Back to Bits & Bobs
Back to Homepage
A mid-nineteenth century Tune book from, Pave Lane, a hamlet near
Newport in Shropshire, UK
In a private collection
Transcribed from a photocopy for the Village Music Project by
Peter Dunk, Taz Tarry, and Nick Barber, August 2025
Inscribed in the ms is "Mr. W.Titley, Pave Lane, Shropshire"
No date is given but the contents strongly suggest some time
between 1855-65
Go to ABC file of the transcription
John Kirkpatrick in an article for the Shropshire Star newspaper,
Published Dec 8, 2016, wrote this :-
"William Titley was a carpenter who lived in Pave Lane, near
Newport, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and
who played flute, piccolo, and fiddle. He was in great demand
for dances, and was frequently summoned to play for a clientele
in Shrewsbury who could afford to send a horse and cart to pick
him up. Like John Moore, he compiled a book of dance music in
his own hand, and from this we have an unnamed polka, now
renamed in the compiler's honour as William Titley's Polka,
[also] The Victorine Polka, and The Strolling Players."
The manuscript contains 248 musical items, the vast majority of
which are sets of quadrilles, and obviously copied from sheet
music. Many require relatively expert sight reading capability,
and many are band parts not holding the melody.
However, some of the tunes achieved widespread popularity, for
example "Moldavian Schottische. WmT.047". This tune was written by
the prolific quadrille composer Charles D'Albert and became known
variously as Beatrice Hill's 3-Handed Reel, Dennis Crowther's No3,
The Old Polka(Orkney)
Back to Bits & Bobs
Back to Homepage