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Jimmy Rutland was born
in 1884 at Frans Green, a small village between Norwich and East Dereham.
Both he and his father were farm workers and Jimmy’s family moved around a
fair bit, living in various villages (Weston Longville, Erpingham, Hockering,
Walsingham, Lenwade), before moving to Well-Next-the-Sea in North Norfolk,
where they lived in The Glebe and then in a farm cottage in Branthill were
Jimmy worked as a cowman for Flints and as a team man with horses.
His dulcimer came from his grandfather. Jimmy played in pubs and went around
on his bike with his dulcimer held on his back with straps. In Wells he
played particularly in the Ship (closed 1969) and the Eight Ringers (closed
1970). He also played bass drum in the Wells Band.
Peter Clifton and Anne-Marie Hulme visited north Norfolk in the mid 1970s to
research traditional music, step dancing and social dance, and noted that
quoits matches were popular between village teams, with music following the
matches. Referring to the village of Hindringham, they commented that 'it
was customary for dancing to follow the matches and this drew local
musicians from further afield.
Mr Herbert Remmington accompanied the Briston team, bringing his
one-string fiddle or dulcimer; another dulcimer player - Mr Rutland -
accompanied the Wells team.’
 Jimmy
married Daisy Arthurton in 1908. Between 1938 until 1940
Jimmy and Daisy became
the landlord and landlady of the Swan in Guist (which closed in
1983). They had 13 children. Kathy (b 1910), Mollie (b 1915) and Alice
(b 1920) all learned to play the dulcimer and Kathy was said to be the best
player although it was
Mollie (Whitaker) who continued to play and became the owner of the
dulcimer. Jimmy Rutland died in 1951, aged 67.
The Swan, Guist
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Jimmy Rutland's dulcimer which
inherited from his father and handed down to
Mollie Whitaker |
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