Donations doubled in The Big Give Christmas Challenge
For one week in December 2024, our Big Give Christmas Challenge doubled donations towards a selected project that we'd otherwise not have been able to pay for.
Our 2024 appeal, ‘Hidden Gems’, focused on three important dance and song collections which have already been donated to of our Library’s archive and which we want to make available to everyone, online and in person.
Donations from 77 generous people helped us to reach our fundraising target a day before the campaign window closed. With the addition of Gift Aid, we have raised slightly over £13,500 towards cataloguing Hidden Gems in our Library archives. We'll be able to catalogue these rich seams of cultural history – ready to inform and inspire future generations of researchers and artists.
Our target archives are
- Roy Judge’s collection of 20th-century folk dance
- Cyril Tawney’s collection of correspondence and other materials about 20th-century folk song
- John Earl's collection of Victorian music hall song sheets
The selected collections span over 150 years of folk song, dance and customs and until they are catalogued they remain inaccessible to everyone.
We are grateful to our generous pledgers, along with the Reed Foundation as Big Give champion funder, who have donated the match funding which means that these donations will have twice the impact.
The Big Give Christmas Challenge
Outside of The Big Give we are always delighted to accept donations, of course, which can if you choose be allocated to specific areas – including to the Library. Regular donations of any size are particularly valuable, as they help us to plan longer-term at a time when funding from government and from trusts and foundations is increasingly being squeezed for cultural and heritage charities.
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) has built up collections of books, recordings and other materials that are astounding in their scope and intensity. It is a unique collection, unparalleled in Britain. It deserves support and funding – Peggy Seeger, musician
Not only can one lay one's hands on books which can be found nowhere else but there is also the collection of manuscripts of the likes of Cecil Sharp and the other major and minor collectors. To cap it all VWML offers an extraordinary resource of songs as they were recorded "in the field" – Martin Carthy, musician
In over forty years of publishing in academic and popular journals, in this country and abroad, I have found there were very few occasions when I had not called upon the resources of VWML. It is an invaluable public service – Dr Ian A Olson, writer and academic
More about Roy Judge and his collection
Who was he?
Born in Hastings in 1929 and died in 2000.
Historian and folklorist of morris and calendar customs, especially May Day celebrations.
His career was as a teacher of history and religious studies. Member of Oxford University Morris Men and became their archivist.
He took a sabbatical from teaching attend the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies at the University of Leeds. His dissertation, The Jack in the Green, was published in 1979, followed by his doctoral thesis Changing attitudes to May Day:1844–1914.
Took early retirement in 1980 and continued his folk research. President of the Folklore Society 1990–93, and awarded an EFDSS Gold Badge in 1999.
‘The work did not just bring sound historical method to folklore studies, it made use of the wealth of local sources that historians themselves were only just beginning to appreciate, including local newspapers and manuscript collections, printed ephemera, and school logbooks. He also looked beyond the historical sources to literature, art, and drama in works investigating the reception of folk custom in society and how that in turn influenced the ways in which early collectors approached the material when passive interest turned to active engagement’ – Mike Heaney, 2004
‘Roy Judge... did more than anyone else to demythologise the early days of the 20th-century folk revival and the origins of May Day folk customs’ – obituary by Derek Schofield in The Guardian
The collection
Donated to the Library by Roy himself in 2000.
Research papers, personal correspondence, writing, subject files, source materials and ancillary materials on morris, calendar customs, May Day customs. Collection divided into two sections: personalities and locations. Arranged chronologically within each series.
‘I grew up in the house where Roy was writing, working, and amassing his collection of folklore material. His study was a place of wonders. At the time, I didn't know he was changing people's understanding of the early folk revival, I just remember his continual delight – at finding something new, or receiving fresh information from folklore friends. There was always more to learn, and it was all so exciting. He loved to get to the bottom of a story, and find the right words to explain it clearly. For those who knew him, access to this material will be like meeting an old friend. I think those who didn't know him will find inspiration for their own explorations.’ – Peter Judge
More about Cyril Tawney and his collection
Who was he?
Born 1930, died 2005.
He transitioned from a career in the Royal Navy to broadcasting in the late 1950s, working with Alan Lomax on Sing Christmas and Turn of the Year, and also became a professional folk singer also. His Saturday morning BBC record request programme Folkspin and nationally-networked BBC Scotland weekly television series Hootenanny showcased Britain’s leading folk performers.
Instrumental in developing the folk song movement in the South West of England – ‘Father of the West Country folk revival’.
Studied local traditional songs, including those collected by Baring Gould, and made his own field trips. MA on dialect in folk song at Leeds.
Important recording career, had his own record label, Neptune Tapes – his own songs plus nautical songs. Important researcher of little-studied 20th-century Royal Navy songs. He himself wrote songs in a folk style based on Royal Navy experiences, and made hundreds of recordings of them by other artists.
The collection
Donated by his widow Rosemary in 2009.
36 boxes, one file and one tube are divided into personal papers, musical projects, folk clubs, collaborative projects, performances, TV/radio/film, writings and research, newspaper clippings, photographs, and correspondence.
Three boxes of sound recordings were also given to National Sound Archive at British Library.
‘I met Cyril on several occasions and interviewed him twice at events celebrating Baring-Gould’s work. I also talked with him at length about his studies and about the journeys that he made to find traces of Baring-Gould’s singers. I once asked him what it was about Baring-Gould that had driven his interest. He told me: ‘Each new fact I learned about him astonished me more’. I am looking forward to the opportunity to revisit some of our conversations through the manuscripts in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.’ – Martin Graebe, researcher
More about John Earl and his collection
Who was he?
Born 1928, died 2024.
First full-time director of the Theatres Trust in 1986, and remained a special advisor for years after he retired in 1996.
Former buildings surveyor – he led the Greater London Council’s historic buildings division, playing an instrumental role in a survey of old theatre buildings following the controversial demolition of the Granville Theatre of Varieties in Fulham in 1971. Set up a fund at Theatres Trust which distributed grants to threatened theatres. President of the Frank Matcham Society. Along with John Betjeman he was instrumental in saving Wilton’s Music Hall in the 1960s.
Main author of ‘Curtains!!! Or, a New Life for Old Theatres’, a complete gazetteer of all pre-1941 surviving theatres in the UK, which helped turn tide of public opinion in favour of preserving historic theatre buildings. Also ‘British Theatres and Music Halls’ in 2005, which chronicled the disappearance of iconic venues in the first half of the 20th century.
The collection
Donated around 2017.
This large collection of sheet music of music hall songs is believed to be one of the biggest such sources we have in the UK, but none of it is catalogued.
‘One of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library key areas of interest is the history of traditional folk song in Britain. Modern researchers in this field ae well aware that folk song did not exist in a cultural vacuum, and sheet music is a vital resource for investigating vernacular music trends of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The John Earl collection is particularly important because the compiler had interest and expertise in both camps – folk and popular – so he knew exactly what to collect’ – Steve Roud
In our 2023 Christmas Big Give campaign we raised a total of £17,195 from 105 individual donations, together with matched funding and Gift Aid. These funds are supporting our Folk Rising programme, which seeks 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.
