Roderick Williams has featured previously on the blog – choral singing. Lately, his radio4 podcasts outlined some social history behind singing – (clic on A Singer\’s Guide to Britain). Songs are about people and places and belonging. Whenever and wherever their origins they help us make sense of our world. Folk songs especially seem to define who we are. Among pieces of welsh singing, Billy Bragg talking about English identity and Robbie Burns, guess who pops up? Cuthbert and Lydia Noble, children of the famous Holme Valley Will Noble, with songs about the local area and dry-stone walling.
Barry Meeres and I share experiences of cycling a ridiculous distance up and down Holme Moss (clic on here for mountain bike challenge) and a dry-stone walling course up on Crosland Moor (clic on here for dry-stone walling). We enjoyed the walling.
Will Noble released an album of his favourites, including the Watter Rattle made infamous by non other than our Chairman, John Mallinson. Cuthbert and Lydia also feature. (For a review, clic on). The walls they repair in their day job have endured since the 18th century when the government sanctioned enclosures.
Clic here for an album sample
