Williams, Mrs Kathleen

Singer

Collection date: Sept 1921

Area: Gloucestershire

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Kathleen Williams at Drybrook, Glos: age 60? 16 songs over 3 visits 6th, 9th and 11th Sept 1921: Mrs Williams knew a number of traditional ballads like ‘Barbara Ellen’, ‘The Cuckoo’, ‘The Unquiet Grave’ etc. Interestingly she sang a version of ‘The Crabfish’ (FT4873), which Sharp had not heard since Mrs Emma Overd sang it to him in August 1904.

Sharp noted (FT4857) that ‘ Mrs Williams is a gipsy – about 60 or more – living in a van which stood on the edge of a hill covered with heather and gorse by the roadside, living with her married son and his three children Henry, Dolly and Rosie’. This first location was Wigpool Common, now a nature reserve in the Forest of Dean (Grid Ref: SO 6535 1946). No further details on her life at this time.