FTX-409 - KEELERS & COLLIERS

Tyneside & Clydeside Miners

A dialect documentary recorded in 1953 of mining life and conditions in Northumberland & Durham as well as in Lanarkshire, Scotland. First, Northumbrian miners tell of the mine conditions and of the river Tyne "keelmen", their craft, their pay, their dealings with the excisemen and how wanted men were hidden down below - about George Stephensen, how they tore up the rails and smashed the locomotives, the Royal Commission, slavery, emigration to America and about broadsheet ballads. From Clydeside, Annie Cosgrave sings about the local GRESFORD DISASTER and tells how she herself worked at the mine.

1. Talk - the keelmen and their craft - Lewis Burt, Heswall-on-Tyne - 1'38"

2. BOBBY SHAFTOE - Ernest Peachey (aged 11) - 0'24"

3. Further talk - keelmen - pay - feast day - holding up excisemen - hiding malefactors down the pit - "Go to Botany" kids rhyme - Beamish Colliery - George Stephenson - tearing up rails and smashing locomotives - Newbottle - Lord Byron - "Keel Row" song - Sandgate Ballads - Doomsday book - oldest working colliewry in the area - 7'41"

4. THE COLLIER'S RANT - Frank Walker with Bob Grey - 1'55"

5. Further talk - Durham miners - Royal Commission - John Butler - helping the widows - Explosion broadsheets - min3er's superstitions about seeing a woman or a pig - 4'13"

6. COLLIER'S RANT (As #4) - Last verse - 0'51"

7. Further talk - slavery - the yearly bond - emigration to America - Jeremiah Dixon and origin of "Dixie" - 1'45"

8. WOR NAN IS A MAZER - Albert Colwill, Hetton-le-Hole, Durham - 3'41"

9. GRESFORD DISASTER - News Report - 0'22"

10. Song - Annie Cosgrave of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, rec at Newtongrange, Midlothian - 2'33"

11. Annie tells how she learned song and about her father and family - 0'49"

12. SIX JOLLY WEE MINER LADS - Annie - 2'35"

13. Talk - how she learned song from her father - 0'40"

14. WHAT'S THE MINER DONE FOR YOU? (with talk) - 0'54"

15. JOHN SNEDDON - Mrs Cosgrave with Bob Holland (gtr) - 2'08"

16. Talk about previous song - 1'19"

17. THE COLLIER LAD RECRUITED - Mrs H Cosgrave - 3'12"

18. Talk about learning the previous song at Blantyre - her family and children - what she feels about mines & family working there - 1'46"

19. THE BLANTYRE DISASTER - Bob Holland (with gtr) - 3'00"

20. Talk about how she worked at the pithead at Dixon's, Blantyre for a farthing a day - how she was admired as a girl - 1'16"

21. SIX JOLLY WEE MINER LADS sung with gtr - 1'29"

Recorded by Alan Lomax & Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1978.