Local Group Report – Worthing – Wednesday 3rd May 2017

After chats and notices we gathered our voices to sing and warmed up with a couple of old favourites – Fathom the Bowl and The Nightingale. We continued with Jim the Carter Lad to polish some details and later Ha’nacker Mill to brush the dust off, both in readiness for use at the Michelham Priory event on Sunday 14th May. Emily reintroduced The Littlehampton Collier Lads for those not yet familiar with it and proposed to spend more time on this at our June session. Then for our interest and enjoyment (and perhaps to consider it for listing in the future alongside Belloc’s Sussex Hills) she shared with us a song by Arthur Beckett who was one of the early Sussex Downsmen (which later became the South Downs Society). Dave and Alan also entertained us with a May-time song, Sumer is icumen in. Otherwise our songs were requests from ‘the floor’ – Constant Lovers, Follow Me ’ome, The Magpie, A Smuggler’s Song and again, for the sheer pleasure of it, the Brave Young Ploughboy.