As I write, it’s early on a Saturday morning and I’m in a Carlisle hotel room. I am up here visiting family, and spent yesterday evening writing lectures on gender, social conflict and witchcraft, but what was more interesting was the statue I found when we went for a walk round the city centre. Frankly, I was gobsmacked.

It’s not that I had heard of Dyer before. I hadn’t. I have never seen a statue of a balladeer.

Dyer was an itinerant ballad singer and fiddler, who plied his trade around northern Cumbria in the late nineteenth century. I’m not going to rehearse his life story here, not least because I didn’t know it before yesterday, but also because if you do want to know more, you can do what I did and read the article about Dyer written by my friend Chris Donaldson, or have a look at Sue Allen’s PhD thesis.

Finding a statue of a ballad singer in a shopping centre was something of a surprise, and I am amazed (and very pleased) to see a balladeer being recognised in this way. It has also left me wondering whether there are any other statues of travelling musicians anywhere, so if you know of any, please do get in touch.