t was On the 22nd August 1903 that Cecil Sharp noted down his first folk song, it was The Seeds of Love, sung by  John England in the village of Hambridge, Somerset.

During  the following couple of years Sharp was  often assisted by his friend Charles Marson, the local vicar,  and songs numbering approximately1,500 were collected throughout  Somerset , many of these  were eventually  published in 5 volumes of Somerset Folk Songs. Going further afield in England and in the United States of America , Sharp later collected something close to a another 3,000 songs. One does have to remember that Sharp was only one of several song collectors, but he helped to reveive The Folk Song Society and also to revive these songs in schools. He also collected and published morris dances, English sword dances and country dances. Indeed, in 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society. The fact that so many people, not just in Somerset but throughout the world, are still singing the songs and dancing the dances which he collected is an indication of just how important the first event turned out to be.