Local Group Report – Worthing – Wednesday 5th July 2017

After brief reminder notices about our July events, we considered and agreed with Emily’s suggestion that we spend time on trying some new or newish (to us) songs. We warmed up our voices with an old favourite, Rolling in the Dew, before singing, with Emily’s guidance, The Stedham Oyster Man’s Donkey (minus a couple of its many verses!) and The Saucy Sailor. Both songs were originally sourced from the Midhurst area and they have been sung a few times in the SDFS Chichester group’s sessions. Emily then described discussions which have begun with the organisers of an event we have been invited to in the autumn at Sullington Church. We sang through a few of the songs that could be appropriate to the occasion (yet to be confirmed). The Woodcutters Song brought an autumnal touch to a warm July evening before The Farmer's Toast brought us back to a more summery mood. The Brisk Young Ploughboy is another option and we were all pleased to sing it again, although use of this song at the event will be subject to its adoption into our ‘official’ repertoire if our Lewes and Chichester colleagues also favour it. Lastly we tried Hares on the Mountain, a south country song from Cecil Sharp’s collection, which some had heard when it was presented at an extra workshop run by Emily and Chris H. back in February. We hope to spend more time on all these songs in future sessions. Thank you Emily and all for a varied and enjoyable evening.