Singer, dancer and sailor

Bev Hilton 

Singer, dancer and sailor 

As a career soldier with the British Army, I bet Bev Hilton never imagined that one day he would spend many hours of his retirement singing sea shanties and dancing with a Morris side.  

Coming from a services family, Bev joined the forces in 1964, doing his training at Catterick with the Royal Tank Regiment. During his military life, he travelled extensively, serving in Germany, Canada and Libya and finishing his career with a retired officer’s position at Lulworth, around the time of the first Iraq War. 

But both he and his wife Jo, a midwife at Poole Hospital at the time, felt the time had come for change - they took early retirement and set off, quite bravely some would say, on the trip of a lifetime in their 36’ yacht, sailing for some eight years around the globe. 

‘It was a big decision, but we’ve never regretted it,’ said Bev. ‘We met some amazing people and learned some great life skills. 

‘We basically followed the coast down to Gibraltar and on to the Canary Islands. We stayed there a year and decided to cross the Atlantic. We had a fantastic crossing, we had no trouble at all, we just kept heading west, the wind was lovely, we travelled along at a sensible rate and it was fine - yet we met people later who had travelled just after us and they’d had a dreadful journey - we were lucky! 

‘We did the whole of the Caribbean, all the islands like the Windward and Leeward, Trinidad, went to Venezuela for the hurricane season, then all the way up the American coast to Chesapeake.’ 

The couple have many happy memories of their sailing days, but one in particular sticks in Bev’s mind, when they were finally on their way home. 

‘We could see the lights on Scilly but by the time we got to the Lizard, there was thick fog. The only way we knew we were close to the UK was that we could smell new mown grass or hay - I hadn’t smelled that in all the time we’d been away. It was the most amazing thing and it’s something I will always remember.’ 

Bev and Jo’s sailing adventures ended when they came to South Zeal in 2000 to care for her elderly parents - it was almost like coming home for Bev too, as his mum had lived at Sampford Courtenay when he was a teenager and he actually met Jo in South Zeal’s Victory Hall. 

He joined the Tinner’s Morris side about 12 years ago and derives huge enjoyment from this most traditional of dancing styles. 

‘It takes up quite a bit of my time but I’ve loved every minute of it,’ said Bev, who explained how his other great hobby started. 

A fellow sailor had been asked to host the annual dinner of the local branch of the Cruising Association and instead of the normal, somewhat highbrow musical entertainment, he asked folk expert Bill Murray to come up with something different. Mariner’s Away, the singers of sea shanties, was born! 

Bev said: ‘We did this party for Mike and we all enjoyed it so much we said “Can we do it again?!” 

‘Shanty singing has really taken off since the Fishermens’ Friends became famous. When we first went down to Falmouth for the sea shanty festival there were about 20 groups - last year there were 67.’ 

South Zeal, at least 22 miles from the sea, might seem an odd base for a shanty group, but the village is actually on the ancient Mariner’s Way, an old route used by sailors travelling between the ports of Dartmouth and Bideford. 

Mariner’s Away practise every Thursday evening in the King’s Arms - there are about 14 singers in all, each one having a selection of songs in which they take the lead role, backed up by the enthusiastic chorus singing of the other members. 

As Bev said, once you have a good bunch of guys behind you, nerves at singing alone soon vanish. 

‘We just love doing it, we really do,’ he grinned. 

Jane Honey