TSF Autumn Conference 2026 - Session 4

Katie Howson – Thirsty Work – traditional singing from the North on BBC Radio, 1940-41Between April 1940 and March 1941 a little known radio series called ‘Thirsty Work’ broadcast seven programmes of singing from pubs across England, including Ambleside in Westmorland, Redmire in the Dales and Harome on the North York Moors. Recordings were made and archived for the first two of these programmes, but the latter (the last in the series) was a victim of wartime exigencies and seems never to have been archived. Discovered initially through the Radio Times archive, subsequent visits to the BBC Written Archives and investigations into family, local and folk history then revealed the fascinating story of what the men not called away to war were singing to amuse themselves and their pub audiences – and also thousands of radio listeners including local soldiers far away from home. Brian Peters – Jone o’ Grinfilt: Protestor or Patriot?The Lancashire dialect songs relating the exploits of ‘Jone o’ Grinfilt’ have been much analysed by scholars of the social history of the early industrial revolution, from E. P. Thompson onwards. The original comic ballad, describing the misadventures of a poor weaver on volunteering to fight against the French, was written by an Oldham man and became a huge hit locally through public performance and the broadside press. It spawned many successor ballads describing the further exploits of its hero, some highlighting poverty and injustice and leading to ‘Jone’ being characterised as ‘the most famous figure of protest in Lancashire during the nineteenth century’. This paper attempts to resolve some of the confusion and misinformation surrounding the ballads, and to explore the development of the central character to suit different political purposes.