Lewes Local Group Report – Summary - March 17th, April 21st and May19th 2025

Small but enthusiastic groups gathered for our usual third Monday sessions over the spring months. Eight singers came to our usual venue at the Lewes Arms on March 17^th. On April 21^st the pub was busy with Easter Monday drinkers and diners, so five of us decamped to the Railway Land Nature Reserve, where our singing was aided by crisps and vegan beer kindly provided by Eva and James. We sang at what we call the Magpie Tree, so named because during lockdown we sang here (carefully socially distanced) and when we sang Dave Dodd’s beautiful song “The Magpie” two of them sang overhead. This time we saw one walking along the ground but none in the tree.  Back at the Lewes Arms on May 19^th there were seven singers. In total there were twelve different singers, including a new singer, but not all present at the same time. 

  

Over the three sessions we covered 28 different songs from our spring, summer, outdoors and sea themed lists.   

  

Some of them were sung twice, either because of the different singers present, or to practise some harmonies for upcoming performances. These were: “Bee-Boy’s Song”, “Country Life”, “East Sussex Drinking Song”, “Ha’nacker Mill”, “It is the First of May”, “May Day Carol”, “Nightingale”, “Oldland Mill”, “On Sussex Hills”, “Pleasant and Delightful” and “When Spring Comes In”.

  

The others were: “Ale Glorious Ale”, “Birds on the Spray”, “Brave Eleven”, “Constant Lovers”, “Eileen Aroon” (an Irish guest song for St Patrick’s Day, shoehorned in as it was allegedly Hilaire Belloc’s favourite song which many of us learned during the original South Downs Songs Project), “Fathom the Bowl”, “Green Grow the Laurel”, “Littlehampton Collier Lads”, “Love and the Ball” (concerning stoolball, the precursor to cricket, which James recalled playing at school in Uckfield), “Magpie”, “Oak Tree Song”, “Rosebuds  in June”, “Searching for Lambs”, “Smuggler’s Song”, “Sussex Wedding Song”, “They Won’t Let Us Go to Sea Any More” (I decided the previous week to sing this, not realising how prescient it was given the new furore over fishing quotas on the very day we were singing it, just as when it was written in Hastings all those years ago) and, last but never least, “Thousands or More”.

  

In between we also had a lot of discussion about past and future events, the origins and history of the songs, and compared notes about the various other musical groups we sing and play with in other places. 

  

We will be back at the Lewes Arms on Monday June 16^th. New singers are always welcome to join us, whether you are an old hand, new to folk music or somewhere in between. With 100 plus local songs in our repertoire, and more being added all the time, there’s something for everyone, why not come and give it a try! 

Tina