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Charles Benfield was the main informant for the Bledington tunes, most of which were noted by Cecil Sharp at Benfield’s house at Bould (Oxon), a hamlet about a mile from Bledington (Glos). As well as Trunkles, George Butterworth collected William and Nancy and Ladies of Pleasure. For George Hathaway’s version see this link.
Trunkles was played for a morris dance in a number of places across the South Midlands. Both the B and C musics are danced by opposite couples in pairs. In the B music bars 5-8, they salute and return to place. In the C music, bars 9-14, they cross the set with a different step each of four times. In the third and fourth times longer steps are danced, with slower music, which Buttterworth did not note. The name of the tune is derived from Trincalo’s Reel, composed by Charles Dibden in 1769 for a production of The Tempest. (1)
The notation of the B music from Charles Benfield as noted by R Kenworthy Schofield makes it clear that, in groups of 2 notes, the first was played twice as long as the second. Similar tunes are often notated in 4/4, with the 1st note 3 times the length of the 2nd.
(1) Heaney, Michael (2023), The Ancient English Morris Dance, p 220, Oxford, Archaeopress.
Trunkles was played at Bledington for the morris dance of the same name.