Speaker – Diana Churchill

England has a rich aural tradition of folk music, which in the early 20th century, with the rise of the music hall and more modern means of communication, was in danger of being lost to posterity. Fortunately, there were men and women interested enough to travel around the country noting down the tunes and songs sung by ordinary working people. Two brothers, Henry and Robert Hammond, came to Dorset and collected around 900 songs. This talk focuses on their two visits to Sherborne and the Sherborne Singers from whom they collected songs.

Speaker: Diana Churchill
Diana Churchill is a volunteer at Sherborne Museum and has a keen interest in folk music and family history. She was born and bred in Sherborne and can trace her ancestral connections to the town back to the 1700s through her mother’s family.