The story of a song
Monk’s Gate is a hamlet on the A281 on the outskirts of Horsham, West Sussex heading toward Brighton. Officially it lies in the parish of Nuthurst. Most will pass its few houses at a bend in the road without a second thought, in fact, in the blink of an eye it is gone.
Every time I pass through, usually on my bike, it triggers an ‘earworm’.1
Listen to the tune Monk’s Gate here:2
120 years ago another cyclist passed this way, he was the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who frequently travelled from his home at Leith Hill House around Surrey and Sussex collecting folk tunes. There were two motivations for this: capturing the soon-to-be-lost musical heritage and as a source of inspiration for his compositions. When he subsequently used a tune it was his practice to name it after the place he heard it.
This particular tune was collected on 22 December 1904 when Vaughan Williams visited Harriett and Peter Verrall, who lived at Thrift Cottage. The 1901 census is not as helpful as it might be in identifying the specific property as there are several cottages with that name and together with a row of 6 numbered consecutively which can be identified today.
Harriett was born Harriett Richardson in 1855 in nearby Slaugham. Peter and Harriett were married in 1880 in the parish church at nearby Lower Beeding. They had three children, two daughters and a son. In 1901 Peter and Harriet were living in Monk’s Gate with her father Richard Richardson. Both Richard Richardson and Peter Verrall were agricultural labourers.
It seems Vaughan Williams visited the Verralls on more than one occasion as another well-known song, the Sussex Carol “On Christmas night all Christians sing”, came from the same source.
Both Harriett and Peter were known locally for their folk singing. A year later, in 1905 Harriett won a singing competition sponsored by the West Sussex Gazette. Harriett sang the tune to the words of a folk song, Our Captain Calls:
Our Captain calls all hands to sail tomorrow
Leaving my dear to mourn in grief and sorrow
Dry up those briny tears and leave off weeping
So happy may we live at our next meeting
Vaughan Williams adapted the tune to the words of John Bunyan’s song, that appeared in Pilgrim’s Progress originally published in 1678:
He who would valiant be ‘gainst all disaster
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent,
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim
1,2; 5,6 & 7 Thrift Cottages, Monk’s Gate
By the time of the 1911 census, Peter and Harriett had moved to North Street, Horsham and were living with their son. Harriett died in 1918 and Peter died in 1922. Both are buried in an unmarked grave at Hills Cemetery, Horsham.
And the Monks?
There probably were no monks. The place name derives its origins from Robert le Monek de Rugwyk (1344) i.e. Robert, the monk, of Rudgwick. There are several other place names in Sussex that include the element ‘monk’.
Postscript
Read more about Ralph Vaughan Williams and his interest in folk songs at the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
The Britsh Library has an extensive collection of Ralph Vaughan Williams manuscript collection.
- A recurring musical melody or song. A memorable piece of music continuously occupies a person’s mind even after it is no longer being played.
- Credit: Hymns Without Words, by Richard M S Irwin https://play.hymnswithoutwords.com/he-who-would-valiant-be-monks-gate/
© Copyright : Graham Ward. All rights reserved.