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George "Pop" Maynard (6 January 187229 November 1962) was an English folk singer and
marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in m ...
champion. The folk singer
Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on ...
considers Maynard to have been the "finest traditional English singer, matched only by
Harry Cox Harry Fred Cox (27 March 1885 – 6 May 1971), was a Norfolk farmworker and one of the most important singers of traditional English music of the twentieth century, on account of his large repertoire and fine singing style. His music inspired ...
".


Life and family

George Maynard was born on 6 January 1872 or, as he put it, on Old Christmas Day in Smallfield, Burstow, Surrey, about north of the village of Copthorne, West Sussex, where he lived for his entire life. He was the eleventh of twelve children of James Maynard and his wife Elizabeth (née Skinner), four of whom died in infancy. Maynard was baptised on 3 February 1872 at the Church of St Bartholomew in Burstow, when his father's profession was given as "labourer". Maynard attended school on-and-off until the age of 12. He worked with his father and brothers, in the winter as a woodman cutting wood for the hoop trade, in the summer harvesting, hedging and ditching. He and his family also supplemented their income by
poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ...
rabbits and pheasants. He did not regret his poaching, saying "I should go out again if I had my time over again, before I should let my family go short of anything." Every year for 52 years Maynard would travel to Kent to work in the hop fields. The 1939 Register was taken on 29 September during the hop season, and Maynard, then aged 57, was registered at Moorden Farm, Leigh, Kent that night. During one of these annual trips, Maynard met his wife Mary Ann (Polly) Wiles, at a hop farm called Salmans Farm,
Chiddingstone Chiddingstone is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the River Eden between Tonbridge and Edenbridge. The village of Chiddingstone Causeway and the hamlet Chiddingstone Hoath are a ...
, Kent. They married in September 1895 in Chiddingstone. The couple had seven children, of whom two daughters and four sons survived to adulthood. They lived at first in a tiny house in Borer's Yard, Copthorne, then in a cottage in Spring Gardens, Copthorne. Polly died in 1920, and Maynard remained a widower for more than 40 years. He died on 29 November 1962.


Music

In Maynard's youth there was no recorded music, and singing was part of the family and the community.
The idea that a singer was someone exclusive was not there then. Everybody sang. Some sung well, some didn't, but singing was as normal as breathing. We sang up the woods, we sang anywhere. You sang when you felt in the mood - you'd be in the pub and someone would start a song and all of a sudden the whole place lit up. It was never, "Well, let’s have a sing" - it either happened or it didn't.
Maynard learned songs from his father and other family members. He augmented his repertoire by learning songs from ballad sheets ( broadsides) that were hawked round the villages. Itinerant workers also brought new material. Maynard picked up songs during his annual migration to the hop fields, for example "The Irish Hop-Pole Puller", a
cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
comic song. At the hop farms there were Londoners and workers from Ireland and from other counties of England, and evenings and Sundays were spent drinking and singing. At home, Maynard, who admitted to feeling lonely after being widowed, was in one of the local pubs most evenings, singing and playing traditional games, such as shove ha'penny, skittles,
quoits Quoits ( or ) is a traditional game which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber rings over a set distance, usually to land over or near a spike (sometimes called a hob, mott or pin). The game of quoits encompasses several distinct vari ...
,
darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the ...
, and
marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in m ...
. Maynard's repertoire as recorded by Ken Stubbs comprised 65 songs. The recordings were selective, and Stubbs estimated that Maynard's complete repertoire of songs committed to memory would have been in the hundreds. Maynard and his community were not concerned about the sources of their songs, singing popular songs of the day as well as traditional material, but the folk-song collectors dismissed the songs of
music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in B ...
origin as unauthentic, and few of them were recorded, a choice which Stubbs came to regret. According to Stubbs, Maynard's personal favourites were the traditional broken-token song "The Banks of Claudy" (
Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the Londo ...
266), which he had sung at his own wedding and those of his children, an Irish song "The Brave Irish Soldier" (Roud 3226), and one of music hall origin, "The Old Rustic Bridge" (Roud 3792). Some songs were original lyrics to traditional tunes, for example "Shooting Goshen's Cocks Up" (Roud 902), written by Maynard's friend Fred Holman to celebrate a poaching incident. Poaching was a favourite topic for songs in Maynard's repertoire, for example "The Gallant Poachers" (Roud 793) and "While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping" (Roud 363), as well as songs about the sea. Much of his repertoire was also sung by the
Copper Family The Copper Family are a family of singers of traditional, unaccompanied English folk song. Originally from Rottingdean, near Brighton, Sussex, England, the nucleus of the family now live in the neighbouring village of Peacehaven. The family fir ...
, although there had been little interchange between the
Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
musicians including Maynard, and the Coppers over the
South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the e ...
in
Rottingdean Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards. Name The name Rotti ...
. Several of Maynard's favoured songs, including "Banks of Claudy" and "While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping", are better known in versions by the Coppers. A few songs seem to have come uniquely from Maynard though. Maynard's longevity meant that he provided a bridge between the first (transcription-based) and second (field-recording-based)
British folk revival The British folk revival incorporates a number of movements for the collection, preservation and performance of folk music in the United Kingdom and related territories and countries, which had origins as early as the 18th century. It is particu ...
s and kept alive songs which might otherwise have been forgotten. As Mike Yates noted:
Many of these songs, once common, are now seldom encountered.
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...
, for instance, noted four versions of "Locks and Bolts" at the turn of the century as did George Gardiner also. However, to my knowledge, Pop is the only English singer to have been recorded singing it—a sad come-down for this splendid ballad ... The same can be said for his version of "A Sailor in the North Country" ... which must once have enjoyed a widespread popularity, judging by its frequent appearance on song sheets.


