Blount, Mrs

Singer

Collection date: Apr 1906

Area: Surrey

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Mrs Blount sent 5 songs to Sharp in April 1906: Sharp failed to record her age or location in his notebook but this is most likely to be Mrs Ethel Blount, founder of the Peasant Arts Society, of which Sharp was a supporter. Ethel and her sister Mrs Maude King had set up a loom workshop at Haslemere, Surrey in the early 1900s, employing local weavers and spinners. It was an idealistic Arts & Crafts venture which lasted until 1933. Sharp gave a lecture at Haslemere in November 1906 and the Esperance Girls Club had their dance costumes made by the Haslemere workshop in the same year.

The Haslemere group regularly sang folk songs and did dances, so it would be a natural matter for Ethel Blount to have collected tunes in the area to send to Sharp. The tunes (FT856-860) include an untitled tune collected 'from a gypsy woman 35 years ago'.