Our history

The English Folk Dance and Song Society was founded in 1932 to preserve, promote and develop the English folk arts, and specifically song, tune and dance.

The organisation was created by the merger of the Folk-Song Society (founded 1898) and the English Folk Dance Society (founded 1911).

Here is a quick recap of some of our major milestones.

1898

Folk-Song Society founded to collect and preserve folk songs and tunes primarily from Britain and Ireland.  Its membership included existing researchers Sabine Baring-Gould, Lucy Broadwood and Frank Kidson and many other researchers, academics and musicians.

1903

Cecil Sharp collects his first folk songs in Somerset. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams starts collecting folk songs.

1911

English Folk Dance Society founded to both collect folk dance including Morris, sword and country dances, and to publish and teach them.

1922

The first Gold Badges are awarded – to Lady Mary Trefusis and Mrs Dudley Hervey

1930

Cecil Sharp House, the first dedicated folk arts centre in the UK, opens in Camden Town, London, as a memorial to Cecil Sharp following his death in 1924.

1932

EFDS and FSS merge to form the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Ralph Vaughan Williams becomes President.

1935

EFDSS hosts the world’s first International Folk Dance Festival in London.

1960

Princess Margaret becomes President.

1961

Douglas Kennedy retires as Director, a position he had held since the death of Cecil Sharp in 1924.

1967

National Folk Week launches, with more than 1,000 events nationwide.

1998

The centenary of the Folk-Song Society is marked with the release of the album A Century of Song.

2007

The Heritage Lottery Fund supports Take 6, which sees the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library digitise six major manuscript collections (Janet Heatley Blunt, George Butterworth, Francis Collinson, George Gardiner, Anne Gilchrist and Henry Hammond).

2008

Shirley Collins becomes President, and Eliza Carthy Vice-President.

2009

EFDSS becomes an Arts Council England Regularly Funded Organisation (and in 2012 a National Portfolio Organisation).

2012

The Heritage Lottery Fund, National Folk Music Fund and Folklore Society support The Full English, to create the world’s biggest online portal of English folk music, song and dance manuscripts – as well as a national programme of workshops, lectures, training and community events.

2013

EFDSS undertakes the largest capital spend on Cecil Sharp House since 1951 with the installation of a lift to make the building fully accessible.

2015

EFDSS mark 800 years of democracy from the signing of Magna Carta with a music commission entitled Sweet Liberties, presented in partnership with the Houses of Parliament and Folk by the Oak Festival.

Sam Sweeney appointed the first Artistic Director of National Youth Folk Ensemble

2016

EFDSS wins the Lifetime Achievement Award from Folk Alliance International and Music Teacher Magazine’s Best Digital Resource for its educational Resource Bank.

A major restoration and refurbishment of Kennedy Hall, including Ivon Hitchens’ mural, with funding from Arts Council England, Foyle Foundation and individual giving and legacies.  

EFDSS Education recruits the first cohort of the National Youth Folk Ensemble, funded by Arts Council England.

2017

Refurbishment and restoration by top conservators of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, supported by the National Folk Music Fund.

The National Youth Folk Ensemble performs for the first time, with acclaimed debuts at The Met in Bury, Cecil Sharp House, Derby’s Guildhall Theatre, and Whitby and Shrewsbury Folk Weeks. 

Start of the Musicians in Museums residency programme, funded by Help Musicians UK, placing six musicians in three museums – National Coal Mining Museum of England, National Maritime Museum and the Museum of English Rural Life – to explore the relationship between tangible heritage (physical items) and intangible heritage (songs, tunes, stories).

2018

The Carpenter Collection – more than 2,000 items of traditional song, 300 folk plays and more, collected around Britain by James Madison Carpenter in the 1930s – is added to the online digital archives. 

London Youth Folk Ensemble wins a Music For Youth Connect Award, providing an opportunity to work with the Musicians Union.

2019

Launch of the Folk Song Subject Index, enabling the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’s song archive to be searched by topics.

Commission of Rise Up: Peterloo 2019 – a stage production to mark the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre, co-produced with English Folk Expo and funded by Unite the Union, Arts Council England and another grant-giving trust.

Topic Records marked 80 years with an exhibition at Cecil Sharp House.

Our clog dancing workshop at the BBC’s #DancePassion reached over 100,000 people.

Sam Partridge appointed as the second Artistic Director of National Youth Folk Ensemble.

Research and Development days for a major new project, Folk Discovery.

Stepping On – our first conference on stepping forms of folk dance.

As a result of a donation from Conrad and Jennifer Bailey and additional funds from PRS for Music Foundation, nine artists were awarded micro-grants to support career development.

Perspectives on Tradition cross-cultural creative residencies at Cecil Sharp House, curated by Stick in the Wheel.

2020

Musicians in Museums completes with performances of works created by Jackie Oates and Pete Flood during their residency at the Museum of English Rural Life.

90th anniversary of Cecil Sharp House: an ambitious celebratory programme was cancelled due to C-19.

The pandemic closes Cecil Sharp House for nearly 6 months: nearly all learning activities are moved online.

Emergency funding received from National Lottery Heritage Fund, Weston Culture Fund and Cultural Recovery Fund.

Many initiatives are instigated to support, inform and advocate for the amateur and professional folk arts sectors through and beyond the pandemic.

Folk Education Network celebrates ten years of knowledge sharing and continuing professional development.

The Library’s biennial Tunes Conference is held online.

2021

Live performance returns to Cecil Sharp House in May, and in-person learning activities resume in late summer.

Start of Passport to Music, a cross-genre inclusive music project with the participatory arts organisation People’s Express.

Eliza Carthy is announced as President.

A Library Conference on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Folk is presented in-person and online.

The thousandth song is added to the Folk Song Subject Index.

Mini Grants are awarded to support social folk dance organisers’ return to dancing in person.

The Folk Dance Calendar is launched, making it easier for anyone to find opportunities to get dancing according to their location and particular needs.

2022

Premiere of HOPE, a stage show commissioned from Associate Company Folk Dance Remixed.

14 resources in ABRSM Classroom 200 focus on English folk music, all of them with connections into the award-winning Resource Bank.

First meetings of a new advisory group for Artists of Colour.

The Library marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams with a conference in November.

2023

Affordable Starter Membership encourages more people to become more involved with the organisation.

The National Youth Folk Ensemble becomes one of 15 National Youth Music Organisations.

Gypsy and Traveller Voices in UK Music Archives project.

The Society is instrumental in re-establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group for Folk Arts: the Chief Executive and Artistic Director attends its launch at the Houses of Parliament.

The Education Director presents on activites for disabled young people and at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education, when there is also discussion about Gypsy and Traveller Voices. 

Our first Big Give Christmas Challenge raises over £17,000 for Folk Rising, seeking to re-define English folk music and dance for the 21st century by supporting a greater diversity of artists to explore and work with folk.

Bursaries and commissions kick-start further ground-breaking and far-reaching artistic projects.