Influence

Maynard's repertoire and style were influential on the emerging folk singers of the second folk revival. His songs were recorded by Bert Lloyd,
Cyril Tawney Cyril Tawney (12 October 1930 – 21 April 2005) was an English singer-songwriter and a proponent of the traditional songs of the West of England, as well as traditional and modern maritime songs. Biography and notable works Tawney was born in ...
,
Peter Bellamy Peter Franklyn Bellamy (8 September 1944 – 24 September 1991) was an English folk singer. He was a founding member of The Young Tradition and also had a long solo career, recording numerous albums and touring folk clubs and concert halls. He ...
,
Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such a ...
, and many others. He was noted for his ear for pitch, strong sense of rhythm, and smooth phrasing. In an interview in 2017,
Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on ...
described her encounters with Maynard in his final years.
I used to go to
Cecil Sharp House Cecil may refer to: People with the name * Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) * Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Canada * Cecil, Albert ...
to look in the library and listen to recordings. One day in the cellar was a Sussex singer in his 70s called George Maynard. To meet this man and hear him sing in the flesh was absolutely wonderful, even though his voice was old — a bit like the one I’ve got now. You can’t keep your beautiful voice all your life. I fell in love with both George and "Polly on the Shore", which is a song about a sea battle, and the loss of love and life during the
Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
.
When Collins recorded "Polly on the Shore" on her 1970 album ''
Love, Death and the Lady ''Love, Death and the Lady'' is an album by Shirley and Dolly Collins. This is a companion-piece to ''Anthems In Eden'' (1969), but with a darker tone to it. She attributes the 'melancholy' mood of the album to her own personal loneliness at t ...
'' with her sister Dolly, she wrote:
From George Maynard, of Copthorne, Sussex. It was one of the great good fortunes in my life to hear George sing in the flesh, back in 50's. Even though he was then in his eighties, he was still able to sing tunefully and gracefully, and had a remarkable stock of songs. He was a complete countryman, and well-known as a marbles and shove ha'penny player. ... This song epitomes George to me, with its sweetness and dignity.
Maynard remains significant to the next generation of traditional singers. Folk supergroup The Furrow Collective, winner of Best Group in the 2017
BBC Folk Awards The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British ra ...
, included "Our Captain Calls" from Maynard's repertoire on their 2014 album ''At Our Next Meeting''. Singer Emily Portman wrote:
Martin Carthy introduced me to George "Pop" Maynard's singing when I was 17. It was the first time I'd heard anything quite like it: an old man with a crackling voice, banging his stick to keep time and gripping me with his storytelling. It was the first song I performed unaccompanied and it brought about a sea-change in my whole approach to singing.


