Season's Greetings

As the year turns at the Winter Solstice and the Yuletide Season heralds the promise of shorter nights and longer days - we want to send "Festive Greetings" to all our South Downs Folk Singers - and to our hosts at the public events where we've performed during 2025 - and to our audiences there and all those who follow us on our Blog and Facebook pages.

Our New Year opens with some Wassails - and our Diary Dates Page on this Blog lists two events where we will be singing - the Tarring Village Wassail with the Sompting Morris (January 5th) - and Findon Community Orchard's Wassail (January 17th).  Come and join us for the celebrations there!  

Our regular Local Group sessions across Sussex also resume in January (see details also on our Diary Page) - no auditions needed, just drop us a line if interested and come along.

Then into February, not a wassail this time but an opportunity to share some of our other winter season songs, we will be singing at a lunchtime concert held at the Brighton Unitarian Church (February 7th).

There will be more public events to come as the year progresses - so keep an eye on this Blog or our Facebook page for plans as they emerge - and drop us a line by email if you'd like to join us, invite us, or just need to know more about us. 

Warm Winter Wishes to you all - and we look forward to a Happy New Year with even more songs and singing to enjoy and share!

Chichester Local Group Session in December - Cancelled

Unfortunately for us the bookings for the festive season at our venue, the "Chichester Inn" mean it will be too busy to host us this month, and an alternative venue has not been found - so the session has been cancelled.

  
We wish the revellers well and thank our hosts at the Chichester Inn for their hospitality to us during the rest of the year - and we look forward to celebrating the new year there on the third Thursday in January 2026 (15th) when our gatherings to sing will resume. 

Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday December 4th 2025

With Emily at the helm and with no more public events on the books this side of Christmas, we sang our way through a mix of festive and seasonal songs.  Choices were directed by requests for old favourites but also included a couple of others with Christmas 2026 in mind. We opened with "When It's Christmas Time" before the "Boar's Head Carol", "Sweet Chiming Bells", "Masters in this Hall",  "Pentonville", and "Ideo".  "The Moon Shone Bright" was one we haven't sung for a while but was well remembered by those who knew it.  

Emily reminded us of "Christmas is Drawing Near at Hand" - a sombre song about the rich and poor at Christmas which has never been a favourite at the Worthing sessions.  Later Henny and Alan suggested the "Ditchling Carol" (known by some as "Be Merry All"), which has a similar theme,  and Alan led us through a shortened version of it; they both advocated its use by us because of it Sussex heritage.  

"Angel Gabriel" and "Deck the Halls" took us to a break and some notices about local events over the festive season - including plans for wassails in Tarring and Findon (both listed on our Diary Pages on this Blog). We also debated plans for our January session at the Barn with our usual first Thursday of the month being New Year's Day - and it was agreed to move it to the second Thursday instead. 

Before we revived some wassail songs ready for use in January, Alan sang through the "Halsway Carol", brought to our attention by Mick Bullen who is leading a 'pub carols' session in Worthing on December 15th (also mentioned on our Diary page).  Although not of Sussex origin it was approved as a lovely song to try - and will be put on our Blog page for that purpose and maybe use in 2026. 

Our wassailing songs started with the "Apple Tree" round which was fun, followed as far as time allowed by the "Sugar (or Sussex) Wassail", "Wassail the Silver Apple" and the much used "Gloucester Wassail" with some confusion over which of the many verses to use! 

After this jolly finish we parted with seasonal good wishes exchanged - and our next meeting on JANUARY 8TH 2026 to look forward to.   (This has since been confirmed - but with a slight change to our venue - the Barn had been booked by another user, so we have been given permission to meet and sing in the church next door instead - please use the church entrance to come and join us.)

HH
 

Lewes Local Group Report - Monday November 17th 2025

Eleven singers (six male and five female) came to the Lewes Arms so a good and balanced number. We took it in turns to choose from the sixty-three songs on the reflective, remembrance, cold weather, Christmas and wassailing seasonal list.     

We sang through without a break so at the start we discussed the next session here on Monday December 15^th when we will be leading carols and seasonal songs in the pub downstairs, and the lunchtime event at Brighton Unitarian Church on Friday February 6^th where the programme contains songs of reflection, winter and wassailing. 

