The Music Of William Kimber

A Chance encounter?  Cecil Sharp meets William Kimber – The rest is history
In association with the English Folk Dance & Song Society we are proud to release this piece of historic content in the music of William Kimber.

Includes rare film footage and photos on enhanced CD.

William “Merry” Kimber (8 September 1872 ? 26 December 1961), was an English concertina player and Morris dancer who played a key role in the twentieth century revival of Morris Dancing, the traditional English folk dancing. A bricklayer by trade, he was famous both for his concertina playing and for his fine, upright dancing, such that in his day he was presented in the highest circles of society.

Born in Headington Quarry, Oxford, he had various jobs including bird-scarer and bricklayer. Kimber played the concertina for his local Morris Dancers, the Headington Quarry Morris Men, and were encountered by Cecil Sharp in 1899. Sharp, who was to be in the forefront of the revival of English folk music and dancing, noted down his first Morris tunes from Kimber’s playing.

Subsequently Kimber acted as Sharp’s informant on the Headington Quarry Morris tradition, and as his assistant at lectures ? Sharp would lecture on them while Kimber demonstrated the dances and played the concertina. Kimber’s fame grew, and he danced at the Royal Albert Hall, the Mansion House, and in front of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Chelsea Hospital.