Hallamshire Historic Buildings objects to the proposal to convert the Royal Hotel, Dungworth to residential use. This is almost certain to be permanent and will eliminate the traditional carol singing that gives it a very high level of historical significance not just locally but nationally and internationally. To comment on the planning application visit https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=SRZPBKNYLNF00 or email planningapps@sheffield.gov.uk quoting reference 25/00501/FUL.
The importance of traditional carolling
The tradition of carol singing in pubs using a repertoire that is distinct from that used in most Christmas celebrations has become very rare following the disruption of the two world wars and other social changes during the twentieth century. It is now largely confined to just two areas: one is the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire Pennines, the other Somerset and Cornwall in the southwest of England. Of the venues and sessions in the northerly cluster the overwhelming majority are in Northwest Sheffield. This makes the area, and the venues in which it is practised, a critical national repository for a tradition which was once practised nationwide and further afield: some participants come from North America where the tradition was exported through 18th and 19th century migration.
From around 1760 to 1820 a very rich tradition of church music grew as a reaction to earlier Puritan prohibitions, known as “West Gallery” after the space accommodating musicians within church buildings. From the 1820s the influence of the Oxford Movement revived the earlier disapproval of this informal, unregulated music-making in worship. The “quoirs”, formed of local musicians, were abruptly dispensed with, and pipe organs and organists took the place of the instruments and talents of the congregation. Official sanction became a requirement for all church music, and as a consequence the traditional music, having been wiped out in the churches, found a new, secular, home in public houses, separated from Christian worship and with participants not necessarily churchgoers at all.
This continuing tradition focused on sociability, conviviality and a lack of restraint that were natural to the environment of the public house and hard to replicate in other venues. In many villages in Northwest Sheffield the pub remains a hub for the community and carol singing remains at the heart of the local culture. There is an ongoing threat from pub closures, as well as from pubs being remodelled to open plan spaces with competing activities such as family restaurants and TV screens. Its survival depends upon those pubs that have maintained the activity over the long term continuing to provide the environment in which it thrives.
Historical significance of the Royal Hotel
The Royal Hotel, Dungworth is an attractive 19th century public house building in a village the area around which is rural and dominated by farmland. The area also has a substantial mining legacy owing to rich local deposits of fireclay. In its role as a public house it derives a very high level of historical significance from its long-term use as a venue for traditional music, in particular the rare, distinctive and nationally important Christmas carol singing tradition of Northwest Sheffield. It is this more than anything else that elevates it well above the usual significance of such buildings and consolidates its status as a Non-Designated Heritage Asset of unusual cultural value. Even though the proposal makes only limited changes to the fabric of the building, the loss of the public house function, which is almost certain to be permanent, would rob the site of much of this historical significance.
The Royal Hotel is of particular importance and long-standing as a singing venue. A traditional singer interviewed in the 1970s spoke of the carol singing there as already very popular at the time that he first joined the tradition around 1900, attracting visitors from surrounding villages, including Worrall – itself a noted venue for the carols. Journeys of many miles had to be made on foot, indicating a well-established and strong tradition that was guaranteed a good attendance and was therefore already many years old even 125 years ago.
More about local carols
Find out more at http://www.localcarols.org.uk/ and https://www.villagecarols.org.uk/. Hear a talk by Prof. Ian Russell at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeH270_alTM.