  

Our singing started with one of the final remembrance songs of the year “Home Lads Home” which as well as the lost Hampshire farm labourers remembers the 8 million horses, mules and donkeys lost in World War One. We then turned to Christmas with the newer folk tune for “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, the general traditional ballad “Hard Times of Old England” and the seasonal “Stir Up”, a round concerning the last Sunday before Advent when Christmas puddings are made and left to mature (this year on November 23^rd).    

  

Continuing to jump around themes according to singers’ individual choices we sang the Christmassy “Boar’s Head Carol” and “Masters in this Hall” then “All Things are Quite Silent” (remembrance of a sailor pressganged into war from the point of view of his heartbroken wife), “In the Bleak Mid-Winter”, “Brave Eleven” (a poignant true story of a shipwreck off Shoreham), and “Follow Me ’Ome”(back to remembrance, with Kipling’s tale of soldiers mourning a fallen comrade). 

  

We rounded off a lovely evening with more Christmas and wassailing numbers – the West Country guest song “Wassail the Silver Apple”, “Ditchling Carol” and “Coppers’ Christmas Song”.

  

We’d spent some time trying out harmonies for several of these songs and agreed it would be good to explore these further in future.  A member mentioned that she has now moved from the outskirts back into central Lewes and could offer her home for small practice sessions including harmony workshops, so we will compare diaries to suggest some dates for the less busy months in the New Year and spring. 

  

As mentioned above, our next session will be on Monday December 15^th. We will start upstairs as usual at 7 for 7:30 with some general songs and then move to the pub downstairs to lead the carol singing from 8:30pm until 10pm. New members are always welcome to join us, whether seasoned performers or new singers, and this will be a good opportunity if you just want to listen in the background or sing along (word sheets provided). Email us if you want to know more or just turn up on the night. 

  

 Tina 

  

A Song to Try - The Halsway Carol

Alan has offered this carol as one for us to try - and, if liked, prepare for use next Christmas - "The Halsway Carol".

You'll find the lyrics using this link

You'll find the tune using this link

Festive Singing at the Weald & Downland Living Museum - 23rd Nov 2025

Thank you to our hosts, Alan our lead on the day, and to all our singers and those who stopped to listen to us at the museum's Advent Market last Sunday.  It was a lovely day and we had a jolly good sing!

South Downs Folk Singers Seasonal Events - Winter 2025

We are glad to report - we will be singing at the "Weald and Downland Living Museum" again, on Sunday November 23rd at their annual Advent Market. 

We'll be singing a mix of seasonal songs and carols in the Market Square at 12.00 noon and again at 2.00pm - and we look forward to the day being merry, bright and full of festive cheer. 

(N.B. Visitor tickets for the Advent Market need to be pre-booked on the Museum's own website - and Park and Ride arrangements will be in operation for this very popular event.)

Then nearer Christmas we'll be contributing to two different Pub Carols events, in the evening of Monday December 15th. 

In Worthing we'll be singing with the Pub Carollers led by Mick Bullen at the "Richard Cobden" in Clifton Road - and in Lewes our own Tina C will be leading carols for all comers at the "Lewes Arms" - as part of the SDFSingers Lewes Group's monthly meeting there. 

Looking ahead to the New Year - we will again be amongst others singing at the Sompting Village Morris Side's Wassail celebration In Tarring on January 5th.

It will be great to see and sing with you at any of these events across the South Downs area, to celebrate mid-winter and the festive season in your good company!

(Please check our 'Diary Dates' Page for more details and any updates.)

Lewes Local Group Report – Mondays August 18th, September 15th, October 20th 2025

In August there were fifteen singers (including a welcome return visit from four Worthing singers who used to come regularly before we had to change the meeting night and had made a special trip to go through the songs for upcoming Lewes Priory event), and we sang 19 songs. In September we had 7 singers and 17 songs. The October session was almost cancelled as storm conditions with heavy rain and wind had been predicted, and I was getting over the tail end of an illness with very little voice. In the event the weather improved during the day, and I croaked my way through the session with 8 singers and 20 songs. 

