Bertie Clark. Fiddle rear Harry Hampton (fool) Peter Alum, George Hunt, Bobby Wells cake
Bertie (1877.-1958) was another Bampton Morris fiddler, but unlike Wells
was not born into the tradition. He was brought up in London, where he worked at a railway depot
in Camden Town. He had some violin lessons, and played in the railway staff orchestra. Sometime
before the Great War he moved to Carterton, the village next to Bampton. When in 1926 Jinky Wells
had a falling-out with his Morris side, and went off to form his own, Bertie Clark was invited to be
fiddler for the original Bampton Morris; he initially learned the tunes from Cecil Sharp’s published
manuscripts (presumably relations with Wells were such that he wasn’t going to teach them to
Bertie himself!) Recordings of his playing made in 1958 appear on Rig-a-jig jig; dance music of the
south of England from Topic Records’ "Voice of the People" collection. A listen to his playing is very
instructive. At the time he would have been 81 years old, was quite likely well out of practice and
possibly arthritic.