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Cecil Sharp and the Quest for Folk Song and Dance

A new biography of Cecil Sharp, written by David Sutcliffe, was published by the Ballad Partners company in September 2023. The only previous biography was written in 1933 and revised in 1967, but so much continuing research has been done into the many elements of Sharp’s work that a fresh appraisal of his life is overdue.

David Sutcliffe (curator of this website) is a freelance researcher based in Somerset and he began writing the new biography in September 2020 in the depths of Covid. He consulted newspaper archives, all Sharp’s correspondence and notes, as well as a huge range of articles and original sources.

David has tried to tell a good story rather than produce an academic treatise on Sharp. He writes about Sharp’s struggles to find work as a musician, of his travels in Australia and America, but also of the many performers he met along the way.

It is a social history that explains the Edwardian Folk Revival and its limitations. New emphasis is placed on Sharp as an oral historian and as a performer in his own right. No

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“Cecil Sharp and the Quest for Folk Song and Dance: a new biography” – a talk by David Sutcliffe

Review of the talk presented by David Sutcliffe on 26th November 2023 via Zoom.

Beth Neill of Windsor Morris, editor of Morris Matters, and Honorary Life Member of the Morris Federation, writes:

“This was a talk closely linked with the launch of David’s book – I was looking forward to it, as it seems that Cecil Sharp has gone from hero to villain over the past century and so was interested in what a new researcher has found out to sway (or not) the balance.

“David had a series of well-structured slides which complemented his narrative and I found his presentation of Sharp’s life really interesting. He has trawled through newspaper archives and Sharp’s notebooks digitised in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library to unearth the material. David’s book is split into 5 main sections – pre-1903 (before he ‘discovered’ folk dance & music), folk songs, folk dance, travels in America and his later years. He is also trying to bring out the roles that Sharp himse

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Cecil Sharp 1859-1924

The catalyst: Headington Quarry Morris Re-started

By the end of the nineteenth century so much had been lost that a few collectors were inspired to save what they could before it was too late. Amongst these collectors, Percy Manning and Thomas Carter from Oxford, persuaded some members of the old Headington dancers to start dancing again. The result was a public performance of the Morris on the 15th March 1899 at the Oxford Corn Exchange. All of this revived the dancers enthusiasm, especially since they could earn some money via their dancing. So it was that Cecil Sharp "chanced upon" the Headington Quarry side dancing in 1899 (in fact the visit had been arranged by his mother-in-law). This was a momentous occasion, both in changing the course of Sharp's life, and for English folk dance and especially the Morris.

A "Chance Encounter" ...

"Sharp and his family spent that Christmas (1899) with his wife's mother, who was then living at Sandfield Cottage, Headington, about a mile east of Oxford. On Boxing Day, as he was looking out of the window, upon the sno