In Search of Folk Song: The Story of Anne Geddes Gilchrist
Anne Geddes Gilchrist: Image courtesy of the Gilchrist Family
Anne Geddes Gilchrist OBE FSE (1863 – 1954) was a remarkable woman who became one of the most important figures in the world of folk music in the first half of the twentieth century. She spent much of her long life dedicated to collecting and studying folk song, ballads, hymns and psalms - also nursery rhymes, street cries and other local traditions.
Whilst most songs at this time were being collected in the southern counties of England, Anne Gilchrist was the only one concentrating in the North West, the majority of her collecting undertaken in Lancashire and significantly from around Sunderland Point.
From here she collected songs from Mrs Edmondson of Lancaster, Mrs Bowker, a farmer’s wife at Hall Farm and Mr Whitehead, a fisherman from Bazil Point. In 1906 she collected a song from the painter William Wells (taught to him by his father), whilst he was staying at the Point.
Anne also collected a song from the Jolly Boys, a street entertaining group from Overton, who visited Sunderland Point to perform their ‘pace egging’ play.
At Easter, ‘Pace-eggers’ went from house to house, singing songs and begging for eggs. They wore clownish disguises: the hunch-backed man, the long-nosed man, the fettered prisoner, the man-woman etc.
The Overton Jolly Boys song, "When John's Sail Was New", as well as listing the soldier, tinker, cobbler, mason, and the poor ragman, has a verse that is unique to the Point. It describes ‘the musseller’ carrying a cram (a large rake) who will pike (pick) all muscles and kewins (sea periwinkles) before the tide comes over the Town Skear.
Versions of the song have been in circulation since the 1600’s
The next he is a musseller,
With his cram upon his showlder.
What man may look more bowlder
To join a jofull crew?
He says he'll pike all mussels and kewins
Before t'tide comes over town-skeear
When John's sail was new, my boys,
When John's sail was new.
Anne was born in Manchester in December 1863 into what became a large and artistic family with four sisters and three brothers. Later in life she recollected that, ‘I began to collect tunes in my memory before I could read or write from the singing of older people. My mother sang to us, she had a lovely sympathetic voice’.
She also recalled, ‘as a small child in Carlisle, a military band was playing on the parade ground nearby, I left the nursery and was later discovered seated in the middle of the ring of bands men having crept through their circle of legs without interference’.
Early life photographs of Anne: Images courtesy of the Gilchrist Family
Anne said she was a singer rather than a pianist – and did both for over 80 years. She studied harmony and composition in Manchester and in 1886 was awarded a special Royal Academy of Music gold medal. It was one of eight awarded by the City of Manchester to those with the best exam results. The medal has Apollo on one side and Anne’s name on the other. A precious object Anne had fitted with a pin and wore as a brooch.
Both sides of the R.A.M. Gold Medal awarded to Anne in 1886: Item and Images courtesy of the Gilchrist family
She visited Sunderland Point for the first time in 1875 aged eleven. Her father (George Gilchrist Snr) had rented a house for six months, an arrangement he continued with for many years staying in several properties, (mainly) the Old Hall, Gravel Cottage, and the Temperance Hotel.
Anne on the balcony of Sunderland Hall. Pencil sketch by her sister Helen (August 1892):Image courtesy of the Gilchrist Family
The family became immersed into life at Sunderland Point – so much so, that they arranged and performed many musical concerts, such as this one in August 1894 and reported in the Lancaster Standard and County Advertiser September 1897:
‘Last evening week, a very enjoyable concert was given at Sunderland Hall to which all residents were invited free. So rare is it that residents can attend a good concert that when such an opportunity to listen to gifted musicians free nearly every person in the hamlet was present.’ (We wish we could have been there).
Anne, then aged 33, an accomplished singer was given special mention – ‘Miss Gilchrist very deservedly receiving an encore for the ‘Miller and the Maid’ which was capitally rendered’.
