Freda Palmer

Freda Palmer: came from the village of Leafield, Oxfordshire, although she was living in Witney when Mike Yates met and recorded her.  Leafield is, of course, the home of the traditional Field Town Morris and must, once, have had an active singing tradition.  Freda had quite a large repertoire of songs and was very happy to sing, although many of her songs had to be teased out of her memory over quite a period of time.

As a girl, Freda had worked with an aunt making gloves and the pair, to pass the time, would swap songs, singing to each other across a communal workbench.  All of the songs heard on the CD came originally from Freda’s aunt.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mike Yates, to the Musical Traditions Records CDs Up in the North, Down in the South (MTCD311-2)