Here you will find links to websites and pages which reflect my twin interests in Music and History.
| WEST GALLERY MUSIC |
The West Gallery Music Association |
The WGMA is the national organisation which promotes the research and performance of West Gallery Music, the music performed in churches and chapels from about 1720 to 1850, in the later period with a small orchestra of wind and stringed instruments. |
| Three Quires' Day is a day workshop held twice each year around early April and late October in Lewes, Sussex, for singers and instrumentalists to perform West Gallery music. |
Three Quires' Day |
| Two West Gallery Quires I sing with |
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Marsh Warblers |
The Marsh Warblers is based near Tenterden in the Weald of Kent and performs both West Gallery music and secular songs from the Georgian era. |
| The London Gallery Quire meets in the City of London and performs West Gallery music, mostly for church services, but also for concerts and lecture recitals, within the M25 ring. |
London Gallery Quire |
| Short Music Articles I have written: |
 Thomas Clark of Canterbury - a prolific composer of church music in the first half of the 19th century, including the tune "Cranbrook", later 'borrowed' for the words "On Ilkley Moor bah't hat".
There are also short biographies of
John Barwick and Henry Tolhurst,
minor West Gallery composers, on the Marsh Warblers website.
A Tune well Key'd - Problems of pitching in 18th century church choirs.
Was City Church Music any Better? - Criticisms made of church music in city churches,
mostly London, in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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| LOCAL HISTORY |
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Cranbrook Union Windmill |
The Union Mill, the tallest smock mill in the UK, is owned by the Kent County Council and opened to the public in the summer months (or by arrangement for parties) by volunteers, members of the Cranbrook Windmill Association. |
| The Wealden Iron Research Group promotes interest and research into the (now defunct) iron industry of the Weald of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It publishes its findings in a regular Newsletter and in its annual Bulletin. |
Wealden Iron Research Group |
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The Wealden Buildings Study Group |
The Wealden Buildings Study Group study and record vernacular architecture in the Weald. |
| Short History Articles I have written: |
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A Grand Day Out - The Opening of Babies' Castle, Hawkhurst, Kent (A Barnado's Home).
The Weald of Kent Canal - The unsuccessful attempt to construct a canal across the Weald of Kent connecting the Medway in North Kent to the South coast near Rye.
Paper-making in the Weald of Kent - Goudhurst, Benenden and Hawkhurst
The history in two articles of the Baker's Cross area of Cranbrook, Kent from clothmaking in the 16th century to brewing in the 19th and 20th centuries:
Early Banking in Cranbrook, Kent - The story of private banking in a rural market town up to the 1840s.
Of French Descent - How a farmhouse in the Weald of Kent came to have a French name.
How many Bells? - How the ring of five bells in St.Laurence Church, Hawkhurst, Kent, was increased to six to enable change-ringing.
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