Walter Pardon

Dixon relates that there were all sorts of family stories about music-making in the past: 'One was that the family formed the church band in the reign of William IV in the 1830s, before the Robinson family provided the first harmonium for the church.' Dixon notes that Pardon kept the big drum of the Knapton Drum and Fife band, formed in the late 19th century, in his shed.

In his youth, Pardon attended a Methodist Sunday School in Knapton.

Pardon was apprenticed to a carpenter at the age of 14, and worked in that trade all his life.

He spent four years in the army at Aldershot during the Second World War, still working as a carpenter.

After his service in the Army he returned to the cottage in Knapton, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Walter Pardon's second cousin on his mother's side, Roger Dixon, a history teacher, had as a child heard Walter singing when visiting his parents.

Pardon is said to have learned most of his songs from his uncle, Billy Gee (1863-1942), who lived with Walter and his family.

Billy Gee, in turn, had learned much of his repertoire from his father, Thomas Cook Gee.

Walter believed his grandfather had learned songs from broadsheets.

There were few opportunities for Walter to sing in his younger days.

Most people of his generation weren't much interested in old songs, and while his uncle had sung in pub sessions in a nearby town, these sessions were dying out in his neighbourhood by the time he was old enough to attend.

Walter William Pardon was born and brought up in the cottage in Knapton where his mother, Emily (Nee Gee), was born in 1874.

He was an only child from a family in which most men were farm workers.

According to Pardon's cousin Roger Dixon, singing and music played a big part in the life of the Gee family.

Several of the family played violin, accordion or flute.

Walter Pardon (4 March 1914 – 9 June 1996) was an English carpenter, folk singer and recording artist from Knapton, Norfolk, England.

He learned songs and tunes from older members of his family and remembered and performed them at a time when most people of his generation were uninterested in traditional music.

He was then able to pass his songs and tunes on to a new generation of folk music collectors and performers.

His family would exchange songs at Christmas gatherings in the cottage, but these stopped when his mother died in 1953.

In the late 1970s Dixon persuaded Pardon to record twenty of his songs on tape.

Dixon gave a copy of the tape to singer Peter Bellamy, who had been his pupil.

Bellamy passed the tape on to record producer Bill Leader.

Pardon was interviewed and recorded by folk enthusiasts, including Karl Dallas, before his first record was released.

In the early recording with Dallas, Pardon is clear that his family did not use the term 'folk songs', but referred to 'old songs'.

He states that when he first made recordings for Dixon he had no idea about folk revivals and suchlike.

He states that he did encounter some songs called 'folk' at school.

He also states that his uncle Billy would tell him the words to some songs and he would write them down.

Billy could not do this as he had lost the use of some of his fingers so Pardon had to do it.

In this interview, Pardon discusses a number of bawdy songs, including "Cock a Doodle Do" and what he calls "The Bush of Australia".

Walter Pardon's first LP, A Proper Sort was released in 1975, followed by Our Side of the Baulk in 1977.

He appeared at folk clubs and festivals and was invited by A L Lloyd to join a group of English singers attending the American Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.

Two more LPs were issued in 1982 and 1983.

Many folk song collectors interviewed and recorded him, including Bill Leader, Mike Yates, Rod Stradling, and Roy Palmer.

An article that Pardon wrote about the Knapton Drum and Fife Band after a talk with Mike Yates appeared in the booklet accompanying the posthumous release 'Put a Bit of Powder on it' and may also be read via the MUSTRAD online folk Imagazine.

It was originally published in Folk Roots magazine, No 28, October 1985.

"In 1989, when Walter had passed his seventy-fifth birthday, he decided that his voice was no longer as strong as it had been, and so he stopped singing in public."

Walter Pardon died in 1996, and was buried in Swafield churchyard.

In 1997 a memorial concert was held at Conway Hall, London to raise money for a headstone.

There are a number of field recordings of Walter Pardon singing songs and ballads, and playing, as well as interviews and other material available online at the British Library Sound Archive in the Reg Hall and Roy Palmer collections.

A lecture given by Pat Mackenzie and Jim Carroll in 2004 and filmed by Conor McMahon includes excerpts from their interviews with Pardon.