Bourne Again In Time For Lynn Heritage Day!
Sedgeford Folk Duo Waywood (Poet Gareth Calway and
Harpist Vanessa Wood-Davies) return from their summer break for two exciting
engagements in early September.
On 7 September the pair are
part of the launch of the prestigious Hereward the Wake project and will be
providing the folk music at the 950th anniversary of to lead the English
resistance to William the Conqueror in 1067.
https://www.herewardthewake.co.uk/bourne-7th-sept
Waywood will perform there
the world premiere of a new ballad commissioned by the project "The Ballad
of Hereward The Wake" another new piece written in an Old English style,
"Wicked Fen," and an established favourite "Lancelot and the
Grail Maiden" which draws on an even older tradition of British history
and legends.
Then on 10 September,
Waywood will be showcasing their new album of Norfolk stories as part of Heritage Day in Lynn. These stories include homages to the extraordinary number
of pioneers Lynn has produced through the ages. Characters like William Sawtrey
one time priest of St Margaret's Church (now Lynn Minster) - and in 1401 the
first man to be burned for his beliefs in England - and his famous parishioner,
Margery Kempe, who combined marriage and fourteen children with a unique visionary
life travelling as a pilgrim throughout the Hanseatic world and beyond and also
famously wrote the first autobiography in English. Waywood also tell such
strange ghost stories of ordinary Norfolk people in history as that of Susan
Nobes, who was struck by lightning in Sedgeford Church in 1819 - a ballad that
has now had nearly a thousand plays worldwide on Soundcloud - and of Norfolk gentlefolk like the Brown Lady reputed to haunt both Houghton and Raynham Hall. "The Brown Lady", as
the ballad explains, was Dorothy Walpole not just sister of first British Prime
Minister (and Lynn MP for 40 years) Sir Robert Walpole but also the wife of
'Turnip' Townshend. The mysterious nature of her death and the assertion that
she is the only ghost every to have been photographed (on the stairs of Raynham
Hall in 1936!) all add to the crepuscular glamour of this tale.
Gareth will also rap his
"Ballad of Badass King John - As Seen On TV!" for the first time since
he did so at the official ceremony unveiling King John's statue in Lynn last
October, when the performance was shown on the BBC News. Vanessa will join him
for only their second public performance of a ballad commissioned from them by
the Borough of West Norfolk and King's Lynn about the other West Norfolk figure
honoured last June with a statue - Henry LeStrange, the man who invented New
Hunstanton.
Waywood will be introduced
by town historian Dr Paul Richards at 1 pm in the Gallery at Hanse House on
Heritage Day (Sunday September 10) and will perform for about an hour. The show
is free. Audiences are welcome to drop in and stay for a song or two or for the
entire concert, whichever they prefer. "We know that visitors have a lot
of great things to see and hear in Lynn on that day," commented Gareth.
"It will be worth
seeing us just for the costumes!" said Vanessa, who has been busy creating
a fetching Robin Hood i' the Greenwood look for the duo's new Hereward material
to add to the Lancelot and Grail Maiden chic Waywood enjoyed modelling on their
recent album cover. "Not many realised Lancelot was wearing the standard
of the Hanseatic League on his tabard for that cover shoot," (see above)
Vanessa explained. "But with
so much Lynn and Hanseatic material in our repertoire, why wouldn't you?"
