The Folk On The Green Collection
A collection of interviews with people connected with Stony Stratford’s Folk On The Green. This event takes place on Horsefair Green every year in June, and is one of MK’s greatest (and worst-kept) “best-kept secrets”.
You can watch some of the interviews on our YouTube channel here: The Folk On The Green Collection (LAMK 2024-5) – YouTube
Place
Stony Stratford
Reference number
FOG
Records in this Collection
Di was born in Bidford-On-Avon in 1944 and moved to Stony Stratford with her husband Eric in 1972. She went to Folk on the Green because she knew Rod Hall as a teacher of her sons at Whaddon Way School. She liked folk music and loved the event. Her favourite group was the ‘Cock and ...
Born: 1949, Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes
Bob Adams grew up in Stony Stratford and became central to the development and longevity of Folk on the Green, one of Milton Keynes’ most beloved community music festivals. His story traces the event’s grassroots origins, evolution, and enduring community spirit.
Beginnings and Early Folk Scene
In the early 1970s, before Milton ...
Rod was born in Harrow in 1946. By 1973 he was living on Horsefair Green in Stony Stratford. There were lots of local musicians and groups like Smoky Bacon, Leaf and Phillip The Toad.
The germ of the idea for Folk on the Green came from an outdoor performance by about 40 musicians in Nash. He ...
Ian Rowe recalls first encountering Folk on the Green (FOTG) in the mid-1980s, long before he became involved. He’d been drawn to Stony Stratford through playing folk sessions at the Vaults Bar, and like everyone else, wandered down to The Green one sunny June Sunday to see what the fuss was about. Having only ever ...
Monty Lynds, born in 1949, grew up in Stony Stratford and was surrounded by the crowd that would eventually create Folk on the Green (FOTG). He’d known many of the early organisers since childhood — people like Bob Shakeshaft, Dave Whetstone and Silk Martin — all part of a tight-knit group who’d grown up together, ...
Born and raised in Stony Stratford, Paul Martin grew up in the middle of a lively 1960s music scene. Before Folk on the Green (FOTG) existed, Stony already had “pop groups” everywhere, and by the time the new town of Milton Keynes was developing, the place was attracting musicians and arty types from all over. ...
Sue Malleson grew up in Stewkley after being born in St Albans, and her route into folk music began early: her aunt worked for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, her father was coaxed into drumming for folk bands, and holidays at Folk Camps exposed her to major figures like John Kirkpatrick. As a ...
Tish Hall-Wilkinson (born 1945) spent her early years in Liverpool, where she first became involved in folk music. She began singing in a popular church-run folk club, performing alongside Rod, who accompanied her before the two became a duo. When they later settled in the Stony Stratford area, they found the local folk scene fairly ...
Vicki Shakeshaft’s story is woven right through the fabric of Folk on the Green. Born in Hampshire in 1952, she came to North Buckinghamshire in the early 1970s to train as a teacher at Bletchley Park, where she was introduced to folk music for the first time. Like many others, she found herself drawn into ...
Catherine was born in 1958 in Harpenden. She lived in the leftmost three-storey house on the Green. She knew Rod Hall because she babysat for him. Her family were involved from the start: helping set up, providing toilets (with the sign ‘2p for 1 pee’) and light refreshments to organisers and performers, and taking round ...
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