Bunyan Charles A

Dancer

Collection date: Mar 1912

Area: Buckinghamshire

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Charles Alfred Bunyan of Brill morris: age 50, Fiddler 5 morris tunes (FT2750-4) on 16 March 1912: Folk Dance Notes vol4/119: In his notes for ‘Princess Royal’ Sharp recorded that Charles learned it ‘from his grandfather, who played for Brill morris’. Click vwml link above.

Charles Bunyan was born April qr 1862 (3a 522), 7th child of Jacob Bunyan, wheelwright and his wife Ann in Brill, 12 miles W of Aylesbury. Jacob Bunyan was the son of Jacob Bunyan Snr (1800-1873), from whom Charles learned the morris tunes. In 1841 census Jacob Snr lived in Dorton village, a couple of miles E of Brill, hence Sharp’s note re the morris there.

Charles’ father died in 1879, when he was just 16 and he worked for his widowed mother Anne, who was publican of the Swan Inn in Brill. He married Mary Emma Hyde in April qr 1888 (3a 975) and they had 10 children. Initially Charles was working as a wheelwright in Brill but moved into Oxford town to be a coach builder (1901 census ref RG13/1379 f175 p32). That is where Sharp found him at 179 Cowley Road in March 1912. Charles died April qr 1925 (3c 986) aged 62.