Odcombe carolling in its current form is believed to date from about 1860..
After an organ was installed in the Parish Church, the village band switched to the new Methodist Chapel, 100 yards away, taking their music with them.
It seems the carols were then adopted by the Methodists and over time a tradition arose whereby they could only be sung around the village on Christmas Night, and furthermore, that they 'must never leave the village'!
This memorable utterance was attributed to Alison's great grandfather Sydney Montacute (1873-1963), but music parts had in fact already been written down in 1924 by another relative, Benjamin Hiscott, and they were eventually published when the Odcombe singers were guests at the Sheffield Village Carol Festival in 2004.
By this time the village had grown somewhat and the carollers now go out over two nights. Up until about five years ago, they never went into The Mason's Arms due to the Methodist connection and would walk silently past!
There is currently no website, but we've put Bob and Jackie Patten's 2008 field recordings on Soundcloud and you can download the corresponding SATB parts as pdf files and sing-a-long!
There are four pages for each voice: Soprano 1 2 3 4 Alto 1 2 3 4 Tenor 1 2 3 4 Bass 1 2 3 4