Listen to the track:
🎶 Wembury 1901 🎶
(Measured folk ballad with sparse harmony and slow, steady pacing based on the 1901 census data)
(Verse 1)
At Traine the hedges held their line
Where James Wilson rose at five past nine
No lords, no coachmen just the land
Worked by one and those he’d planned
(Verse 2)
An Employer still, though fields were lean
He knew each gate, each crooked green
No need for words or painted sign
His roots ran deep in Wembury time
(Chorus)
The sea still hummed where the cold winds meet
The bells rang soft above the street
With hands grown still and voices plain
Wembury walked its slow refrain
(Verse 3)
The Almshouses held ten heads or more
A dressmaker shared with a child of four
A laundress leaned on a neighbour’s bread
While old names warmed the narrow bed
(Verse 4)
Priscilla Trebble lit her fire
While others stitched for half the hire
The young ran notes, the old kept care
They bore their days with quiet air
(Bridge)
At the vicarage, the hours were set
The cloth, the clock, the alphabet
But no one ruled the parish knew
Its rhythm came from sky and dew
(Chorus)
The sea still hummed where the cold winds meet
The bells rang soft above the street
With hands grown still and voices plain
Wembury walked its slow refrain
(Outro)
The century turned, the flags were raised
But hedgerows bent the same old ways
And names like Wilson, Trebble, Jackman stayed
In quiet rooms the world had made