The second British folk revival

From the early 1950s, the second
British folk revival The British folk revival incorporates a number of movements for the collection, preservation and performance of folk music in the United Kingdom and related territories and countries, which had origins as early as the 18th century. It is particu ...
brought for the first time an interest in Maynard's music from outside his immediate circle. He was "collected" over this period by many folklorists, including Peter Kennedy, Mervyn Plunkett, Reg Hall, Ken Stubbs and Frank Purslow, and all known recordings of him date from this period, the last ten years of his life. Plunkett had recorded Maynard in 1955 and was organising music sessions in local Sussex pubs. Kennedy was one of the presenters of the BBC folk music radio programme ''As I Roved Out'', which was broadcast during the 1950s, and he brought a team to one of these sessions, at the Cherry Tree pub in Copthorne, in February 1956. The session included traditional musicians and singers, including Maynard, and also step dancers. The programme was broadcast on the
BBC Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
on 24 June 1956, and brought with it increasing fame for Maynard. At the same time Kennedy recorded 14 of the 15 tracks that would comprise Maynard's
Topic Records Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...
album ''Ye Subjects of England'', though this would not be released until 1976. The only commercial recording that was released during Maynard's lifetime was his track "Polly on the Shore" recorded by Plunkett in 1956 for the EP ''4 Sussex Singers'', though this was only released in 1961. In October 1957, Plunkett organised a coach trip to
Cecil Sharp House Cecil may refer to: People with the name * Cecil (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) * Cecil (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Canada * Cecil, Albert ...
for the English Music Festival, a competitive event run by the
English Folk Dance and Song Society The English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS, or pronounced 'EFF-diss') is an organisation that promotes English folk music and folk dance. EFDSS was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dan ...
(EFDSS). The party included Maynard and three other singers, and a full band of local musicians, including Reg Hall. Hall describes it as "a great day out", but the music had a mixed reception.
We shocked many of the people there and confused some of the adjudicators, who were used to genteel settings of folk songs. One of them, ''The Times'' music critic, criticised Pop Maynard for allegedly not knowing his words and for having a poor standing posture. Very few of the audience had ever heard a country singer before, and even fewer had ever heard country pub music. Some of them, it seemed, were excited by it.
The trips did continue though. Maynard performed three times on BBC radio, noting that "we went on three different times, and they gave us a guinea each, each time." Plunkett brought several musicians including Maynard to perform in ''A Sussex Concert'' at Cecil Sharp House in March 1958, and later to make a second attempt at the EFDSS English Music Festival competition. The day after the festival, 11 October 1958, they took part in a grand concert ''Folk Music of the British Isles'' organised by the EFDSS at the
Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I ...
. Maynard, now 86 years old, was brought on to the RFH stage to sing two verses of "Rolling in the Dew" in his usual unaccompanied style, and was then expected to hand over to
Jeannie Robertson Jeannie Robertson (1908 – 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer. Her most celebrated song is "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart", which was covered by Archie Fisher, The Dubliners, The McCalmans, ...
to finish the song. The intention was to demonstrate the assimilation process in folk music, showing a Sussex song being adapted by a Scottish singer, but Hall observed that "Pop was confused and upset and Jeannie was clearly embarrassed by such unimaginably crass stage direction."
Hamish Henderson Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier. He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and di ...
glossed over the event in his notes about "Rolling in the Dew" on Robertson's 1960 EP ''Lord Donald'': "In 1958, in the Royal Festival Hall, Jeanne made a hit with this song after Sussex veteran, Pop Maynard, had given his own fine traditional version." An extensive collection of hitherto-unknown pub recordings of Maynard, made by Brian Matthews in 1959–60, was released by Musical Traditions Records in 2000 as a double CD ''Down the Cherry Tree''. Described as "for completists", having been recorded on basic equipment in a noisy pub environment, this complements the more selective Maynard tracks, also recorded by Matthews, on the same label's Sussex compilation ''Just Another Saturday Night''. Maynard was last known to sing in public at his 90th birthday party in the Cherry Tree, Copthorne, in January 1962.


Marbles

In his lifetime, Maynard acquired celebrity for his
marbles A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in m ...
-playing well before he was known outside his locality for his singing. His nickname "Pop" was a tribute to his skill at marble-popping. The
British and World Marbles Championship British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
is said to date back to 1588. The modern competition takes place every
Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...
at the Greyhound pub in Tinsley Green, West Sussex, and has run continuously since 1932, with exceptions for World War II and the 2020
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Maynard was first a member of a world champion team when Copthorne defeated the London Passenger Transport Board in 1941. In subsequent world championships, Maynard was filmed regularly and appeared on British Pathé News. When the Copthorne Spitfires won the world championship in 1948, Maynard was team captain, and he was seen on national television. In 1949 the Copthorne Spitfires lost in the semi-finals, when the commentator noted:
Marbles skill is handed down from father to sons, as from Pop Maynard, 73, to sons Arthur, Perce and George. The Copthorne Spitfires, an all-Maynard family team play Tinsley Green in the semi-final.
Maynard continued to compete through the 1950s. In July 1954, his reputation brought Maynard the opportunity to fly to
Le Touquet Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (; pcd, Ech Toutchet-Paris-Plache; vls, 't Oekske, older nl, Het Hoekske), commonly referred to as Le Touquet (), is a commune near Étaples, in the Pas-de-Calais department, northern France. It has a population of ...
at the invitation of its mayor to play exhibition matches. His final world championship was Easter 1962, in the year of his death at the age of 90. Marbles historian Sam McCarthy recalls the official commentator describing Maynard's play that year to be "as quick and agile as a two-year-old".


