Jack Collings singing Summercourt Fair (circa 1930):
(digitised from a cassette recording placed in the Federation of Old Cornwall Socieities Archive by Folk Song Recorder Archive Eileen Spry in 1999)
Piano accompaniement and arrangement by Keith Hampton: (Click to open and download pdf)
Notes: An article by Cornish Historian Charles Henderson in the Cornish Guardian (04/10/1928) seems to have inspired Newquay School Master, R.S.Best, to write a song for Summercourt Fair. Henderson describes the history of the fair, once known as the “Long Fair” because it ran over the traditional three days and dates it to at least the 12th Century. He made the comment that despite its antiquity Summercourt Fair was not honored with a song in the way that Widdicombe Fair was.[i] Best would have been familiar with the excitement the fair created for people living in the Clay Country and collaborated with established composer Keith Hampton to write lyrics and music.[ii] The song was subsequently recorded for DECCA records and the BBC by the famous Port Isaac Singer, Jack Collings.
In 1935 the Old Cornwall journal carried an article by M.H.N. Cuthbert Atchley on the Helston Fair song where he compares the lyrics with Widdicombe Fair and the Midsummer Fair to show the antiquity and difference of the Helston version. He also comments that a “Summercourt Fair” was a member of this family of songs. [iii Was there an older “Summercourt Fair” that inspired Best and Hamilton?
[i] Henderson and Best had no need of concern as Widdicombe Fair shares origins and lyrics with other songs across the South West peninsula including “Helston Fair” (see The Notebook of JM Noble 1878, Old Cornwall Society Journal 1934).
[ii] “Summercourt Fair” Cornish Guardian – Thursday 15 May 1930 and Thursday 06 October 1932
[iii M.H.N.Cuthbert Atchley, Old Cornwall 1935 Vol 2 No 10 pp1-3