ILKLEY’S Manor House was delighted to host a double bill of talented musicians who played to a capacity audience on the bank holiday weekend.

Ida Meidell Blylod and Mary Humphreys and Anahata performed a programme of Swedish fiddle music and English traditional music and song.

As a musician, Ida has many interests and besides the baroque violin also plays many different styles of folk music, combining Swedish and English folk with baroque and contemporary material for violin and voice.

Ida studied for a year on the Folk and Traditional music degree course at Newcastle University, where she specialised in English folk music. It was in Newcastle that Ida met Frank Lees, a prominent Northern folk singer who guested with her at The Manor House.

Mary Humphreys and Anahata are singers and musicians who specialise in English traditional music and song. Mary sings and plays English concertina and banjo, and Anahata plays melodeons, Anglo concertina and cello. They are now based in West Yorkshire, but from 2001-2017 they lived in Cambridgeshire and much of their material is based on Mary’s research into unpublished locally collected versions of traditional songs presented in simple but well-crafted musical arrangements.

The current concert season presented by The Friends at the Manor House has drawn to a close but there are other events in the pipeline. Keep an eye on both The Friends of the Manor House site and that of The Manor House Trust.

Coffee Mornings – 10.30am on the last Friday of the month are usually well attended when invited speakers deliver some fascinating talks. The next two: 25 May, ‘It was in The Gazette’ Mark Hunnebell and 29 June ‘The Cottinglley Fairies’ Heather Millard.