Thomas Lanchbury

Thomas Lanchbury (1865 - 24 July 1934) was a cowman from the Gloucestershire village of Wyck Rissington, from whom Harry Hurlbutt Albino collected songs in October 1928 (the family name is also often spelled Lainchbury and Launchbury).

Songs

Come Along with Me My Pretty Fair Maid (Roud 2454),
Come Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl (Roud 1234),
Darling Miss Kitty (Roud 1202),
Down in the Land of Greeno* (Roud 745) - a version of Old Macdonald had a Farm,
Farmer's Boy (Roud 408),
Good Old Geoff He's Gone To Rest (Roud 1740),
Gossip Jones* (Roud 1039),
Jolly Shilling* (Roud 1116),
Stow Fair* (Roud 137),
Up To Dick (Roud 23051).

In Albino's collection, it is recorded that J. D. S. Albino (who I have been unable to identify so far) collected four of the songs, which I have identified with an asterisk. Gossip Jones and Jolly Shilling were published in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society. Gossip Jones was also popularised by Albino's setting for Unison voices with descant published by Curwen. This is described as being "collected, arranged and words adapted by H. H. Albino" - so perhaps they were not collected by J. D. S Albino after all! Around this time he also arranged Stow Fair with its chorus characters of "Bill Brewer, Jack Steward, Jerry Hawkins, Dick Joseph, Harry Hillop, Tom Bawling, Dick Chapman, Ben Paxwain - with your Uncle Tom Goblin and all", although this was never published.

Albino noted the following: "Thomas Lanchbury, who is about 60 years of age works as a cowman. He also "belongs to the tower", that is to say he is one of the local church bellringers, a position whih his father and grandfather held. He can remember the morris dancers and the home-made fiddle that supplied the music. He says that this instrument was made with two tins fixed at either end of a stick of wood with a piee of whipchord [sic] stretched across from one tin to the other. A bow was used but he cannot remember how the notes were made. He says that "there wasn't much of a tune about it, it just kept the dancers going." It probably served to mark the rhythm."

Albino noted that this was possibly a "humpenscrump". The performance described probably occurred during the 1870s - but this tantalising glimpse gives us no further information as to which dancers were involved.

Thomas Lanchbury was born in the village of Wyck Rissington in 1865, the son of John and Hannah who both worked on the land. In 1887 he married a local girl, Florence Malvina Webb, who died the following year. Some 14 years later, in 1902, he married again, this time to Catherine Higgs. They remained in Wyck Rissington throughout their lives, with Thomas continuing to work as a Cattleman, or Cowman on the nearby farm - the trade he was following when Albino met him. Catherine died in 1933 at the age of 76 and Thomas died on 24 July 1934 at the age of 69.

Paul Burgess

References:

Journal of the Folk-Song Society 8 (1930) pp.233-235 (version a)
H. H. Albino collection, VWML, loose sheets in main folder, sleeves 2, 4 and 7. Material collected from Thomas Lanchbury, Wyck Rissington, Gloucetershire, October 1928.

Singers by County Gloucestershire