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:3

The Wild Morris “Always played ’em off the green to this tune. They went off in the same order as they came on in the march only quicker and dancing instead of marching.” See also Ruardean Sword Dance.

Notes by Charles Menteith and Paul Burgess

Note  by Carol Davies – Sharp put The Wild Morris as performed by George Baldwin in his notes but the other tunes he collected on that date were from Charles Baldwin, – George Baldwin was a singer he had collected in Hampshire two years previously.