Explore the discoveries from the research project 'Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Musical Collections of England’s County Record Offices', led by the Department of Music at Royal Holloway. 

The BBC Radio 3 series The Song Detectorists returns on 20 October 2025 (every weekday at 21.45pm until 24 October 2025). 

The series is based on discoveries from the research project Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Musical Collections of England’s County Record Offices, led by the Department of Music at Royal Holloway. 

The programmes visit Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Shropshire and Wiltshire, with music from the archives re-imagined for the 21st century by Nancy Kerr and the Melrose Quartet. In Shropshire the research team uncovers music from the manuscript Shropshire Harmony which is then ‘rewilded’ through community singing workshops at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

On 24 October 2025, the programme will cover the project’s recent discovery of an autograph of Henry Purcell’s keyboard music in Norfolk, including Professor Stephen Rose’s recording of the early version of Purcell’s Allemand in G minor.

Tune in

To listen live to The Song Detectorists, part of BBC Radio 3's The Essay series, visit BBC Sounds now: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002br0p

"Almost unheard of"

Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and Norfolk through a research collaboration between Royal Holloway and Newcastle University. To find out more about this discovery, please visit this previous news item: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-education/departments-and-schools/music/news/almost-unheard-of-royal-holloway-researchers-find-more-music-by-english-composer-henry-purcell/