Steve Gardham (Chairman), Mike Parsey (Secretary). Kneeling: Ray Black (Publicity), Ray Padgett (Treasurer).

Current List of Active Members

Steve Gardham, Chair, performer, project leader, provenances
Ray Padgett, Treasurer, performer, project leader, volunteers co-ordinator
Ray Black, Publicity, performer, desk-top publishing, score arranger
Mary Garrison, Secretary, funding
Bill Sowerby, performer, musical transcriber
Michael Jary, Webmaster.
Ann Berriman, project leader
Paul and Liz Davenport, performers, project leaders, graphic design
Mark Ellison, performer, key words and genres
John Greaves, performer, project leader
Bryony Griffiths, performer, project leader
Tony Morris, performer, project leader
Jim Potter, performer, workshop leader
John Wainwright, Interactive Map project leader.
Alma Wright, performer, project leader.
Plus numerous other performers and advisors who occasionally contribute and perform on the many recordings.

We thank the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Local Heritage Initiative for their support.

Recent Group Activities

During the spring term of 2012 the East Peak Industrial Heritage Support Programme funded a schools-based Industrial Folk Arts project, run by the Yorkshire Garland, which worked with pupils from three primary schools in south Kirklees, west Barnsley and north Sheffield to encourage pupils to explore industrial heritage and folk traditions in their local areas. Many of the songs written for this project are now in our song database including performances from the children. Write ups of this project featured in Stirrings magazine (December 2012) and Tykes News (December 2012) and can also be read here.

Since 2006 when The Yorkshire Garland Group was founded our performers and music leaders have taken Yorkshire traditional songs and music into a great variety of institutions around the county, mainly educational (from pre-school to university), museums and festivals where we have organised concerts and workshops.

During Phase Two funded by Awards4All we added 40+ songs to the site and organised our own successful seminar for teachers and music leaders as well as expanding our active membership.

We are currently looking to obtain funding for Phase Three which will run for three years and will include some exciting new projects linking up performers, museums and educational institutions, also producing educational resources for all of them. An interactive map for the website is also on the cards and we hope to branch out into dance with a project on taking Yorkshire Longsword into schools. We have just about sold all of the copies of 'Songs of the Ridings' and with funding hope to eventually bring out a second edition. With lots of new members and new ideas we look forward to a very productive Phase Three.

Links

• The English Folk Dance and Song Society
• The Roud Index
• The British Library Sound Archive
• Yorkshire Dales Workshops
• Farne (Folk Arts North East) and Explore Music
• The Village Music project
• Ethno England
• South Riding Folk Arts Network
• Yorkshire Folk Arts
• Traditional Song Forum
• Musical Traditions
• Mudcat (The ultimate folk chatroom)
• Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads

For further links, such as folk club and festival websites, click here