Merryville was the name William Kimber gave to the house he built and lived in, at 42 St Anne's Road, Headington. It was awarded a blue plaque in 2011.
This website is an online archive of material relating to William Kimber, a morris dancer and concertina player from Headington Quarry. It was created as part of the 'Back to the Quarry' project by Folk Arts Oxford, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, bringing together material that is already available with material that has never been published before, and some that is completely new and was collected as part of the project.
You can browse through the collections of materials on the site, or search for a specific topic. If you're a teacher then have a look at our education pages to see some of the work we did using this material, and download lesson plan ideas for your own classroom.
To the right is a short video of Kimber's granddaughter, Julie Kimber-Nickelson - a folk dancer and singer living in Headington Quarry - explaining why music is important in her family.
Upload your own photos or videos, and tell us about your own memories of Kimber or Headington Quarry.
Back to the Quarry brings together several important collections, in some cases making them available for the first time. As you browse through the collections you have the opportunity to comment on them and to add your own memories or thoughts. We're always looking for volunteers to help us transcribe the material - if you're interested please register with the site (link in the menu above); once your membership has been approved by an administrator you will have the option to submit a transcription for any of the items on the site - simply visit the item page and click on 'Suggest edits to this content'. The Chaundy Collection The Chaundy collection is a set of largely unpublished interviews with William Kimber and some colleagues, made on several occasions in 1956-1959 by Theo Chaundy, a mathematics don at Christ Church and a morris dancer with the Oxford University Morris Men. We are very grateful to his son Christopher, who was present at the recordings, for making them available to us. The Loveless Recordings Morris dancer and musician Kenneth Loveless talks about being a pupil of William Kimber, and morris dancing in general. We are grateful to Moulton Morris Men for making them available to us. The Full English The English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Full English is the world’s largest collection of digitised material on folk music and dance, and includes the collections of Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles and Clive Carey, all of whom collected relevant material. This section links to items in EFDSS' The Full English collection that relate to Headington and Kimber.
Linked from the menu on the right of this page you'll find a collection of resources which you can use to carry our a local history project in your school - or if you prefer you can just pick and choose a few activities to try! Click here to try a selection of Activities, or download the full Teacher's Pack here. If you want to get stuck in with some Morris tunes, we've scored out simple parts in C, Bb, and bass clef. You'll also find images, videos, and information about the workshops we carried out as part of the 'Back to the Quarry' project, which we used to form the basis of our Teacher's Pack. Our FREE downloadable Teacher's Pack is packed full of activities, information, and ideas - plus it's cross-referenced against the current National Curriculum guidelines to help you evidence the different aspects of the curriculum which are covered. It's a truly cross-curricular project, encompassing aspects of literacy, geography, history, music, PE, and more. We've suggested a project outline of five half day sessions (as a minimum) but it's designed to be flexible enough to fit in to your programme of teaching. Some activities are for the whole class, and for some you'd need to split your class in to small groups and assign an activity to each. If you'd like any more information, or have any questions, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. // . Children at Windmill Primary School creating a timeline of Kimber's life
The children from Wood Farm were really excited to discover that Kimber was born in a cottage only a couple of minutes walk from their school. They were also fascinated by the fact that he was a builder, and built houses for himself to live in as well as for others. Here is a map they created to show the important landmarks in the story of Bill Kimber. Click the rectangular icon at the top right to view full screen.
This website was created as part of the 'Back to the Quarry' project (BTTQ), by Folk Arts Oxford, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The aim of BTTQ was to explore the musical history of William Kimber and his family, and share the story with the local community in Headington Quarry, where Kimber's descendents still live today. The project was split in to two main sections; an education / outreach project with local schools, and the collation of new and existing heritage material in to this web resource. You can read the project blog by clicking here. BTTQ Education Project The education project took place at two primary schools in the Headington area, Wood Farm Primary School (situated a couple of minutes walk from the house which Kimber was born in) and Windmill Primary School (where Kimber used to teach morris dancing). Three local folk artists worked with a group of children from each school. As an introduction to the topic, the children all watched a clip from the 'Music in the Family' film, had a go at some morris dancing, learned part of a Morris dance tune, and sang a favourite song of Kimber's. They then split in to smaller groups, and each group was asked to decide on an area or topic that they found interesting, and would like to learn more about, with the aim of sharing what they had learned with the rest of their class. Approaching the workshops from a child-led perspective allowed us to get a good feel for what the children found interesting about the topic, and also helped us to develop a wide-ranging and varied Education Pack. The children approached the topic from different perspectives; some wanted to learn more about the music, some researched Morris dance styles and composed their own dances, some researched Kimber's life, and some created a map of the area with relevant landmarks on it. To read more, visit the Education Resources page. Website Archive The other aspect of the BTTQ project was the creation of this web archive, the aim of which is to bring together a variety of information and heritage items relating to William Kimber and Headington Quarry, in a central, easily accessible place. We have been fortunate to have received permission to use a previously unpublished set of recordings of interviews given by Kimber to Theo Chaundy in 1956, as well as a recording of Kenneth Loveless (Kimber's pupil) talking about his memories. Julie Kimber-Nickelson (Kimber's granddaughter) has also contributed some of her memories to the archive. We are extremely grateful for the support of the Kimber family throughout the project, as without them it would not have been possible. Now the website archive is online, it is also possible for members of the public to submit memories, photos, videos, etc. We'd like to thank everyone who has done so, and hope to build our own Back to the Quarry collection to display this all on the site. If you'd like to get in touch about any aspect of this project please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. // . Acknowledgements Folk Arts Oxford would like to thank Mike Heaney for his invaluable help and support with the project. We would also like to thank Julie Kimber-Nickelson and her family, as without their support the project could not have happened. The BTTQ Education Project was run by Cat Kelly, John Spiers, and Paul Sartin, with thanks to Dave Townsend and Jack Worth from Headington Quarry Morris Dancers. The BTTQ Teacher's Pack was developed by Cat Kelly and Gavin Davenport. Audio editing for the website materials was done by Mike Heaney and Pete Ord. FAO would also like to thank our web designer Richard Butterworth, and the English Folk Dance and Song Society for allowing us to tie in with their Full English collection. 'Music in the Family' was made by Aidan Hansell and is used on the site with his kind permission. Please click here for the full version of the film.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.