4 Thursday, January 29, 2009 www.whitehaven-news.co.uk Cleator
Mystery surrounding the
who kept the Flosh dance
H
AVE you ever danced the
Flosh Waltz, the Seascale
Schottische or the Hazleholme
Waltz? � Probably not, as these are
little know local compositions that
were written in the late 19th century
by a Professor of Music, a
Yorkshireman who once lived at
Cleator.
The composer J B Senior, is
someone about whom we know very
little either but the titles he gave to
his pieces of dance music and the
dedications applied to them are very
much of the life and times in which
he lived.
John Byrne Senior was born in
Batley and seemed to arrive in West
Cumberland in 1881, an unmarried
man of 29, lodging with the Milfull
family, who were shoe and
clogmakers at Leconfield Street,
Cleator Moor.
Where he had studied music we
don't know, but he must have moved
amongst the right circles aiming to
please the great and the good,
composing pieces dedicated to suc
notable persons as � Miss Lindow
Ehen Hall (the Omelia Waltz), to M
Brown of Hazleholme (the
Hazleholme Waltz), Mr J S
Ainsworth, JP, of Harecroft, Gosfo
(the Alberto Polka), Mrs Ainswort
(the Flosh Waltz), Mrs Calderwood
Beech House, Egremont (the Ethe
Waltz), to Mrs J G Dees of Floravi
Corkickle, Whitehaven (the Florav
Valse) and to Mr G H Harrison, of
Manx View, Seascale (the Seascale
Schottische).
The musical scores, all printed
Leipzig, Germany, were published
J T Hall who was a prominent dea
in musical instruments boasting
shop premises at Market Place,
Cleator Moor, at 61 King Street,
Whitehaven and at Market Square
Millom, from which he sold "a gre
variety of pianos, organs and
harmoniums by the best makers''
BY MARGARET CROSBY
A TIME TO DANCE: The Flosh Waltz music was dedicated to a Mrs Ainsworth by its composer J B Senior about whom very little
information is known THE FLORAVILLE VALSE: Dedicated to Mrs J G Dees of Floraville, Corkickle, Whiteh

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