The Hilaire Belloc Society is very pleased to announce our next event. We will be joining cultural forces with the Belloc, Broadwood and Beyond project at Saint Mary Magdalene's church, in Rusper (Sussex), on Saturday the 18th of May.
Belloc, Broadwood and Beyond is a Heritage Lottery Fund project run through Rusper Parochial Church Council. The project is to research the life and times of Lucy Broadwood (1858 – 1929), the folk song collector, who is buried in Rusper; and the writer and poet, Hilaire Belloc (1870 – 1953), who lived for most of his life at Kingsland in Shipley.
In 2013 during his sabbatical, the Reverend Nick Flint fulfilled a long cherished ambition to saunter across Sussex, inspired by the walk which inspired Belloc’s The Four Men. Nick wrote “Cautionary Pilgrim” based on his own walk and it was through the interest this generated that he got to know local historian Chris Hare and his wife Ann Feloy who has written a play based on The Four Men which was revived in 2018. Meanwhile family history research established that Nick and Charlotte Broadwood share common ancestry. Charlotte was the wife of the Reverend John Broadwood, the Godfather of the Folk Song Revival whose niece Lucy Broadwood continued his pioneering work into the audio recording age. It was through this shared love of Sussex tradition and of Belloc in particular that Chris and Nick conceived the project, Belloc, Broadwood and Beyond.
Belloc, wrote ‘Sussex songs’ in the folk style. During this project we will be running workshops, teaching some of these songs and also some of the songs that Lucy collected on the Sussex/ Hampshire border.
The event will start at 10.30 as the two Belloc, Broadwood and Beyond folk song workshops (Rusper and Worthing) come together in harmonious union. There will be a lunch break between 1 and 2. It would be advisable to book a table at the local Pub (01293 871215). In the afternoon, the Chairman of the Hilaire Belloc Society, Mike Hennessy, will be giving a talk on 'Belloc and Wine' at 2.00. Following Mike's distillation, the Folk Song workshop will continue until 4 and 4.30pm. Thereafter, we will be decamping to the Plough and Attic Rooms Pub in the village where, we are sure, the festivities will continue.
We look forward to seeing you on the 18th.
