The Prince Albert Consort pub carollers

We headed up and across the valley to Rodborough at lunchtime to enjoy the atmosphere at the Prince Albert pub, where there would be the now traditional carol singing on the Sunday before Christmas. About twelve years ago a collection of interested locals researched and learned old pub carols, which apparently originated when people were having too much fun singing carols in church and were thrown out, so they went to the pub and sang them there.

I gather this form of celebration of Christmas songs is called Sheffield Carol singing, and Sheffield Carols have been described as one of the most remarkable instances of popular traditional singing in the British Isles. They predate modern carols by over a century and are sung with alternative words and verses to those we are hearing today. In Rodborough, this local group was then formed calling themselves the Prince Albert Consort pub carollers and they have been having fun ever since. The landlords make them most welcome and people come from all over the five valleys of Stroud to join in.

Woodpeckers managed to get one of the printed sheets with all the words of the twenty-four carols that form their repertoire, so we could follow and singalong. The order of the carols to be sung is mounted on a board on the far wall behind the singers, just like hymns in church. We also all chattered away, whilst sipping ale and cider, and even met a couple with their two young children, who only moved to a new home in Stroud last week. They must have finely tuned instincts as they found this important local event to enjoy. You can see them here in my picture from the back of the pub, as they stood beside Helena on the right, following the carols' words and eating the free mince pies that were produced for the singers!

In the printed song sheet, which is illustrated with cartoons and jokes, there is the following note:

What, you ask, is the singing style adopted for these carol jobbies?
– Extremely robust and uninhibited, mostly performed fortissimo, with a slow tempo. Witnesses to the tradition before the First World War noted the exuberance of the singers, not singing as part of a choir, but as individuals. The spirit is 'powerful, gutsy singing with or without forceful, striking accompaniment' is the simple message, avoiding at all costs the saccharine sweetness of commercilaised Christmas carols, or for that matter the inappropriateness of a 'cathedral-choir' treatment.

There will be an evening of similar singing of all the carols on Sunday 29th December 2013 at the same place, the Prince Albert. We may well be there again.