Cecil Sharp noted tunes from Charles Baldwin, known as “Charlie”, in 1910 when he was in Newent workhouse. However, Sharp got the name wrong, so Charles is called “George” in Sharp’s manuscripts.
Charles Baldwin was born in 1827 at Gorsley Common on the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire border. This was a wild and untamed place; the vicar who took the details of his birth took nearly 2 years to pass them to the vicar of Newent! Gorsley was a known stopping place for travellers, notably the Locke family from whom Sharp collected many fine tunes. One of these may have the “Fiddler Lock”, also from Gorsley, with whom Charles was known to have played. He was at one time a charcoal burner in Newent woods and played for Cliffords Mesne morris. He died at Newent Almshouses in 1910.

In the linked abc file this is tune number X:2

Morris Call was played to call morris men together. The call proper is the first 12 bars. The succeeding dance lilt was “just to excite ’em”.

Notes by Charles Menteith and Paul Burgess