The Turtle Dove Pilgrimage

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A pilgrimage across Sussex tracing the origins of the iconic song The Turtle Dove.

4 Extra Debut. Singer Sam Lee and Will Parsons of the British Pilgrimage Trust trace the origins of an iconic folk song. From 2019.

Folk singer Sam Lee and William Parsons of the British Pilgrimage Trust, lead 11 pilgrims on a journey across Sussex tracing the origins of the iconic folk song ‘The Turtle Dove’.

Over a 100 years ago, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams travelled through Rusper, Sussex, collecting the stories and songs of the locals he encountered. He stopped at the Plough Inn, where he set up his Edwardian recording equipment to capture the songs of the pub’s landlord, whose crackled voice and haunting melodies can still be heard today.

Vaughan Williams transformed one of the humble folk songs, The Turtle Dove, into a choral hit – extracting the song from Sussex and exporting it to the concert halls of London.

This Pilgrimage seeks to return the song to the land from which it was taken.

Moving through woods, churchyards and village halls, the pilgrims sing as they progress toward the Knepp rewilding estate, where they hope to sing The Turtle Dove to the last remaining colony of turtle doves in Sussex. 
Along the way, the pilgrims muse on the meaning of pilgrimage in a secular age and the contemporary relevance of this ancient song.

Producer: Claire Crofton

A TBI production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in March 2019.

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