In this episode of The Parson and the Songmen, Mike investigates the possibility of missing Cornish folk songs. Is there a religious connection and will he solve the case?...
February 19, 2025•Season 2•Episode 21

Recently, Mike went to visit Barbara Griggs for a chat about the place of the harp in Cornish music. What you are about to listen to is a fascinating podcast, brought to life by the engaging, informative, and witty explanations from Barbara...
February 05, 2025•Season 2•Episode 20

In this episode of The Parson and the Songmen we join The Reverend Sabine Baring Gould and Freddie Bussell for two songs they collected from Samuel Gilbert, landlord of the Falcon Inn at St Mawgan (or Lanherne in the Cornish language). The two...
January 22, 2025•Season 2•Episode 19•13:12

A Happy New Year To You All! Join Mike in this first podcast of 2025 for the 18th episode of the second series of The Parson and the Songmen. This time around Mr Bosworth looks into the tradition of wassailing, which can involve drinki...
January 08, 2025•12:52

Happy Christmas! In this episode we join Mike on a road trip around Cornwall to look into the surprising history of carols and their place in the church. If that wasn't enough Mike also delves into the mysterious world of 'the little folk' or p...
December 25, 2024•21:48

As we near the end of the centenary year of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould's death, Mike ponders why the folksong collectors who came after him did not pursue the idea that many of the songs and tunes of Devon and Cornwall had celtic roots? W...
December 11, 2024•Season 2•Episode 16•18:41

Sam Henry was a folk song collector in Northern Ireland who Mike discovered after researching a song from Cornwall for this latest podcast. Digging deeper, Mike wondered if Sam had read Sabine's 'Songs From The West' and taken inspiration?F...
November 28, 2024•Season 2•Episode 15•14:11

But, we ask ourselves - Who is Flora and where exactly does she come from? Could she be from Cornwall? Is she from Devon? And where exactly is West? Confused? Well you had better listen in to this latest edition of The Parson...
November 13, 2024•Season 2•Episode 14•12:57

In this episode we continue to explore the idea that the music of Cornwall and Devon came from a common source, and that the arrival of the Saxons did not mean that the link between the two areas, and their shared celtic connections, were sever...
October 23, 2024•Season 2•Episode 13•10:01

If you would like to find out more about the history of music and culture in Cornwall and Devon then this extended edition allows Mike O'Connor the opportunity to expand on the ideas that he put forward in the S2 11 podcast.***Please No...
October 09, 2024•24:45

Back in Series One in episodes 11 and 12 we explored Baring-Gould's idea that some of the songs and tunes from Devon and Cornwall were somehow different from those found to the east and whether the Celtic blood of the area had had an i...
October 09, 2024•Season 2•Episode 11•16:26

In this episode we link an old Cornish song with a legend that tells of how three of our local rivers might have come into being! Intrigued? Well find out more now in the latest podcast of The Parson and the Songmen...
September 25, 2024•Season 2•Episode 10•14:58

In musical circles in late Victorian times the question was often asked as to whether England had any traditional folk songs? The answer, thankfully, was "Yes!" But, it took Sabine Baring-Gould and other folk song collectors of that era to real...
September 11, 2024•Season 2•Episode 9•11:50

In the very early 1900s someone 'knocked on the door' of Lew Trenchard Manor to ask The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould for advice as to how to go about collecting folk songs. This gentleman was taken under the Parson's wing, and later would becom...
August 28, 2024•16:15

In this episode we explore the origins of two songs from Cornish songmen which have a common theme... drink! These were destined for Sabine's 'Songs Of The West', but were dropped by another well-known folk song collector who had been given edi...
August 14, 2024•Season 2•Episode 7•16:11

This episode brings you the story of Edmund Fry, who moved from Cornwall to Lydford in Devon, just six miles from Sabine Baring-Gould's home. Edmund provided Sabine with several songs that he may never have collected on his song collecting trip...
July 24, 2024•Season 2•Episode 6•16:32

Join us in this latest episode of The Parson And The Songmen as we explore Cornwall's mining heritage and how some of the songs collected by the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould could may well have made it into Cornwall with miners returning to The...
July 10, 2024•Season 2•Episode 5•14:58

We join Sabine and Freddie Bussell as they take a train trip to Fowey, situated on the South Cornish coast. But will their song-collecting excursion be profitable? Find out now in the fourth episode in the second series of The Parson And The So...
June 19, 2024•Season 2•Episode 4•16:15

In this episode we join Sabine on a further song collecting trip into Cornwall, this time to St Mawgan, situated a few miles south of Padstow on the North Coast of the County. Here he visited a pub with a reputation for hosting singers, The Fal...
June 05, 2024•Season 2•Episode 3•17:02

Welcome to the second episode of the second series of The Parson and the Songmen. In this series we follow the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould on further folk song collecting trips, not this time in Devon, but in neighbouring Cornwall. In this epi...
May 15, 2024•Season 2•Episode 2•11:34

Welcome to Series Two of the Parson and the Songmen where we will follow the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould into Cornwall on a new series of folksong collecting trips. This episode focuses on the age-old tradition of welcoming in the spring...
May 01, 2024•Season 2•Episode 1•19:08