If you’re a fan of Mr Caulkhead’s Isle of Wight Colloquialisms, then this event taking place on Sunday in Calbourne should be right up your street. Ed
Mr Caulkhead’s Isle of Wight Words came from William Henry Long’s Dictionary of Dialect that was first published in 1896.
Born to a Calbourne farming family in 1839, against their wishes, he pursued a literary career, eventually becoming a writer and antiquarian.
Hidden away at the back of his Dictionary of Dialect were fifty-five songs ‘collected from the mouths of the peasantry’.
Long’s folk songs released on CD
Island group The Dollymopps are this month releasing a CD devoted to William Longs’ folk songs and will be celebrating the release with an event this coming Sunday (29th May).
Head West to Long’s hometown and make your way to Calbourne Recreation Hall from 3.30pm for a talk by the band, followed by a traditional ‘singaround’ at the Sun Inn pub later that evening.
Band member Virgil Philpott says, “”¦.received wisdom had it that no folk songs survived on the Isle of Wight but local singer Brian Reeves introduced us to ‘The Newchurch Carol’ in 2007 and we wondered what else might be out there… We did some digging which eventually led us to William Henry Long’s ‘Dictionary of Isle of Wight Dialect’ published in 1886.”
More details about the “Long Songs” CD, The Dollymopps’ performances and information about William Henry Long can be found at Dollymops Website
Supported by the WWLP
The production of the CD and website were substantially assisted by West Wight Landscape Partnership whose Manager, Peter Fellows, says: “”¦the WWLP had Heritage Lottery funding to celebrate local heroes of the West Wight and W.H. Long fitted the bill perfectly. His collection is actually very significant. Nationally, it pre-dates the collecting done by the likes of Cecil Sharp by nearly two decades – basically Long was a pioneer.”
Despite having painstakingly researched Long’s biography Justin Smith says the group would still like to know more “”¦if anybody out there knows anything about W.H. Long or his sources then something we’d love to hear from them. We’d particularly like to track down a photo because, if one exists, we’ve not discovered it yet”¦”
