Booklet on William Wells 1868-1953 Morris Dancer, Fiddler & Fool by EFDSS
An outstanding figure in the revival of English folk music makes a contribution to this Journal. ‘Jinkey’ Wells of Bampton-in-the-Bush, Oxfordshire, died a few years ago after a prolonged illness had cut him off from his beloved Morris and deprived his village and his many friends of a gay and cultured personality. While he enjoyed moderate health and certainly long after he was blind he was the leader and fiddler of the Bampton Morris Men who capered and stepped in the lanes and gardens of the village throughout Whit-Monday. He himself knew the custom was ancient and part of an England that was fast disappearing. With the May Day garland carried from house to house by the children and the cake borne on the swordhe looked upon the six white dancing figures and the black-faced fool—a part which he himself had made memorable in his youth—as a living element in the historic mode of life of the English peasant. One of his greatest experiences was his first meeting with Cecil Sharp who was able to confirm his own views of the deep-rooted nature of this dance tradition. Sharp paid his tribute to Wells in his description of the Bampton Morris dancers in The Morris Book, Part III.