| Arrangement | The tapes are arranged as follows:
MS 4000/5/1/4/1-4 Interviews of Mrs Emily Mary Turner about childhood, entertainment, politics,employment, local customs and singing Jul. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/4-6 Interviews of Harold Fletcher re background, children’s games, travellers, Irish people Jul. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/7-10 Interviews of William Loach singing traditional songs and talking about his background and children's
games Jul. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/11-16 Interviews [in a public house] of Arthur James, Tom Hadley, Ken Williams and Bill Hawker about their working lives, children's games, local customs, anecdotes Jul. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/17-21 Interviews of Edward James Smith about childhood and working in the mines Jul. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/22 Interview of John Baker talking about his life as a squatter Sep. 1963
MS 4000/5/1/4/23 Interview of Percy Gregory talking about children's games, songs and travellers Sep. 1963 |
| AdminHistory | The town of Wednesbury, Staffordshire lies 8 miles north of Birmingham and is one of the great iron towns of the Black Country, the manufacturing district of South Staffordshire. The recordings of the Wednesbury Folk Singers comprise interviews with people from the area talking about their background, childhood, working lives and singing traditional songs. The people interviewed were as follows:
Mrs Emily Mary Turner (b.1888) of Wednesbury
Harold Fletcher (b.1895) of Wednesbury
William Loach (born 2 March 1882) of Bradley, Burton
Arthur James of Wednesbury
Tom Hadley (b.1910) of Wednesbury
Ken Williams of Wednesbury
Bill Hawker of West Bromwich
Edward James Smith [b.1872] of Kingswinford
John Baker (b.1909) of Bilston
Percy Gregory of Wednesfield
The interviews were all conducted by Charles Parker who was particularly interested in the local dialect and customs and traditional songs sung at work and play. Some of the interviews were also conducted by John Fletcher one of the founders of the Black Country Society and son of Harold Fletcher who was interviewed himself at MS 4000/5/1/4/4-6. The recordings cover a wide variety of topics including the Irish in Wednesbury (MS 4000 5/1/4/1,4,10,14); traditional singing (MS 4000/5/1/4/1,7,11); wakes (MS 4000 5/1/4/1,5,11); politics (MS 4000/5/1/4/2,6); mining (MS 4000/5/1/4/17-19,21,23); children's games (MS 4000/5/1/4/3,6); iron industry(MS 4000/5/1/4/7,9-10) and local customs (MS 4000/5/1/4/13-14,20).
The last two tapes in the sequence address the issues of squatting and the travelling community (MS 4000/5/1/4/22-23) |