Locock, Walter

Singer

Collection date: Jan 1906

Area: Somerset - Yeovil & Crewkerne

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Walter Locock of Martock (1829-1917): age 76, 4 songs 22 Jan 1906: Walter only sang four songs to Sharp but one was good enough to be selected for Folk Songs from Somerset vol 3 later that year - ‘Whistle daughter whistle’ (FT814).

Walter was born c1829 (no baptismal record found), third child of James Locock, labourer and his wife Mary. His family had lived in Martock for at least 4 generations, going back to John Locock b1696. He was an agricultural labourer and a gardener all his life and married Jane Banfield on 1/3/1852 in Martock Church. Neither could sign their names. In the 1911 census they said they had had 14 children, of whom only 8 were surviving, which is a sad state of affairs. Jane Locock had been a glover since the age of 15, like her mother and older sister. She was listed as a glover in 1861 and 1871 also.

For five decades Walter and Jane lived in Water Street in the part of the town known as Hurst (1901 ref RG13/2299 f25 p8). At the report of their golden wedding, the Langport & Somerton Herald (9/3/1912) noted that as a young man Walter was called into the militia at the time of the Crimea War (1853-56) and was sent down to Plymouth. Walter was buried at Martock on 26/5/1917 and recorded as aged 89.