Episode 54. O Little Town: A short history of hymns and their place names
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the choral composer Mark Browse about his book, O Little Town about hymn tunes and their place names.
Episode 47. The Suffragettes and Morris Dancing
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Kathryn Atherton about her 2024 book, Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing.
Episode 44. ‘This Blessed Plot’: Thaxted Revisited
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with film maker Marc Isaacs and screenwriter Adam Ganz about ‘This Blessed Plot’, their 2024 film which is set in the rural town of Thaxted, Essex and provides a modern take on its history..
Episode 35. The Copper Family
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Jill and John Copper and Jon Dudley about the Copper Family which holds an honoured place in the annals of the English folk song tradition.
Episode 33. Cecil Sharp
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Sutcliffe about his new biography of Cecil Sharp, the English musician, lecturer, and collector of folk song and dance, who was the driving force behind the Folk Revival of the Edwardian Period.
Episode 22. Revd Nick Flint: A Life in Sussex
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Sussex priest, Revd Nick Flint, about his Parish Ministry in Rusper, West Sussex, his tribute to Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Pilgrim, and his troubled predecessor, Edward Synnott Fitzgerald’s controversial Five Years’ Hell in a Country Parish.
Episode 19. Red Heaven and A Pilgrim’s Song: Plays about Conrad Noel and Percy Dearmer
Guest interviewer Sarah Tombling in conversation with Rachel Ellis about Hugo Ellis’s play about Percy Dearmer, A Pilgrim’s Song and Simon Machin about his play about Conrad Noel, Red Heaven, and his radio adaptation of A Pilgrim’s Song.
Episode 15. Alec Hunter
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Richard Hunter about the Hunter family, childhood memories of Thaxted and his grandfather Alec Hunter, Morris man, friend of Conrad Noel and Director of the St. Edmundsbury Weaving Works
Episode 14. Participation in the Second Wave Folk Revival
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the folk singer and curator of the Singing Landscape project, Yvette Staelens about her childhood in multi-cultural Gloucester, her career and her mother’s childhood memories of Thaxted.
Episode 13. West Gallery Music
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Jacqueline Patten about the Bob and Jacqueline Patten English Folk Music Collection, and West Gallery Music.
Episode 12. Morris Men: Dancing Englishness
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Matt Simons about his 2019 thesis on the subject of Morris Men and English identity, which features a pioneering academic consideration of Alec Hunter, the inaugural Squire of the Morris Ring, 1934-36.
Episode 5: Thaxted Church Life
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Peter and Sybil King about church life in Thaxted under the Red Vicars Conrad Noel and Jack Putterill.
Episode 4: Mary Neal and the Espérance Club
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Lucy Neal about her great great aunt, the social reformer and instigator of the Edwardian folk revival, Mary Neal.
Episode 3. Charles Marson and The Seeds of Love
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with David Sutcliffe about The Keys of Heaven, his biography of Charles Marson, the priest who helped start the Edwardian Folk Revival. through his friendship with Cecil Sharp.
Episode 2. Red Vicars of Thaxted: Conrad Noel and Jack Putterill
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with long-time Thaxted resident, Bruce Munro about Conrad Noel, the Red Vicar of Thaxted and Father Jack Putterill, Conrad’s son in law, and life in post-war Thaxted.
Episode 1. The Transformative Potential of the English Folk Revival
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Katie Palmer Heathman about her 2016 doctoral thesis which places the Christian Socialist priests, Conrad Noel and Charles Marson as progressives within the late 19c/early 20c folk revival.