Oral Traditions of Suffolk The Helions Bumpstead Gramophone Company

Across the region a wealth of wisdom has been passed down by word of mouth. These stories and songs are our heritage and should be treasured. They are our traditional way of passing wisdom. Modern speech passes little more than information.

Recordings of songs and stories from the musical traditions of various areas across Suffolk are available here on CDs of musical tradition & song and Videos of Natural Stories. All personally recorded by Neil Lanham, retired Suffolk auctioneer, many from 1960s and from a lifetime of witnessing the Suffolk traditions.

The Helions Bupstead Gramophone Co. is totally independent and self funding. We receive financial support from no-one and are not to be confused with either Folktrax (http://www.folktrax.org/) The East Anglian Traditional Music Trust (http://www.eatmt.org.uk/) or Musical Traditions / Mustrad (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/).

abromley and roberts dow your way cleaned up.jpg

Bob Roberts accompanies Albert Bromley live on 'Down your Way' when it came to Shotley.

Albert Bromley can be heard singing 10 songs on NLCD05 Songs from the Singing Tradition of the People of the Stour Valley, NLCD06 Songs and Stories from East Coast Fishermen and NLCD08 Comic Songs sung along the Stour Valley.

Further Info

Recorded by Neil Lanham, a Suffolk Auctioneer, in the 1950s & '60s firstly from his family (some of whom can be heard on the Lavenham CD) and then in East Suffolk when he was working at Campsea Ashe Cattle Market, where he took part in the traditional music and song that could be heard in a host of local pubs such as Ashe Buck, Gosbeck Greyhound, Witnesham Barley Mow, Swilland Half Moon or Erwarton Queen's Head, etc. Neil's big regret is not recording more at that time. However, on returning to West Suffolk in 1962, he treated himself to a Uher portable tape recorder and seriously recorded in both East and West Suffolk to provide a unique example of the singing tradition of his local county.

Along the West Suffolk border the local traditions still flourished independently from all other influences and, at The Batsons Arms Horseheath, Ashdon Bonnet and Shudy Camps Three Horseshoes, the landlords kept a button accordion behind the bar for 'Jack's-a-lad', as the local stepdancing is called, or music and song. Whilst at Stoke Lion Maggie's mother would entertain with her one-string fiddle made from a cigar box.

At Campsea Ashe 'Talbot Song' often broke out after a sack of spuds or a pen of weaners had been sold in the auction, with the general dealer and box player, Boxer Fairweather (Oscar Wood's best mate) always to the fore with the collection. Here too Charlie Howlett would rest Barnie, his mule, while he enjoyed refreshment in this company before returning with his cart and deliveries to Framlingham where, probably, another song and music session would take place with his brother-in-law, Jimmy Finbow, at the Hare and Hounds.

It is intended that these CDs will be part of a set of twelve from the tradition of various areas across Suffolk and, more importantly, to be played in conjunction with a book on the idiom of the people who cherished them. Not just an academic profile of the songs but stories of pranks, jests, yarns, folk heroes, dialect, rhymes, country philosophy and anecdotes of the adventures of locating and recording the all important people.

Many of the songs were recorded in country pubs and much of the banter has been left in to show the tradition of the setting and, where possible, the performer's skill in capturing the imagination of his public. Most of the singers had not been recorded before and are not available elsewhere. They were mostly recorded at a time before people had arrived from a wider area so the tradition in the pubs themselves is very much undiluted and never studio recordings 'by artists for the purpose'. They are our Suffolk heritage and yours to be enjoyed.