Brenda Wootton was a Cornish singer and poet who was seen as a global ambassador for Cornish musical tradition.
A Newlyn maid, Brenda Wootton was known as 'Cornwall's First Lady of Song' to her fans from Canada to Australia. In the 1950s and 1960s she was involved in several local amateur dramatic groups, including the Playgoers Theatre, Penzance (later the public reference library) until its move in 1965, when members were involved in the creation of the Acorn Theatre. Following her engagement as a singer at the Count House Folk Music Club at Botallack, St Just, in the mid-1960s, she founded the Pipers Folk Club at St Buryan Village Hall.
She produced around 30 LP music albums and performed a varied repertoire of songs, always including at least one song in the Cornish language, due to her collaboration with Cornish Bard, songwriter and linguist, Richard Gendall. Her music and influence spread to Cornish communities around the world. Throughout the 1980s she had her own weekly request programme, 'Sunday Best', on BBC Radio Cornwall.
by Sue Ellery-Hill
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