It's our spooky Halloween special featuring a notorious coven of witches, but today's song is also about a hill that dominates the landscape, a brooding character in the daily lives of those who live beneath its shadow.
Peter grew up under Pendle Hill and it's been with him throughout his life, so this song has a strong personal connection. We talk about the Pendle witches and some of the more unnerving aspects of Pendle Hill itself; we also chat about learning to sing by jumping in at the deep end, the creative power of new instruments, and bringing local music to a new generation.
Music
All the music in this episode was recorded by Peter Madeley.
As far as we can tell, Old Pendle was written in the 1950s by Milton and Allen Lambert (words) and Ted Edwards (tune), but there is some speculation that it was based on a traditional tune which we discuss in the podcast. It's a song that has been adopted and curated by a local community over the past 70 years, and new verses have been created, some of which we feature in the show.
Acknowledgements
Peter and I are both big fans of Stones Barn, and they've been a part of both of our musical journeys in different ways. However we should point out that we're not affiliated with them and they don't pay us to say nice things about them in the podcast.