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Village Carols is a non-profitmaking organisation which exists to record and promote local carol singing traditions. Its main roles are undertaking fieldwork and research, organising the collection of source material, and promoting local carol singing traditions.

Fieldwork and research

This takes two main forms:

Organising the collection of source material

The hundreds of tape recordings and manuscripts are steadily being indexed and organised into a usable archive for which there is public access.  The recordings of the carols are being copied and the copies placed in the National Sound Archive (British Library) and in the Archives of Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield.

Promoting local carol singing traditions

This is largely done through the production of the cassette/CD and book series. To date, there are ten sets.  For details, please see Village Carols publications. An order form is also available.

Ian Russell describes his approach to research, recording, documentation and publication in  paper written for the Folklore Journal in 2006, and reproduced here.

Festival of Village Carols

The Festival of Village Carols is held every two years to celebrate the remarkable carol singing traditions that flourish in the villages near Sheffield, and elsewhere. The first Festival was in 1992, and, apart from the year 2000, has always been held at the Community Centre in Grenoside.

To mark the Millennium, the Festival took place on Saturday 2 December 2000 at the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, and the 2002 Festival featured the Glan Rock Carolers from Pennsylvania, USA at Grenoside on 29th and 30th November 2002. See the Report and the Pictures.

The 2004 Festival took place on Saturday 27th November at the Grenoside Community Centre,

The 2006 Festival was on Saturday 2nd December at Grenoside, at which time the Kilmore Traditional Carol Singers from County Wexford took part, as well as The Castleton Singers and the Top Red Carollers.  Follow the links above for reports and pictures, as well as as samples of the Wexford carol music.

For the the 2008 Festival of Village Carols, see here.

Currently available recordings and publications:

English Village Carols  -  CD
SFW CD 40476

Brightest and Best  -  CD and Tape Set (both available)
Hark, Hark, What News - CD and Tape Set (both now available)

Books

The first and third Festival books are now only currently available

We regret that copies of all other publications and recordings are now unavailable due to the demand for them.

Download Order Form Here

Village Carols is directed by Ian Russell. He is Director of the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen, and can be contacted by email via ian.russell@abdn.ac.uk. 

Formerly a primary headteacher, he was the Editor of Folk Music Journal from 1980 to 1993. Link here to read a little more about Dr. Ian Russell's work at Aberdeen and elsewhere.

Contact Address: Village Carols, PO Box 2099, Sheffield S35 0XU

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