Southwater Folk: how we came about, and how we survived lockdown

Last year, for Horsham District Year of Culture 2019, I organised a day workshop using folk songs sung by the Horsham folk singer Henry Burstow. We were very fortunate to have Alex Hodgkinson, the music director from Christ’s Hospital, to lead the event. He said that this was an education for him too, as folk was a new genre for him. Ten days later there was a concert in the church, and workshop members were joined by members of CH’s choir Schola Cantorum.

Those who came to the concert were very appreciative and said that it was a great event. At the end of the concert I invited those who had enjoyed it to join me, to see if we could carry on with this in some way or another. Several people came forward, and from this ‘Southwater Folk’ was formed. I am a bit of a novice, so an experienced member agreed to chair the meeting. I am responsible for housekeeping: doing the organising and looking after the venue. We chose a Monday evening to meet, so that we didn’t clash with other local folk gatherings. We celebrated our first birthday in March, just before lockdown started. During lockdown we have been meeting on Zoom, certainly not the same, but still a good opportunity to see each other and sing the odd song or two (those listening have to mute their mics, otherwise it can get very messy). People from Birmingham and Hove joined in, because as we know, the internet is not tied to physical locations.

It is very restricting that we can’t sing in public at the moment. However as we understand more about Corona Virus, maybe it will be allowed again. Safety comes first of course. At the beginning of lockdown I felt inspired to send out something every day to group members by email. People sent in recordings of songs they made (voice memo apps on phones are a simple tool to use for this) or they emailed links to YouTube videos they liked. I did this faithfully for 72 days, and it became part and parcel of our lives. Members really enjoyed getting these emails, and I enjoyed having the structure of something worthwhile to do. Some very good recordings were sent in. Hopefully they served to lift everyone’s spirits while the news was so bad, and life was so strange. So that is what ‘Southwater Folk’ has been doing during lockdown.. hopefully we’ll meet again before too long, in the Church Room (next to the Parish Church) on the second Monday evening of the month. You’ll be most welcome if you’d like to come along.