William Kimber, Fiddler?

[David Barnert]

I saw a reference on another list to a book called "Folklore of Oxfordshire" by Christine Bloxham. Apparently, it contains a photo of Headington Quarry morris being accompanied by a fiddler, whom the book identifies as William Kimber. The text on the same page also identifies him as a fiddler, with no mention of his concertina playing.

 

Can anyone (I guess that means you, Dan W) shed any light on whether Kimber was also a fiddler?

[PeterT]

I saw a reference on another list to a book called "Folklore of Oxfordshire" by Christine Bloxham. Apparently, it contains a photo of Headington Quarry morris being accompanied by a fiddler, whom the book identifies as William Kimber. The text on the same page also identifies him as a fiddler, with no mention of his concertina playing.

Hi David,

 

Probably his father see:

 

http://jadn.co.uk/w/WilliamKimber.htm

 

Regards,

Peter.

[David Barnert]

Thank you all for the quick responses. As can be seen from Fred McCormick's response above, this has now come full circle. Dick, what list were these comments taken from?

[Dan Worrall]

Thank you all for the quick responses. As can be seen from Fred McCormick's response above, this has now come full circle. Dick, what list were these comments taken from?

 

David,

 

Peter's link gives the appropriate information....William Kimber Senior played fiddle for the side when they had no one else, and he also played the concertina. I have never heard that Junior played fiddle....but he did play in a handbell choir...

 

As far as the photo goes, I don't think I have seen one with William Sr as a fiddler. I put a photo of the HQ side that was taken in 1876 in my book. That photo has a fiddler and William Kimber Senior, but they are different people in the photo. The fiddler is Francis Cummins, and William Sr is seated to his left (the names of the folks are all listed in Keith Chandler's Morris history book). If the photo you saw is the same one, I would suggest that the caption you saw may be incorrect.

 

Of course, you may well be referring to another picture. There are two photos of the side in Sharp's Morris Book with an unnamed fiddler....taken in 1899, by which time (as I understand it) Sr had bowed out....but anything is possible, I suppose.

 

I hope this is all clear as mud!

[David Barnert]

If the photo you saw is the same one, I would suggest that the caption you saw may be incorrect.

I did not see the photo. Fred McCormick did (see Dick Miles's post, above). I merely picked up his question elsewhere and restated it here.

[Dan Worrall]

David,

 

I think we can rather convincingly exclude William Senior as that fiddler, even without seeing the photo (by the way, the author, as Fred already pointed out, has already mixed up Sr with Jr). Chandler (in his history of the South Midlands Morris, 'Ribbons, Bells, and Squeaking Fiddles') relates from a story from Cecil Sharp that:

 

William Kimber Senior...embraced religion during the decade between his final appearance as a morris dancer, in about 1888, and the date of the revival in 1898. The effect on his philosophical outlook was so considerable that he expressly forbade his son, William Kimber Junior (who had first danced in the publicly-performing set in 1887), to join the newly-revived team. Kimber Senior...remembered well the debauchery and drunkenness which had formerly been associated with performance. (p. 215)

 

Hence it is highly unlikely that the "1899" photo is of WK Senior....unless the date for the photo too is mixed up by the author, by a decade at least. Sharp, by the way, says that 1887 was WK Sr's last appearance with the side.

 

I'll sign off now, and go play Bean Setting!

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Brian Peters]

Thank you all for the quick responses. As can be seen from Fred McCormick's response above, this has now come full circle. Dick, what list were these comments taken from?

 

Dick's post copied comments made on the Mudcat forum. Since he posted them here, Derek Schofield (editor of English Dance & Song, member of Manley Morris, etc.) added the following on Mudcat:

 

"I don't have this book, but I do have May Day to Mummers by the same author. There's a photo in there which I assume is the same one that's in the book quoted, because it identifies the fiddler as William Kimber ... except that it's not Kimber, it's Mark Cox. The date of the photo is probably June 1899. William Kimber senior played anglo- concertina and fiddle. William junior played anglo-concertina."

[David Barnert]

Thank you, Brian. Derek has also posted his comments on the list that I referenced in the first entry in this thread.