Part of a handwritten programme for an earlier concert in 1894. Image courtesy of the Gilchrist family
In 1897, Anne gave a lecture about Sunderland Point to the Mutual Improvement Society of St George’s Church in Southport. The Gilchrist Family lived in Southport at that time and Anne was a secretary to the Society. It had an eye-catching title, ‘A Forgotten Lancashire Port’, a reference to the early 1700’s when for about fifty years Sunderland Point was the port of Lancaster. Her brother, the artist Philip T. Gilchrist used the same title for one of his best-known paintings. Anne continued to research, develop, and add to the lecture notes over subsequent years.
It’s a personal narrative interwoven with a historical narrative and reflects Anne’s broad range of interests and expertise. At the same time, there are some lighthearted descriptions of life at Sunderland Point, cleverly constructed to be effective, engaging, and memorable.
Anne (bottom left) with her father George Gilchrist Snr and four sisters in Southport circa 1917, clockwise from above Anne, Helen, Theo, Emily, and Dora: Image courtesy of the Gilchrist Family
Anne collected folk music in the 1890’s and early 1900’s from family and people in the communities where she lived or visited. In 1905 Anne joined the Folk Song Society and was on its editorial board the following year, serving in that capacity for nearly 50 years. Anne became an acknowledged expert writing over 40 scholarly articles published in the society's journal.
In 1919, it is considered likely that it was Anne, under the pseudonym of ‘G’, who wrote a tongue-in-cheek complaint to the Manchester Guardian about the aged harmonium in the Mission Church at the Point. She said, ‘The harmonium suffers from a chronic trouble known to musicians as cyphering which becomes acute during the winter months. Cyphering, (one may explain to the non-musical) means that the instrument plays of its own accord notes which are not touched or desired by the player’.
After calling it a ‘beast’ Anne ends, ‘The small congregation happily took the vagaries of the Har-moan-y (as one of the lesser fry rightly calls it) with complete composure’.
In 1938 she was awarded the gold badge of the English folk dance and song society and in 1948 was honoured with an OBE for services to folk music. Illustrating her wide interests, she was a member of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological Society, Royal Archaeological Institute, English Place Names Society, the Welsh Folk Song Society, and was an elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Around 1920 Anne and sister Helen settled in Stodday not far from Lancaster, while most of her other brothers and sisters became residents of Sunderland Point. Anne’s affiliation and affection for the village never wavered, she often visited to spend time with her brother, sisters, nieces, and nephews and was a member of the Reading Room into old age.
Her expertise became acknowledged over the decades, she was an excellent correspondent and unstinting mentor to anyone who sought her help. She wrote with such friendliness and interest that she became addressed to and signed herself as Aunt Anne.
Because she did not publish books, she became something of a neglected figure. Today, a richly deserved revival of interest is taking place in her collected folk songs.
Anne in later life in the garden at Stodday: Image courtesy of the Gilchrist Family
Anne died in July 1954 aged 90. In a warm tribute The Times said, ‘it is an irreparable loss to musical antiquarian studies, for her knowledge of tunes was quite unique’ and ‘She had an extensive knowledge of folk-lore and traditional dancing, especially in Lancashire. The tunes, thousands of them which she knew so well and cared for were in her head as well as in her library’.
In Search of Folk Song - The Gilchrist Collective (Peter and Barbara Snape, Brian Peters and Sue Burgess) was born out of a desire to celebrate Anne Gilchrist’s contribution to folk music and give prominence to the folk songs she collected.
Their audio-visual show, ‘Most Truly Yours, Aunt Anne’, tells Anne Gilchrist’s story for the first time, using narrative, lots of interesting images, and a rich and varied selection of the songs she discovered.
Their CD ‘Most Truly Yours, The Gilchrist Collective’ may be obtained directly from www.thesnapes.org.uk
The Gilchrist Collective would love to hear from anybody who may have any information – photos, text, newspaper cuttings or anecdotal about the singers listed above from Sunderland Point - Mrs Bowker, Mr Whitehead, Mrs Edmondson and the ‘Jolly Boys’ from Overton.
Please contact Peter Snape
peter@thesnapes.org.uk
07831 311028
Thank you