Tanner, Charles

Dancer

Collection date: Sept 1909

Area: Oxfordshire

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Charles Tanner at Bampton (1845-1922): age 66, 6 songs (FT2372-6 + 2392) on 7 Sept 1909: Charles Henry Tanner was baptised on 16/11/1845 at Bampton, son of Charles Tanner, labourer and his wife Ann. He was the eldest of 3 sons and had 6 sisters. Charles Snr (1816-1892) had been a morris dancer, as had his father Thomas (b1771) before him. Charles Snr went blind in later life and in his notes for 'The Miller' song (FT2373) Sharp wrote: 'This and preceding songs were favourites with his father 'Blind Charlie', from whom he learned them.'

Charles Henry Tanner married Mary Ann Hunt on 5/12/1874 at Bampton. He was 27 and Mary Ann, a domestic servant, was 20. They had 12 children and very sadly lost 8 of them as infants. The family lived always at Weald, a hamlet just outside Bampton, where Shadrach Hayden and William Wells also lived. Charles was a morris dancer as well as a singer. For a full genealogical account of Bampton dancers, see Keith Chandler’s ‘Morris Dancing in the English South Midlands 1660-1900: A Chronological Gazetteer’ (Hisarlik Press 1993 pp131-137).

Charles Henry Tanner was an agricultural labourer all his life (1901 census ref RG13/1394 f40 p15). He was buried at Bampton church on 10/11/1922.