On to the third volume of songs resulting from Darren Hayman’s Thankful Villages project. The sixth village in this new volume is High Toynton, Lincolnshire.

A set of coincidences.

I have been looking for local musicians to help me capture the villages. Dan Mayfield often plays violin with me but also belongs to a family that plays in Morris sides.

His mother Becky grew up in Horncastle near High Toynton. I arranged for them to visit St John the Baptist’s church together and do a rendition of Lincolnshire’s most famous folk song, ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’.

To gain access to the church we must collect the key from Alison Bell at her Yoga studio opposite. It turns out that Alison and Becky haven’t seen each other since they attended school together.

Alison brings a friend and a dog to watch the Mayfield family play folks songs in the church.

The smaller the audience, the bigger the heart.

‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’ was used to disguise codes and was broadcast by the numbers stations during the Cold War by the British intelligence service.

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Thankful Villages Vols. 1 & 2 are out now on Rivertones. You can buy physical copies here, or listen on Spotify. Thankful Villages Volume 3 is also now available here.