A small independent label, apparently a one-off. Priory was an offshoot of a company called Hatchard, of Ludlow. It seems to have been responsible for just the one record, an EP of original Christmas songs with words written by various people and music by Roy Gubby. There's no date on either the labels, the picture sleeve or the insert, but the style of the matrix number and the other markings in the run-off indicates a Decca pressing. The raised 'Polo mint' around the spindle hole was pretty well omnipresent on Decca singles from August 1972 to December 1976 and made only a few appearances after that point; therefore I'm reasonably confident that the EP was from that period - confident enough to stick a flag in it and claim it for the '70s, anyway. As well as the three tracks shown in the scan the record offered 'A Christmas Pastoral', 'The Birth Of Our King' and 'Mary's Lullaby'; the writers included Marion Hammond, Maurice Hatchard, Florence Watkins and Alfreda Melhuish. Overall the songs evoke a Victorian Christmas, with acoustic instruments and a small choir. The EP was numbered PP-001; there doesn't appear to have been a PP-002.
Copyright 2017 Robert Lyons.