Episode 3. Charles Marson and The Seeds of Love

SYNOPSIS

The rediscovery of the papers of Charles Marson has prompted a reconsideration of his life as a Christian Socialist vicar. Before this, Marson was best known as the incumbent of the vicarage where Cecil Sharp heard gardener John England singing The Seeds of Love in 1903, a seminal moment in the folk-song revival. Yet Sharp and Marson were old friends from when they had lived in Australia. Plagued by asthma, Marson returned to England serving as curate of St Mary’s Somers Town not far from where the West London Mission and Mary Neal’s Espérance Club were operating. But his health broke and in 1895 he left this curacy to became vicar of St James-the-Less at Hambridge in rural Somerset. But Marson never lost the radicalism which had been forged as a volunteer with Samuel Barnett in Whitechapel and confirmed by his membership of the Guild of St Matthew and the Church Socialist League.

GUEST

David Sutcliffe’s interest in Charles Marson was piqued while managing the nursing home occupying the former vicarage at Hambridge, Somerset.  Some detective work led to Marson’s papers coming into his possession which led to the publication of his biography, The Keys of Heaven: The Life of Revd Charles Marson, Socialist Priest and folk song collector, published in 2010.

RESOURCES

David Sutcliffe’s one-stop website for all the singers, musicians and dancers who met the folk song and dance collector, Cecil Sharp can be accessed online. Google “Cecil Sharp’s People”.

David’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded at his home on 6 July 2019.