LONG lost sea shanties will be brought back to life at a three-day festival in Harwich next month.

The Harwich International Shanty Festival is now in its 12th year.

As well as attracting top groups from across Europe, this year’s festival features a series of new workshops called the Madison Collection.

In the 1930s, James Madison Carpenter gathered all the shanty songs he could find and stored them on wax cylinders and typewritten pages.

For years the songs were hidden away.

Now, with the work of the James Madison Carpenter Project, the songs have been brought back to life.

Bob Walser is from the USA and a well-known musician and dance leader.

Since 2002, he has been working on a project with Aberdeen University to restore these shanties and is now resurrecting them in a series of three workshops at the festival.

The first covers the collection of sea songs, shanties, manuscripts and sound recordings made mainly in the 1920 and 1930s.

The second demonstrates the new Madison Collection online service where songs can be downloaded from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and the third covers traditional oyster-dredging songs from the Firth of Forth.

For more information, visit harwichshantyfestival.co.uk.

Organisers are also looking for stewards to help out at the festival, which takes place from October 13-15. In return for some help over the weekend they will receive a wristband offering free access to most events.

For details, email info@harwichshantyfestival.co.uk.