Our 2024 Project - Sharing Our Songs and Stories
2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ella Mary Leather. She worked with the famous composer Ralph Vaughan Williams to collect Herefordshire songs, stories, and folklore a century ago. Our 2024 project celebrates their collaboration with displays, activities and musical events.
ELLA MARY LEATHER (1874–1928)
Ella collected local folklore and songs of Herefordshire. She was born in Bidney, near Dilwyn, to James Smith, a farmer and his wife. After attending Hereford High School for Girls, she married a solicitor, Francis Leather, in 1893 and they moved to the town of Weobley. By 1904, she had started to record local folk songs and had a network of people to help her. Because she was not musically trained, she found it difficult to write down the tunes she heard people sing. In 1906 Vaughan Williams helped her get a phonograph, a primitive recording machine. They visited Herefordshire together to meet and record people who remembered local songs and stories. By doing so, they saved Herefordshire traditions which would otherwise have been completely lost.
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)
Ralph was an English composer. His work was strongly influenced by English folksongs, which he studied and collected. He inspired many later 20th-century composers and gave English music a confidence and voice of its own.
Our Project Programme
- 17th December 2023: Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols at Leominster Priory, including three Herefordshire carols collected by EML and RVW.
- 30th March 2024: Launch of the 2024 season at Leominster Museum, with an exhibition on EML and RVW. Contributions from local community groups
- Summer Term 2024: Schools workshops take place in local schools
- 27th-31st May 2024: Launch of Ella Mary Leather Town Trail
- 10th June 2024: ‘An Exceptional Legacy: Ella Mary Leather, Ralph Vaughan Williams and the songs of old Herefordshire’. Talk by Nicholas Williams, Publishing Director of Stainer & Bell Ltd
- 13th June 2024: Celebrating Creation: A Schools Concert at Leominster Priory using music and dances collected by EML and RVW
- 14th June 2024: Creative Collaboration: A Concert at Leominster Priory celebrating the work of EML and RVW. Featuring the internationally acclaimed violinist Julia Bishop and others (more information)
- 5th July 2024: Herefordshire Folk NOW: with Leominster Morris, Fetch Theatre, About Face Theatre & the Mummer’s Boys celebrating Ella Mary Leather’s anniversary in song, dance and story.
- 28th September 2024 Grand Finale Event at Leominster Museum
Some of these events are free, others are ticketed. To buy tickets for the paid events, click here.
