Alex Helm

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Alex Helm (1920–1970) was an award-winning British folklorist, described as "one of the most important figures in the study of calendar custom and [folk] dance in post-war England".[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Helm was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1920, becoming interested in folk dancing whilst attending Burnley Grammar School. He trained to become a teacher at St John's Teacher-training College, York.[2]

During the Second World War he served in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps, reaching the rank of Major.

Career[edit]

After the war, Helm taught at Northumberland Heath Secondary School, Erith, before in 1949 moving to Danesford School at Congleton, Cheshire.[3]

Folklore Research[edit]

Helm began to take an interest in the history of dances and dramatic traditions of Lancashire and Cheshire, in part influenced by Margaret Dean-Smith, Librarian of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), with whom Helm had helped to sort and index the Society's papers. Within a year of his move to Cheshire he had published research on ‘The Cheshire Soul-caking Play’,[4] a type of folk play that had been little studied.

During this period Helm, now a member of the Manchester Morris Men troupe, also began to research Lancastrian Morris traditions.[5]

Helm joined the Folklore Society in 1954.[6] He soon made a study of the papers of T. F. Ordish, held in the collections of the Society.[7] Ordish, a 19th century folklorist who specialised on mummers' plays, had planned – but never completed – a monograph on British folk drama.[2]

Inspired by this work, Helm’s research expanded from folk dance and folk play into creating a geographical index of British seasonal customs, of which folk dance and folk play would form sections. For this project he worked with a group of researchers - E.C. Cawte,[8] Norman Peacock and Roger Marriott. The group co-authored 'A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain', which was published as two journal articles in 1960[9] and 1961[10] and English Ritual Drama: A Geographical Index in 1967.[11]

English Ritual Drama is now seen as a seminal work, being the "first systematic attempt to list every known occurrence of the folk play in Britain and to provide a source for each location".[6]

Recognition and influence[edit]

In 1968 Helm was awarded the Coote Lake Medal of the Folklore Society, for "outstanding research and scholarship" in the field of Folklore Studies. Whilst never a field collector, he was hailed for his "great ability to interest and stimulate others, and to guide them with his deep and growing knowledge",[12]

Helm died in 1970: his life and work being "cut short as he reached his peak".[12]

Helm had a considerable influence on later customs researchers in England, particularly through the geographic approach he advocated. His argument that folk dance and folk play should be studied as rituals or customs - as opposed to the literary approach adopted by earlier scholars like E. K. Chambers - became the adopted model (although one criticised by later researchers).[1][6]

Helm's research papers - including correspondence, manuscript notebooks and working papers for his research on seasonal customs[3] - are now held in the Special Collections of UCL.[13]

Selected publications[edit]

Helm, Alex (1950). "The Cheshire Soul-Caking Play". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 6 (2): 45–50. ISSN 0071-0563

Helm, Alex (1954). "The Rushcart and the North-Western Morris". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 7 (3): 172–179. ISSN 0071-0563

Helm, Alex (1955-09-01). "Report on the Ordish Papers". Folklore. 66 (3): 360–362. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1955.9717489 ISSN 0015-587X

Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Marriott, R. J.; Peacock, N. (1960). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Part One". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (1): ii–41. ISSN 0071-0563

Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N. (1961). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Addenda and Corrigenda". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (2): 93–95. ISSN 0071-0563

Helm, Alex (1965-06-01). "In Comes I, St George". Folklore. 76 (2): 118–136. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1965.9716997 ISSN 0015-587X

Cawte, E. C; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N (1967). English ritual drama: a geographical index,. London: Folk-lore Society. ISBN 978-0-903515-01-6 {{OCLC}124592}}

Helm, Alex (1981). The English mummers' play: With a foreword by N. Peacock and E.C. Cawte. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-067-5 OCLC 633313812

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Alex Helm". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b Dean-Smith, Margaret (1 March 1970). "Obituary Alex Helm 2nd March, 1920 – 22nd January, 1970". Folklore. 81 (1): 63–64. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1970.9716661. ISSN 0015-587X.
  3. ^ a b "Alex Helm Collection | Folk Play Research website". folkplay.info. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  4. ^ Helm, Alex (1950). "The Cheshire Soul-Caking Play". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 6 (2): 45–50. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521337.
  5. ^ Helm, Alex (1954). "The Rushcart and the North-Western Morris". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 7 (3): 172–179. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521452.
  6. ^ a b c Cass, Eddie (1 April 2011). "Alex Helm (1920–1970) and His Collection of Folk Performance Material". Folklore. 122 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2011.537126. ISSN 0015-587X.
  7. ^ Helm, Alex (1 September 1955). "Report on the Ordish Papers". Folklore. 66 (3): 360–362. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1955.9717489. ISSN 0015-587X.
  8. ^ Heaney, Michael (2 July 2020). "Christopher Cawte (1932–2019)". Folklore. 131 (3): 310–312. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2019.1699752. ISSN 0015-587X.
  9. ^ Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Marriott, R. J.; Peacock, N. (1960). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Part One". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (1): ii–41. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521603.
  10. ^ Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N. (1961). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Addenda and Corrigenda". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (2): 93–95. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521620.
  11. ^ Cawte, E. C; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N (1967). English ritual drama: a geographical index. London: Folk-lore Society. ISBN 978-0-903515-01-6. OCLC 124592.
  12. ^ a b Cawte, E. C. (1970). "Alex Helm 1920-1970". Folk Music Journal. 2 (1): 72–73. ISSN 0531-9684. JSTOR 4521870.
  13. ^ "Search Results". archives.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
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