EVER wondered what a 150-year-old pop song sounded like or what might inspire a Victorian to write such a thing? Well, you can find the answer to both these questions and more besides when an award-winning modern folk and storytelling trio arrive for a special one-off show at the acclaimed Silver Street Sessions in Wiveliscombe next month.

The internationally renowned Lancastrian outfit Harp and a Monkey have promised the local audience a sneak preview of a collection of Victorian parlour, street, work and folk songs they have been reviving and reshaping for modern ears.

As well as the Victorian insights, they will also perform a wide variety of material from a critically acclaimed catalogue built up over the course of the past 12 years.

In fact, audience members can expect tales of cuckolded molecatchers, a lone English oak tree that grows at Gallipoli and the travails of medieval pilgrims.

The trio are fronted by Dr Martin Purdy, an author and historian who regularly appears on national radio and as an adviser to the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? franchise. He said: “We played a show in Wiveliscombe a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so much we decided it would be a great place to premier some of the new Victorian material.

“Wiveliscombe thrived in the Victorian period as a result of its major brewery, so it is apt that the Silver Street Sessions are held in a modern brewery. It’s going to be a fantastic night featuring plenty of different instruments, unusual song and story themes, poignancy and laughter.”

For those unfamiliar with Harp and a Monkey, they have been described as ‘bold and brilliant’ by the likes of The Observer, ‘fantastic and fascinating’ by Mark Radcliffe on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show, ‘excellent’ by The Guardian and ‘sensational’ by Clare Balding on BBC Radio 2.

Tickets for the show on Saturday, November 9, at Cotleigh Brewery in Ford Road can be purchased in advance from Wiveliscombe Post Office and cost £12 (£10 concessions). Doors open at 7.30pm.