FTX-511 - A-MINING WE WILL GO

Songs of Coal, Iron, Steel & Tin

24 ballads of Miners & Metal-workers, both traditional and contemporary, recorded in the 1950's, including broadsides publicising the great mining disasters, like those of the BLANTYRE, GRESFORD and SILKSTONE Collieries. There are also the more light- hearted songs, such as COSHER BAILEY, THE BONNY MOORHEN & THE COLLIER'S RANT ("The Devil and the Pitman's Wife"). Memorable among the songsters in the mining community were Annie Cosgrave, of Newtongrange, Midlothian, and Jack Elliott of Birtley, Co Durham, backed up by his local Working Men's Club. Outstanding singer-songmaker, Graeme Miles, has contributed several compositions including his RING OF IRON, and David Dodds the title-song and I CAN HEW

1. A-MINING WE WILL GO - (a) John Casley, Morvah, St. Just, Cornwall 1956 (talk bef)(0'25") (b) Skinners Bottom Gleesingers, Redruth, Cornwall 1956 - 1'50"

2. BALLAD OF AN IRONMINER (comp GM) - Graeme Miles, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire 1975 (2v only) - 1'12"

3. THE BEST LITTLE DOORBOY - John Rowland, Treorchy, Rhondda 1953 (talk bef) - 2'26"

4. THE BLANTYRE EXPLOSION - Bob Holland (with gtr), Blantyre, Glasgow 1953 - 3'08"

5. THE CELEBRATED WORKING MAN - Jack Elliott (with gtr & ch), Birtley, Durham 1963 - 2'27"

6. THE COLLIER'S RANT - Frank Walker of Thornley, Durham & Lewis Burt of Heswall-on-Tyne 1953 - 2'03"

7. COME ALL YOU BOLD MINERS (comp DD) - David Dodds 1975 - 1'31"

8. COSHER BAILEY - Harry Price (with ch), Treorchy 1953 - 2'27"

9. DARK AS A DUNGEON - Elwyn Griffiths with Geoffrey Drake (gtr/ mandolin), Abertillery, Monmouth 1960 - 2'46"

10. THE GRESFORD DISASTER - Annie Cosgrave, Newtongrange, Midlothian 1953 - 2'43"

11. HEWIN' FOR THE ORE (comp GM) - Graeme Miles 1975 - 2'40"

12. I CAN HEW BOYS (Comp DD) - David Dodds, with Don & Sarah Morgan 1975 - 3'05"

13. JOHN SNEDDON - Jane Holland with her son, Robert (gtr), Blantyre 1953 - 1'56"

14. THE MINERS OF WEARDALE - "The Bonny Moorhen" Mark Anderson, Middleton-in-Teesdale, Durham 1951 - 5'43"

15. THE POOR PIT COLLIER BOY - Elwyn Griffiths (with gtr) 1960 - 0'38"

16. THE PUTTER'S SONG - Jack Elliott 1963 - 2'58"

17. THE RECRUITED COLLIER - Jane Holland, Blantyre, Glasgow 1953 - 2'30"

18. THE RING OF IRON (comp GM) - Graeme Miles (with banjo) 1975 - 2'38"

19. THE SILKSTONE TRAGEDY (1838) (comp RK) - Rowland Kellett, Leeds, W. Yorksh 1963 - 3'26"

20. SIX JOLLY WEE MINER LADS - Annie Cosgrave 1953 - 2'26"

21. SIX JOLLY MINERS - George Hoyland & Louis Wroe (conc), Grenoside, Sheffield, W. Yorks 1959 (talk before) - 1'17"

22. SOSPAN FACH (The Little Sauce-pan) - Miner's Chorus, Treorchy Working Men's Institute, Rhondda - 1'06"

23. WHAT THE MINER DOES FOR YOU - Annie Cosgrave 1953 - 0'40"

24. WHERE ARE WE GANG, SAYS BILLY TO BOB ? - Jack Elliott 1963 - 2'45"

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

#1 - OLD CORNWALL #2 Oct 1925 (frags coll by W Tregoning Hooper) - DUNSTAN 1932 p13 "Wheal Rodney" from Jim Thomas Camborne Cornwall - LLOYD CAYBM 1952/ 78 p316 (Note about "knockers" and "bucca" as "spirits of the mine") - GUNDRY CK 1966 p53 Kennedy: Skinner's Bottom 1956 - RICHARDS-STUBBS EFS 1979 p15 "The Soldier on the battlefield"

#4 - Dixon's pit, High Blantyre 1877 - LAWS Q-35 "High Blantyre Explosion" & p291 - LLOYD CAYBM 1952 - McCOLL SS 1953 p146 from Lloyd - MORTON FSU 1970 p9 John Maguire, Tonaydrumallard, Co Fermanagh - MORTON CDGD 1973 p69 Maguire - DALLAS SOT 1974 p204

#5 - POLWARTH 1969 p24 - DALLAS SOT 1974 p196

#6 - RITSON Northumbrian Garland 1793 #13 - BROADWOOD ECS 1893 pp10-11 Durham - STOKOE-REAY SBNE 1899 pp74-5 - SHARP BOBS 1902 #43 p92 - sung by massed choirs on the day the mines were nationalised in July 1946

#8 - SPIN mag 3/2 p7 - RUGBY SONGS 1967 "Did you ever see?" - McCOLL SS 1953 - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #309 Woods "Was you ever see?" Tune: Welsh "Mochyn Du" ("The Black Pig")

#9 - LOMAX FSNA 1960 "The Lure of the Mines" Merle Travis (3v)

#13 - LLOYD CAYBM 1952/1978 p99 "Johnny Sneddon" from John Doherty (song p200) - DALLAS SOT 1974 p207

#14 - Miners believed they had the rights to eating the local birds - fight between miners and landowners gamekeepers that took place in the streets of Stanhope & elsewhere in Weardale, Co Durham - SHIELDS SRT 1981 p54 Hugh Somers, Aughill, Co Derry 1969 ("My BMH has fathers again")

#17 - ANDERSON: "Ballads in Cumberland Dialect" 1808 - LLOYD CAYBM 1952/78 p 114 (w/o) - PINTO-RODWAY 1957 #79 p239 from Lloyd - SEDLEY 1967 p145 collated from Lloyd & Anderson

#21 - LLOYD CABM 1952 pp126-9 & pp347-8 Annie Cosgrave (with additional words from Charles McVey of Sanquhar, Dumfries & another version from Ballycastle, Co Antrim - ED&S 15:5 1951 - PURSLOW WS 1968 p107 - ED&S 31:3 1969 p97 Lloyd: Cosgrave - COPPER SSB 1973 pp286-7 - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #238 p524 & p538 Louis Rowe - PALMER EBECS 1979 pp231-2 I H Baxter, Ecclesfield, Yorksh 1973.

#24 - HUNTING THE WREN - BARROW (IoMan) 1820 - HERD AMS 1776 #83 2 p210-211 w/o - CHAMBERS 1826 - MASON NRCS 1877 p47 - MOORE FL 1891 - JFSS 5 1904 p75-9 - JFSS 7 1905 p177-80 - JWFSS 1911 I pt 3 p99-113 - JFSS 5:18 1914 pp75-79 - JFSS 20 1916 pp289-291 - JFSS 28 1924 p177 - HENRY SOP #744 - WILLIAMS FSUT 1923 pp184-5 #167 - FMJ 1:5 1969 pp346-7 - POLWARTH 1969 p4 from Jack Elliott - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #78 --- LOMAX 225 - McCOLL-SEEGER IS 1977 p266-7 - PALMER RVW 1983