A LIVE musical performance to help raise money for Radstock Museum will be taking place in early October.

Radstock Museum’s Bygone Days Talks team have invited Dave Byrne and the Hotwells Howlers to take guests back in time by using songs, instruments, words and images, to present a selection of songs and tunes that may have been heard in and around Radstock more than 100 years ago.

Information will also be provided to guests about some of the characters who sang and played the songs.

In the years before the Great War, when horses still pulled the plough and there were 79 working coal mines across the Somerset Coalfield, English traditional folk songs, tunes and dances could still be heard and seen in the local pubs, hostelries and homes.

The event will be taking place at the Somer Centre on Tuesday, October 7, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, with doors opening at 7pm. Tickets can be purchased on the door with no advanced booking required, with the funds raised going towards Radstock Museum.

The Radstock Museum was opened in 1999 in what had previously been the Victorian market hall, which had been in the centre of Radstock since 1898. Its exhibits explore how life was for the residents of Radstock in previous generations.

This performance is also linked to the museum’s autumn exhibition which covers the same theme of local music making. This exhibition, which started on Tuesday, July 1, and will run until Sunday, November 30.

The exhibition starts with church music from the 18th century, before then exploring folk songs, miners songs and playground songs from the 19th and 20th century.

There are also classic instruments on display, including a rare woodwind instrument called a Serpent and a violin made in Camerton by Henry Lye, whose violins were used in The Hallé orchestra.