  

In total there were 16 different singers but not everybody could make all the sessions and several more were ill, on holiday or at competing musical groups including Early Music and Morris sessions. I send out the list of suggested songs for each session, as well as for upcoming events, and when not able to get to Lewes our singers are good at practising alone or in small groups at home. 

  

Some of the songs were sung in more than one session, particularly when preparing for events or trying out harmonies, and we covered the following: 

  

• Current seasonal: "All Among the Barley", "Fields Lie Silent"," Lammas Carol", "One for the Rook", "Poor Froze Out Gardeners", "Seasons Turn", "Where Stormy Winds Do Blow"
• Remembrance: "Home Lads Home", "Ladies go Dancing at Whitsun", "My Boy Jack"
• Christmas: "Ditchling Carol", "Field Mouse Carol","Friendly Beasts",
• Wassailing: "Apple Tree Wassailing Song", "Wassail the Silver Apple"
• Sea: "Brave Eleven", "Constant Lovers",
• General: "Ale Glorious Ale", "Brisk Young Plough Boy", "Country Life", "Ebernoe Horn Fair", "East Sussex Drinking Song", "Farmer’s Toast", "Fields Lie Silent", "Ha’nacker Mill", "Hard Times of Old England", "Jolly Woodcutter", "Lark in the Morning" (Coppers version), "Life of a Man", "Magpie", "Michaelmas" (Amaryllis Gunn’s updated words), "Nightingale", "Old Adam", "On Sussex Hills", "Our Captain Cried All Hands”, "Parting Song", "Pleasant and Delightful", "Rosebuds in June", "Run of the Downs", "Smuggler’s Song", "Song of the Sussex Downsman", "Summer is a-Coming in Again", "Sussex Wedding Song", "Thousands or More", "Twanky Dillo", "West Sussex Drinking Song"

The next session is on Monday 17^th November and we hope to see as many singers as possible, new members always welcome at any time. 

  

Then in December we will be meeting as usual on the third week Monday 15^th December when we will start our session in our upstairs room before going downstairs to lead some carol singing in the pub (exact timings to be decided) so hopefully most of us will be there to swell the festive sound to the rafters. 

  

Tina 

Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday November 6th 2025

To start the evening Emily chose a couple of songs from those suggested by Alan for the "Weald and Downland Advent Market" event (where we will be singing on November 23rd.).  So we warmed up with "The Woodcutters Song" then "The Holly and the Ivy"- before a pause to welcome and introduce Mick Bolton, the organiser of a 'Pub Carols' session in Worthing on December 15th.   He briefed everyone about the plans he has for the carols (at the Richard Cobden pub), and for a preparation session on November 10th (at St Andrew's Church Hall) - both are open to anyone interested, as far as space allows!  For our interest, and accompanied by his melodeon, he then sang for us - "Rolling Downwards" a carol from the Baptist tradition in the U.S.A.  Other more familiar carols, and some unfamiliar to us as a group, also featured on his song sheets and will be used at the Pub Carols.  

Mick stayed until our half-time break - singing with us the "Falmer Carol" (all but the third verse, as suggested by Alan) - and, led by Amaryllis, her arrangement of the "Friendly Beasts" - with bells (jingled by Henny) added to the "dooby dos" between verses.  "The Fields Lie Silent" set a peaceful winter scene before "Pentonville" took us back to familiar carols - and to a refreshment break. 

During the break, information was shared by Emily (on behalf of Leigh and Shirley) about a talk Chris Hare will be giving in December, on the life of Sussex folk-song collector Lucy Broadwood. (Please see the "News" and "Miscellaneous" pages of this Blog for more details.)  

Our singing resumed with "The Field Mice Carol" - with harmony arrangements on the last two lines of the verses, suggested and led by Alan. (Recordings of these can be found with the song on this Blog.)  "Sweet Bells", "The CoppersChristmas Song" and "When It's Christmas Time" all followed - and, with time pressing towards and beyond 9.30 pm, we managed to fit in "The Angel Gabriel" and "Masters in the Hall" (at a brisk pace) to finish.  Thanks again to Emily. Alan, Amaryllis and Mick, and all our singers, for another enjoyable and productive evening.  

New Post on our "Miscellaneous" Page

Check out the page for details of a talk historian Chris Hare is giving in December about folk song collecting in Sussex.