NEWS RELEASES
A Unique Record of a 'Great Briton' Finds its True Resting Place
15th September 2004
A truly amazing document has just been acquired by Horsham Museum Society for Horsham Museum. Though rather unassuming in appearance when it was pulled from the modern envelope it arrived in, this document is in fact a graphic three dimensional reminder of a momentous occasion in the heritage of British music. The document is a book, English Traditional Songs & Carols, published in 1908. It is important because it was given to Henry Burstow by Lucy Broadwood with a handwritten note: 'To Mr Burstow with all good wishes for the Continuance of his health and voice – from Lucy Broadwood. Oct. 9th 1908'.
Why is this acquisition so important? For those who know about folk songs and care about such things, this is probably the equivalent of Winston Churchill giving Roosevelt a signed copy of his wartime speeches. To set the scene, Lucy Broadwood was a daughter of the famous piano making family from the Surrey/Sussex borders, who became a leading light in the collection, transcription and publication of English folk songs, capturing songs that would have died out as the phonograph and record gained popularity. Henry Burstow, a Horsham born cobbler and bell ringer, was celebrated in the town of his birth for his fantastic memory and ability to remember over 400 songs. In 1892 he lent Lucy Broadwood a list of his songs and sang them to her at her home near Horsham. Some 11 years later Lucy encouraged Ralph Vaughan Williams to hear him singing and record him.
In 1908, Boosey & Co of London & New York published Lucy Broadwood's book. For the first time many English traditional songs were popularised and brought to the attention of the public. The popularity of the work was such that up to the 1960s primary school children were, as the Curator can distinctly remember, encouraged through school radio broadcasts to sing such folk songs and the main contributor was Henry Burstow. Along with the book came a photograph, never seen before, of Henry Burstow taken at the parish church with his bowler hat perched beside him. Also a copy of the programme of a concert held in Horsham in 1908 where Henry sang some of his songs.
Around the time Burstow's songs were being preserved, the celebrated Dictionary of National Biography, that 21 volume monument to famous Britons, was being published. Henry did not appear in the work or in subsequent editions. However, this will change when the brand new, revised edition, is published this autumn in which Henry Burstow rightly takes his place as a remarkable Briton. It is only fitting that a museum that has collected the works of Shelley and Belloc, both of whom are mentioned in the DNB, is now the home of a remarkable memorial to the work of Lucy Broadwood and Henry Burstow.
For further information please contact:
Jeremy Knight, Curator
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway
Horsham
West Sussex
RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959
Fax: (01403) 217581
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
Opening times:
Mon to Sat (ex. bank hols) 10.00am -5.00pm
Admission free