Henry Burstow
Henry Burstow was a shoemaker and bellringer from Horsham, Sussex, best known for his vast repertoire of songs, many of which were collected in the folksong revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was also the author of Reminiscences of Horsham, which gives a lively picture of life in a rural town in the midnineteenth century.
He was born in Horsham onDecember 1826, the son of William and Ellen Burstow, makers of clay tobacco pipes. He attended school into his teens, sometimes also working parttime for his mother or for a harness maker, until in 1840 he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. Soon afterwards, John Vaughan, his masters father and also the sexton and head bellringer at Horsham parish church, invited him to become one of the bellringers. This was to become a major part of his life, both as an occupation and for evenings spent with his fellow ringers, an occasion for singing, his other main interest. Learning of Horshams achievements in ringing changes in the late eighteenth century, he became dissatisfied with the current standards of bellringing in Horsham and took to walking to neighbouring villages to ring changes with more skilled groups, particularly in Warnham and Newdigate. By the time he retired from bellringing he would have rung changes in 55 belfries and taught ringing inof them. On
Source: Wikipedia