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<h1 class="no-margin">Commoners Choir in Calderdale</h1>
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<div class=""> <a class="context__item"
href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xrr2" tabindex="-1">Ramblings
on </a><a class="context__item"
href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006xrr2" tabindex="-1">BBC
Radio-4 <br>
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<div class="">First broadcast on Thursday 2nd February 2023</div>
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<div class="">Commoners Choir are a group of people based in Leeds
who sing and also love to walk. They formed around the idea of
starting a choir to go out into the countryside and sing songs
about the peoples' history connected with land, the world around
them and about inequality and injustice. They also compose
songs around these issues too. One of the places they have
converged for walks where they have sung is Kinder Scout in
Derbyshire, famous of course as being the place of the first
mass-trespass in the UK. The choir was founded by Boff Whalley
who is best known for the song Tubthumping with the band
Chumbawamba. </div>
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<p>Listen now on the BBC website. here is the link:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hnmg">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hnmg</a></p>
<p>From the BBC website: Cath Long, a fellow member,
wrote to Ramblings to ask Ramblings presenter Clare to
join them on a hike in the South Pennines near
Todmorden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. So, on a
chilly, wet and blustery Saturday in early January,
they met by the Shepherd’s Rest pub and headed into
the hills to ramble and sing. Boff created a choir
manifesto, and one aim was to 'rehearse until we're
brilliant' and they really are. Their Skelmanthorpe
Flag Song, which they performed at the historic Basin
Stone, was heard by fellow walkers at least two miles
down in the valley. On a circular hike, which began
and ended at the pub, they stopped off at Gaddings
Dam, often described as the highest beach in the UK,
where some choir members took the plunge and sang out
from the wind-blown waves of the reservoir.</p>
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