Robinson, Henry

Dancer

Collection date: Sept 1910

Area: Staffordshire

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Henry Robinson of Abbots Bromley Horn Dance (1794-1860): Henry Robinson was the fiddler whose tune was transmitted to Sharp by Robert J Buckley in June 1911. In FT2531b Sharp noted that Robinson was a wheelwright of Abbots Bromley ‘famous at the time as the only man who could play the Horn Dance’. Sharp described it as a 'quick' tune* that Buckley had originally taken down from Robinson when he was a child and copied the manuscript out ‘after an interval of 53 or 54 years’. From memory Buckley was unsure if the fiddler was called William or Henry. Buckley was born in 1847 (see separate profile) and the wheelwright in the village at the time was indeed Henry Robinson – there was a William Robinson but he was an agricultural labourer.

Henry Robinson was baptised at Abbots Bromley on 14/9/1794, son of Samuel Robinson, wheelwright and his wife Ellen. He married Rebecca Smith on 22/7/1816 at Abbots Bromley and they had at least 4 children - the eldest Henry Jr (1818-1890) becoming in turn the village wheelwright. Henry (the fiddler) died July qr 1860 (Uttoxeter 6b 146).

*Note: Sharp did witness and transcribe a slow tune for the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance on 12 Sept 1910 but the musician’s name was not noted (FT2531a).