T.N. Warmington, Carbis Bay Musician (1874 – 1955)

Thomas Ninnis Warmington was born in 1874 at Polpeor, a tiny hamlet just to the south of Trencrom Hill, West Cornwall. He was the fourth of five children of a policeman, Edward Warmington and his wife Wilmot. Unfortunately his father died when Thomas was only eight and his mother then had to supported herself and her five children by keeping a small shop in that hamlet. This was adjacent to an equally small settlement, Ninnes Bridge and was surrounded by mines so her customers would have been mostly miners’ families. She is recorded as having to trek to St. Ives, four miles away, carrying goods to sell there and returning with salted pilchards (that was the heyday of pilchard fishing in St. Ives Bay) to sell in her shop, so life was undoubtedly hard.

Thomas became a farrier and when he married around 1900 he and his bride Ellen settled in Canon’s Town where he ran the blacksmith’s shop at the top of the hill. They lived in a cottage just below the chapel and Thomas, a self taught musician, played the organ and conducted the choir in that chapel.

In 1910 the family emigrated to Deer Lodge, Montana, U.S.A where he found work as a tool setter, and at the same time he worked on his Cornish Christmas Carols, introducing them to local choirs. His first book of twenty carols was published in 1912 and was followed by Part Two with another twenty carols. Many of these were traditional anonymous Cornish tunes, others by other local composers such as Taylor Williams of Ludgvan, and a few of his own composition. Among the latter were tunes to ‘Hail Sacred Day’, ‘Lo he comes an infant stranger’ and ‘Come and Worship’. He arranged all the carols for four voices (S.A.T.B.) although many of the originals were probably only for men and boy’s voices.

These carol books appear to have been published in England, having an English price, two shillings and six pence, but no printer’s name. Presumably he intended to move back home eventually and to use and sell them here, but there may also have been an American print version because he had musical contacts in other parts of America including Michigan. In fact they probably sold well in all parts of the Cornish diaspora.

Most were in the Key of F Major possibly because he could set them within a range that most amateur choirs were comfortable with, as well as not being too taxing for the accompanist.

The traditional form of Cornish carols is of a few bars sung in harmony, then a fugal section in which the parts come in successively one or two bars apart, with a final section back in harmony. Some had choruses and a few had a quartet section in the middle, but the main characteristic is the fugue which gives each part the chance to shine briefly – and to prove that they can come in on time!

War broke out in 1914 and the family returned to Cornwall settling in Carbis Bay, and he was employed on munitions work in Hayle by J and F. Pool, but also continued to work part time in his Canon’s Town smithy. When this work declined he took over the village grocery shop in Carbis Bay (still there on the corner of Trencrom Lane and the main road), in addition to running a bicycle repair business from a large shed on the main road. People then were very reliant on their bikes to get to work and he could fix anything from brake blocks to loose chains. ( I know because I watched him fix mine).

Despite all these jobs he still found time to compose, play chapel organs and to lead choirs, firstly at the small Chy-an-Gweal chapel at the St. Ives end of Carbis Bay and then at the main Methodist Church in the middle of the village. Additionally he set up a male quartet in which he was the tenor. They were popular entertainers at local concerts.

He was also the grandfather of Bryan Pearce the well-known artist. His daughter Mary (known as May) married her cousin Walter Pearce the St. Ives butcher whose shop was on the corner of High Street and Market Place, and Bryan was born in 1929.

His other daughter married Kenneth Olds who took over both of Thomas Warmington’s roles, running the shop and playing the organ. However Kenneth Olds was an Anglican so became organist and choirmaster of St. Anta Church, Carbis Bay.

Thomas Warmington died 12th January 1955 and is buried in Lelant cemetery with his wife Ellen, herself a fine singer.

He had a long and interesting life but his abiding passion and his legacy was the composition and arrangement of Cornish carols.