Thursday, July 03, 2025

MUSIC OF THE SOMERSET COALFIELD

New Exhibition at Radstock Museum


Henry Cave local fiddle player and Harriet Pearce Landlady of the George Inn at Nettlebridge around 1907.
Radstock Museum will be presenting an exhibition exploring and celebrating local music making. We begin with “west gallery” church music, played from the early eighteenth to mid nineteenth century. The display will include some wonderful instruments, including a serpent – a now rarely seen wind instrument. This music was performed by members of the local congregation, often from a gallery above the west end of the nave, hence the modern name for it. Local churches where you can see a surviving gallery include St Mary’s Emborough and Holcombe Old Church.
We move through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with folk songs and dances, miners’ songs and playground songs. In the early twentieth century the famous folk song collector, Cecil Sharp, recorded over 1600 songs from Somerset, primarily from the Mendip area. One of the local musicians featured in the exhibition is Henry Cave (as shown in photograph). Henry (also known as Harry) travelled from town to town and village to village in Somerset sharpening knives and playing tunes and was most well known for playing his fiddle for step dancing. You can also discover the truth about the so-called Radstock Jig!
This display is also supported by a range of instruments including a violin made in Camerton by Henry Lye. Lye's violins were much valued and were played in the world famous Hallé orchestra.
Looking at more recent music, the exhibition touches on local musicians who have made it big, such as Acker Bilk, alongside locally successful bands such as the Bernard Emm dance band and Spirelaine. We also look at the enduring presence of the brass band.
Hand-held audio units will be available so visitors can listen to some of the music. A special Bygone Days event on October 7th at The Somer Centre 7:30pm will present a selection of local music and song performed by a local band led by Dave Byrne.
This is a picture of the itinerant fiddle-player and knife sharpener, Henry Cave, from whom Cecil Sharp collected 17 traditional dance tunes in Midsomer Norton in 1907. Just a few months later Henry was found dead in a ditch between Midsomer Norton and Chilcompton he died of exposure. If you would like to find out the whole story of Henry Cave’s life and music he will be featured in the exhibition at the. Museum. There is also a booklet on his life, including all his music notated available in the Museum shop.