Confluence

Youth groups: The Ballad of the West Stour Pike

As part of our work in the Stour villages on the New Folk Ballads project, we wanted to include work with children from the area. The Youth Club meets at Buckhorn Weston village hall fortnightly. Their ages ranged from 8 to 14. Helen Porter, with Tim Laycock, ran an evening workshop with the children. Tim began by singing an old ballad about a monster, which had a chorus which the children learnt and joined in. The children were then given coloured pens, and asked to fill in a drawing of a pike which was approximately six feet long, and to imagine all sorts of things about the pike - what it liked to eat, where it liked to go, what it like doing &c.

The children were then divided into three groups of five, and each group came up with a verse for the ballad. The verses were written up giant-size onto paper, and pinned to the wall. The children then made up a melody for the ballad, and rehearsed the music accompanied by Tim (concertina) and Helen (clarinet). At the end of the workshop, the children performed the song, together with simple actions, to their parents. The words for the song were published with the Ballads, but inadvertantly missing the late final verses!