Your Stories In Song
During 2024 Milton Hide will be organising events, on behalf of Summer Trifle Group, across the Wealden area for people to share their stories, be they personal recollections, tales of local people, family history or legends associated with places. In true folk tradition, Milton Hide will be writing and performing songs inspired by the stories gathered and will be inviting audiences to participate. The aim is to encourage social engagement across the generations, especially for those feeling isolated and to help ensure your stories don’t disappear into the momentary ether of ‘social media’.
‘Your Stories In Song’ is funded by the National Lottery.
Roaming in the forest with my dog. Camping overnight without a tent. Walking until my dog is so tired I have to carry her but need to keep moving to keep sane. With the leaves on the trees whispering music to me. S – The Big Conversation, 7
I was a baby, I nearly died. My Dad lived away, my Mum was left to cope with us. My Mum had diabetes. She was happy though, she ate a lot of cake. My childhood was tough, I didn’t want much, I was a shy child, very quiet. Not
My grandmother came from a Scottish border town, aged 18, to work as a kitchen maid in St James Squre, London. I have always wondered why, what was her story? Anon The Golden hind, London, 2023
I’ve yet to hear a song about factory workers in a food factory – eg chicken. Lots of people used to work locally in the food factory for a localality [?]. Martin White Horsem Cromer, 2023
I’d love to hear a song about ornithologists / twitchers (there’s a big difference!). My dad was an avid ornithologist or ‘birder’ as he called them Malcolm The White Horse, Cromer 2023
William would like to tell you about playing hide and seek on the farm, looking for ancient artifacts. His favourite times are when exploring with groups of friends, taking walkie talkies whilst they explore age 10 Summer Trifle festival, 2023
Your Stories In Song events (more dates coming)
- 7 FEB FRONTIER BAR, EASTBOURNE – public event co-ordinated by Compass Community Arts. 7pm
- 15 FEB CROWBOROUGH U3A private event for U3A members – contact for details
- 13 MARCH – LIVESTREAM 8.30pm. Watch on Facebook or Youtube
- 15 JUNE PICKHAMS, Arlington 2.30pm. In the gardens. BYO: chair/drinks/nibbles. BOOK
- 18 JULY. Hailsham Library. 1pm
- 8 AUGUST. DUNN HALL, RUSHLAKE GREEN. Rushlake Green Little Arts Festival TICKETS
- 11 SEPT. GROVELANDS SCHOOL. HAILSHAM. 6pm. Hailsham Festival
- 7 OCTOBER. HAMPDEN PARK LIBRARY.
- 11 OCTOBER. BATTLE LIBRARY. 11am
- 25 NOVEMBER. THE GROVE, EASTBOURNE. An event for women in partnership with WayfinderWoman Trust. 6pm BOOK
Check back here for more dates as they are added.
Check out www.miltonhide.com for all Milton Hide performances
Book a Your Stories In Song event?
If you’d like an event somewhere in your community, get in touch by emailing info@miltonhide.com
Story Archive
If you can’t get to one of the events you can send your suggestions and stories using the form below to be added to the online archive.
We are adding more stories all of the time so check back for new entries.
Thanks go to everyone who has submitted a story. We hope you find inspiration here for your own creative project, be it songwriting, poetry, prose, visual art, dance or drama.
Please read our Ts & Cs HERE
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Not All In The Mind
We met Barbara at one of our Your Stories In Song events at Hampden Park Library. She told us this...
Mary Fildes
At Battle library we met a descendant of Mary Fildes who told us about her. Mary was president of...
Tom Hendrix’s Wall
Te-lah-nay's Wall - Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall We, Milton Hide (Jim and Jo) were lucky...
Paddling Along
We (Milton Hide) were pleased to work with the children of Grovelands School as part of Hailsham...
Boy from the Estate
A boy from the council estate got to the top of the corporate tree. My gosh it wasn't for me!...
Accident Annie
Accident Annie She spilt her drink down her skirt And found it was because she was a flirt Never...
Trug
The story of the Sussex Trug, started by Thomas Smith in Herstmonceux and still made in...
The Pack
Deep in the forests of history there lives a beast. From time to time it would meet with its wise...
Ron Moore
Ronald Joseph Moore – our Uncle Ron – who died aged 90 in 2020, was a carpenter by trade, spending...
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Share your story here
Milton Hide are singer-songwriters Jim Tipler and Jo Church.
Their songs are story based and they have been touring the UK with their Audience Book to gather new song inspirations. They are now working on “Your Stories In Song” with the Summer Trifle group, gathering stories in Wealden – a project funded by the National Lottery.
Local legends, characters, landscape features – any story you have to share and that might be immortalised as a story in song is welcome.
Once the songs are written, the duo intend to do a return tour. The hope is that artists, musicians and writers will also create new works based on the stories stored in the archive below.
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