My first writings about folk music were in the early 1970s while I was at university in Manchester. I've not found them yet! My first article in a national folk music magazine was on the Lancashire singer, Harry Boardman, for Folk Review magazine in 1975 - see below. Since then I've written for English Dance & Song, Folk Music Journal, fRoots (and its predecessor Folk Roots), Folklore and The Guardian.
I'll gradually be adding some of these articles over the forthcoming months, so please return to this site.
'A Lancashire Mon - Harry Boardman in Interview with Derek Schofield' (Folk Review, 4:6, April 1975). Read here.
'"Christmas at Uttoxeter: The Guisers Made their Usual Tour'" (Folk Drama Studies Today: The International Traditional Drama Conference 2002 (Sheffield: Traditional Drama Research Group, 2013). Read here.
The Guardian. Over a number of years, I have been writing obituaries of folk musicians, singers, dancers and researchers for The Guardian. A link to the tributes going back to 2000 is available here: http://www.theguardian.com/profile/derek-schofield
Folk Music Journal. I have written two articles for this journal:
'"Revival of the Folk Dance: An Artistic Movement": The Background to the Founding of The English Folk Dance Society in 1911', Folk Music Journal, 5:2 (1986), 215-19.
'Sowing the Seeds: Cecil Sharp and Charles Marson in Somerset in 1903', Folk Music Journal, 8:4 (2004), 484-512.
These articles are available in the print editions, or through JSTOR.