Traditional folk music, dance and customs - Harrogate, North Yorkshire - Chas Marshall's Website

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I was born in Tadcaster and christened plain John Marshall. I originally thought that our family was descended from an old Tadcaster family, but my brother Robert's research has revealed that my great, great, great grandfather emigrated from Ireland to Yorkshire during the potato famine in the late 1840s.

When our family moved to Harrogate I attended the Grammar School where Malcolm Johnson, who was seated at the desk right behind me, started to call me "Charles" - for reasons known only to Malcolm! This was later shortened to "Chas" and the nickname stuck and was adopted within the folk scene in which I was soon to become involved.

Have a look at Barber's Shop towards the end of this page!

Malcolm and I were members of a teenage R and B group called "The Railroaders" with Stu Beever, Ken and Colin Vince. The ticket alongside shows a price of three shillings and six pence - 17.5p in today's money! Malcolm and I began to visit the Harrogate Folk Club in the mid 1960's when it was held in the West Park Hotel. I have been interested in things folk ever since, developing a love for most aspects including music, song, drama and dance.

Over the years I have been involved with many different folk clubs and folk groups including:
Fiddler's Feud - a folk group with ace fiddler Kevin Briggs and guitarist Dave Chapman. Winners of the Tarn House Trophy for the Group Section in the Fourth Dales National Folk Contest held in Gargrave during November 1973. It was around this time that I helped Ray Black to run the Harrogate Folk Club when it was held in the Harrogate and West Yorkshire Employee's Social Club in East Parade. Ray is still busy running the Tap and Spile music session and was, until relatively recently involved with the Friday 13th Folk Club.
Kitsyke Will - a folk group with Peadar Long, Bob Thomas and Tony Bayliss. Paedar, Bob and Tony went on to play professionally as Kitsyke Will for a while. After Kitsyke Will folded Bob Thomas, Tony Harris and I played for a while under the hugely original name of "Thomas, Harris and Marshall"!! Bob's vocal talents are still on display with the Wakefield based band the Solicitors and Tony Harris is currently playing with the excellent trio Hoover the Dog. Tony Bayliss continues to be active musically with his celtic rock and roll band Jiggerypipery.

British Queen - a Bradford based Ceilidh Band with whom I "depped" for a while playing the mandola.

Hop Back Jig and Village Hop Band - Ceilidh Bands

Knaresborough Mummers - research into the mummers play led to the discovery of a local mumming tradition - the Blue Stots' Plays. See Publications and Articles. In 2004 the Knaresborough Mummers reached their 30th "birthday" and Hedingham Fair were commissioned to produce the celebratory card shown below. Roosters Brewery were also commissioned to produce a celebratory ale, named "King Slasher" after a character from the Blue Stots' Play. The Pump Clip shown alongside depicts Knaresborough Mummers founder member John Burrell in his customary role of King Slasher. During his 30 years with Knaresborough Mummers, John has clocked up some 1500 mumming performances.
 

Pomfret Morris - Pontefract based Cotswold Morris side specialising in the Bucknell Tradition.

Hornblower Morris - Ripon based Cotswold Morris Team which was superceded in 1982 by Ripon City Morris Dancers.

Betty Lupton's Ladle Laikers - I was the first musician and a founder member for this Harrogate Ladies' Morris Team formed in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year of 1977.

Ripon City Morris Dancers - I was the first Captain and a founder of this men's North West Morris team which was formed in 1982.

The Harrogate Folk Packet - an umbrella name used by local folk groups and clubs who staged the show "Alive and Kicking - a Miscellany of Morris, Musing and Mumming" at the Harrogate Theatre in June 1987. I was both co-writer and co-producer of this show which was based on some of my ideas, after we were approached by the Theatre to put on a fundraising production. This one-off performance raised £1000 for the Theatre and involved Betty Lupton's Ladle Laikers, Knaresborough Mummers, Ripon City Morris Dancers, Claro Sword and Morris Men, Blind Jack's Folk Club and Fred Pigeon's Polka Band. The full script is available in Publications and Articles.

 

Flag and Bone Gang - I was yet another founder member of this Harrogate based team developing dances based on Paul Davenport's "Forgotten Morris".

Royal Preston Morris Dancers - this team was formed by the merger of Preston Royal Morris Dancers and Royal Lancashire Morris Dancers. See Publications and Articles. I plan to be involved in the developments for the Preston Guild celebrations in 2012.

Clogarhythm - a clog step dance team formed in 2002.

More recent activities include working with Mark Ellison on the Blind Jack Project - a Yorkshire folk song initiative in aid of Henshaws Society for Blind People, supporting musical activities at Henshaws College in Harrogate and Henshaws Arts & Crafts Centre in Knaresborough. The Blind Jack CD cover is pictured alongside.

Recent activities include working with the Northern Lights from the Northern Dance Centre and the Clogfest committee.

Clogfest is a unique celebration of step dancing which takes place annually in Skipton. It’s the only festival exclusively for step-clogging dance community - not Morris, Appalachian, or any other dance style.

With the help of Heather Hazell and Dave Blight, I have assisted the Northern Lights with the music for their folk dance productions at Clogfest and the Llangollen Eisteddfod in 2007, 2009 and 2011. I recently worked on a rapper sword dance with Damien Barber and competed at DERT 2010.

I was recently working with the Harrogate Dramatic Society on a production of Dad's Army. One scene, "The Godiva Affair", includes some morris dancing.

The full cast of Dad's Army in the finale sketch "The Floral Dance" - October 2011

I hold a small stock of Nick Barber's Tune Books and CDs for local delivery or collection - I think of this as my "Barber's Shop"! The stock includes:

English Choice (the red book) with the Bonny Kate and Lovely Nancy CDs

English Selection (the blue book) with the Grand Chain and Oldham Rant CDs

English Rebellion CD Four Across

Nick and Mary Barber CD Crossword

The prices are very competitive. Alternatively, for those living further afield from Harrogate why not try online at The NickWorks Shop?

For more information (since publication) about the tunes in English Selection and an alphabetical tune index see Nick's comments page.

In the 1960s and 1970s it was often necessary to become a member of a folk club and club-goers were issued with membership cards. This is a fine example from the Brig Folk Club showing some etched glass from the venue which was the Adelphi in Lower Briggate, Leeds.

On the subject of the early days, why not check out Mark Ellison's wikispaces web site for information about of the history of folk clubs in the Harrogate area?

Over the years I have tinkered with stringed instruments such as guitar, mandolin and tenor banjo, but now I play mainly anglo-concertina.

Why www.crimple? The river Crimple runs through the southern parts of Harrogate and this I chose for my host name after exhausting other more obvious possibilities which, I discovered, were already in use! The Crimple name was also used in the early days of the Harrogate Folk Club by the Crimple Mountain Boys, a bluegrass/old-timey band which included the talents of Robin and Barry Dransfield and Roger Knowles. ICI Fibres once had a Research Division close to the river and Crimple was used as the basis of the name "Crimplene".

Updated February 2013.

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