Sources


Discography

All known releases are listed below. Tracks re-issued on compilations are not listed. ; 4 Sussex Singers ( EP, Collector Records JEB7, UK, 1961) : Recorded by Mervyn Plunkett. There is one track from each of George Spicer, Pop Maynard, Jean Hopkins and Jim Wilson. Maynard sings ''Polly on the Shore'' (
Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the Londo ...
811), recorded in
West Hoathly West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. At the 20 ...
in October 1956. : No longer available.
; Rumpsy Bumpsy Pop's in the Pub (Cassette, Folktracks 080-C60, UK, 1975. Later as CD, Folktrax FTX-280) : Recorded by Peter Kennedy in The Cherry Tree public house in Copthorne, February 1956. Some of this material was used for Kennedy's radio programme ''As I Roved Out''. Features Maynard with a chorus of friends, including George Holman, Jean Hopkins, Mervyn Plunkett and Ken Stubbs. : No longer available.
; Ye Subjects of England Traditional Songs From Sussex (LP,
Topic Records Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...
12T286, UK, 1976. Also as digital download TSDL286, UK, 2009) : Recorded by Peter Kennedy in Maynard's home, Copthorne, Sussex, 3 December 1955. : Recordings from this sesion also appear on several volumes of the Topic anthology
The Voice of the People ''The Voice of the People'' is an anthology of folk songs produced by Topic Records containing recordings of traditional singers and musicians from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The series was first issued in 1998 as 20 CDs, compiled b ...
and other Topic compilations.
; Rolling in the Dew "Pop" Maynard at Home (Cassette, Folktracks 427-C60, UK, 1985. Later as CD, Folktrax FTX-279) : Songs and interviews recorded by Peter Kennedy at Maynard's cottage December 1955. : No longer available.
; Down the Cherry Tree (CD, Musical Tradition Records MTCD 400-401 UK, 2000) : All the songs and fragments Brian Matthews recorded from Pop Maynard in 1959-60, at three of his local pubs. : A selection from Matthews' recordings also appears on ''Just Another Saturday Night'' (MTCD 309-310, 2000).


Audio-visual collections

; Sussex Traditions : The Sussex Traditions database of Sussex Folklife and Lore has drawn together material about Maynard from several sources. They include :* Clippings about Maynard from local newspaper the East Grinstead Courier. :* Audio recording of a thirty-minute interview with Maynard conducted by Ken Stubbs. :* Field recordings of Maynard, made by Ken Stubbs, Brian Matthews, Tony Wales and Jim Ward. :* Transcriptions from the Plunkett Collection of lyrics of field recordings. :* Transcriptions made by Ken Stubbs from his field recordings of Maynard's singing, published in Stubbs' book of folk songs ''The Life of a Man''.

;
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodic ...
: The library holds field recordings of Maynard by Ken Stubbs and Brian Matthews, and song transcriptions by Mervyn Plunkett and Frank Purslow in its digital archive.

;
British Library Sounds British Library Sounds (previously named Archival Sound Recordings) is a British Library service providing free online access to a diverse range of spoken word, music and environmental sounds from the British Library Sound Archive. Anyone with web ...
:; Reg Hall English, Irish & Scottish Folk Music & Customs Collection :: Includes field recordings of Maynard made by Mervyn Plunkett, Frank Purslow, Ken Stubbs, and Reg Hall himself. :; Peter Kennedy Collection :: None of Kennedy's field recordings of Maynard were provided to the British Library as part of this collection, but it includes a few photographs of Maynard.


See also

* Music of Sussex


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard, Pop English folk singers 1872 births 1962 deaths People from Worth, West Sussex People from Tandridge (district) People from Copthorne, West Sussex Topic Records artists