Each year, on Christmas Eve, the small American town of Glen Rock in Pennsylvania echoes to the sound of carols. These are not the sweet or mushy recordings heard in shopping malls all over America at this time of year: they are the gutsy, flint-hard songs which many call the ‘Sheffield Carols’ and provide a fascinating link to the past in England.

The Glen Rock Carolers (the Americans spell it with one ‘l’) begin at precisely midnight in the town square and follow a figure of eight route, up and down hill from house to house, and will have covered about seven miles by the time they finish around 6:30 am on Christmas morning.

They wear grey top hats and Dickens-style capes and scarves. These are not only decorative but practical: Pennsylvania nights can be very cold, and this carolling tradition continues whatever the weather – as it has done since 1848. Regular stops include the houses of current and former members, and some places where carolling parties are held, and they stop and sing a request at every one.

Glen Rock grew up as America expanded in the 1830s and 1840s. An English immigrant (and a Lancastrian no less), William Heathcote from Micklehurst near Ashton-under-Lyne, set up a woollen mill. It soon needed extra workers and he did what many successful businessmen must have done: invited his relatives over to join him! Those who came over were the founders of this local tradition. Anxious to have a more cheerful start to the festive season than that provided by their dour Pennsylvania Dutch neighbours, and taking a bassoon along to accompany themselves, Mark, James and Charles Heathcote, Mark Radcliffe and George Shaw visited local farms and houses to sing the carols they knew. They sang ‘Christians Awake’, ‘While Shepherds Watched’ (which they called ‘The Incarnation of Christ’),

‘Hark! Hark!’ and ‘Hosanna in the Highest’. The latter did not appear in the usual carol books of the time and thus is comparatively rare. Others have been added to the repertoire over the years, including ‘Raise Christians Raise’ following a visit to Sheffield in 2002. The accompanying instruments have changed too. The annual tour around the town finishes at the Christmas tree, in the square, with the ‘Doxology’ – familiar to many Non-Conformists. The weary singers then return to their homes for the traditional Christmas Day which, in their case, tends to begin at noon after a very deep sleep!

The number of participants is limited to fifty. People begin as ‘associate members’ at around fourteen years of age and can progress to full membership once a vacancy occurs. This isn’t easy, as longevity is a feature of the group! You also have to come from Glen Rock originally.

The carols are sung in three parts: top tenor, tenor and bass, and the sound is instantly recognisable as that currently found in England, especially in the Sheffield and Derbyshire areas. There are fourteen carols in the current repertoire and rehearsals begin on the first Sunday in November.

The Glen Rock group does not normally travel to sing outside the town and they even turned down an invitation to sing for the President of the USA at the White House one Christmas! You can see how honoured Sheffield – and particularly Grenoside – was in 2002.

Find out more at www.glenrockcarolers.org

If you want more information on the Sheffield Carols tradition then go to www.localcarols.org.uk and follow the links.