Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Does anyone know any good Lancashire folk songs that I can add to my repotoire? I'm struggling after Poverty Knock. Suggestions much appreciated

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Chippy Tea?:)

Thanks Cashy. I think that's a Lancashire Hotpots one isn't it. I've also remembered Accrington Pals by Mike Harding

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

The work of the weavers.

Is that a song title or do you mean Houghton Weavers?

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I'm sure its a song title by the Houghton Weavers "Gone are the days" album

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Off the top of my head: Old Pendle, Rawtenstall annual fair, Manchester Rambler, Droylsden Wakes, The poor cotton weaver, The Shurat weaver, A Mon like thee, Cob coaling Song, Four-Loom weaver, Bury new loom

Then there's all the stuff written by the Oldham Tinkers, Fivepenny Piece, Alan Bell of the Blackpool Taverners... plus the Spinners stuff if you consider Liverpool as Lancashire.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Liverpool used to be in Lancashire didn't it?

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

It's originally a Scottish song, later sung by Ewan MacColl. There are lots of weaving songs from the flax mills of Northern Ireland and the jute mills of Scotland.

Manchester Rambler is a great song. Was that Ewan McColl?

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Yep, one of my favourites, and he did write it.

I may be a wage slave on Monday but I am a free man on Sunday. Pure poetry. Although I think Hugh Davies is better ;-)

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Don't know that one but he did "Dirty Old Town" which was popularised by The Pogues.

He did

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Not sure who, heard it years ago n can't remember, it stuck wi me though.:) Have heard Tommy Franks do Accrington Pals,come to think of it.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Just for you Steve...

Ewan MacColl The Manchester Rambler - YouTube

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Thanks!
More of a Steeleye Span fan myself.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I suspect that Accrington Library will have a book on Lancashire Folk Songs edited by Mike Harding. Bernard Wrigley has a CD entitled God's County which features only Lancashire songs. There have been several books of Lancashire poems, mostly dialect, which have been turned into songs. There have been at least two books of Edwin Waugh's poems which have music by Robert Jackson amongst others.

I will PM you with how to receive my catalogue of secondhand Lancashire books. I need your email address.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

It was last Monday morning,
I heard them call and say,
The orders came this afternoon,
we’re bound to march away.
Chorus:
For the Lancashire lads have gone abroad,
whatever shall we do?
They’re leaving may a pretty fair maid to cry, what shall I do?
Said the mother to the daughter,
what makes you talk so strange.
That you want to marry a soldier lad, the whole wide world to range.
For soldiers they are ramblin’ boys, they have but little pay.
Can they maintain a wife and child on sixteen pence a day?
Chorus
Said the father to the daughter,
"I’ll have you close confined.
You’ll never marry a soldier lad, he’ll be no son of mine.
If you confine me seven long years and after set me free,
I’ll go and find my soldier lad when I gain my liberty.
Chorus
My true loved dressed in scarlet
and turned up with the blue
And every place the he goes in my sweetheart is true.
For they have sweethearts enough, me boys, and girls to please their minds,
But I’ll never forget sweat Manchester, the girls they left behind

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

My dear old dad used to sing a song on early Sunday morning outings round the Trough of Bowland etc which had the following words as part of it.
"You may speak of dear old Dixie,
Or your home in Tenessee,
But that spot isn't Ribble Valley,
It means all the world to me"
I would love to find out the name of the song and if any recordings are available.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

From readers' letters in the Clitheroe Advertiser:


REGARDING Mr Whalley's letter to the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times.
He is hoping to make a cassette of "A Cot in Ribble Valley" and sell copies for charity.
As I know the words, or most of them, I thought you might be interested in printing them:
Just a cot in Ribble Valley
Where the birds sing all the day
Where the Ribble and the Hodder
To the ocean wend their way
I don't sigh for dear old Dixie
Or the sights of Tennessee
Just a cot in Ribble Valley
Would mean all the world to me


Letters August 6th: wind turbines, Calderstones, Waddington and West Bradford Primary School, swine flu Communion ban, Ribblerouser, cash scam, Ribble Valley Homes, 'A Cot in the Ribble Valley', Beatherder - Letters to the Editor - Clitheroe Advertis

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

[QUOTE=susie123;1021727]From readers' letters in the Clitheroe Advertiser:


REGARDING Mr Whalley's letter to the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times.
He is hoping to make a cassette of "A Cot in Ribble Valley" and sell copies for charity.
As I know the words, or most of them, I thought you might be interested in printing them:
Just a cot in Ribble Valley
Where the birds sing all the day
Where the Ribble and the Hodder
To the ocean wend their way
I don't sigh for dear old Dixie
Or the sights of Tennessee
Just a cot in Ribble Valley
Would mean all the world to me

Multiple blessings Sue. You have sorted out the gaps in my memory or my d.o.d's paraphrasing to get this
:D:D:D

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Somewhere I have a copy of the sheet music for this song, which my aunt used to sing to me.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Cheers Clive. Took all of a minute on Google!!

I can just see you all bowling through Bowland with that ringing in your ears!

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

[QUOTE=susie123;1021732]Cheers Clive. Took all of a minute on Google!!

Easier when you know the right words:rolleyes:

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

In my haste to post the song I forgot to put the title of it, and when I went to 'Edit' my PC froze.

The title is 'Lancashire Lads' and you can change certain words to suit.

I used to sing this song at folk clubs back in the early 70s.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I've just come across this thread when searching for Rawtenstall Annual Fair . This is taking place this coming weekend. Folk songs and dialect poems will feature in the Sunday event in Whitaker Museum Park.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Brewers Droop's a gud'n

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Blackpool Belle a great song.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

There is a second verse of Just a Cot in Ribble valley. ..
I have heard folk sing of Tennessee and lands of Uncle Joe,
I have heard them boast of Dixie , where the cotton blossoms grow.
But give me a spot in Endland,the land where I was born,
Beside two tiny rivers and a field of English corn,

Just a cot in Ribble valley..etc

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I'm puzzled. I keep hearing 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' which is supposed to be an American folk song from the mid 18 hundreds( something to do with Texas fighting Mexico).
Is the one based on the other, if so which way round. Or is there another tune altogether?

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Hello !

This is a song my grandad used to sing but my dad can't remember the tune. Does anyone know how we could find out. We've tried googling and this forum comes up. I'd be interested to see the sheet music if possible....?

Thanks! :-)

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I have a copy of this song in my Lancashire sheet music collection, but cannot find it. From memory, it was written by a Clitheroe chap

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I have a copy of the sheet music . If you send me a private message Charlo108 with your address I will get a Photostat of it for you

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

It was written by Jim Ainsworth from Blackburn and is based on an actual cottage in Langho - Rose Cottage, which is sadly no longer there.

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Did you say you had a copy of the original, I would be interested to know the writers name. My Mother in law who is 92 has told me many times in the past that her Father wrote this before he went to London where he caught TB, she doesn't know if he sold the song. His name was Peter Malone. Thank you

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

I'm certain it was Jim Ainsworth, Try an email to [email protected]

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Hi Following your post A cot in the Ribble valley, could you tell me if the song was written by Peter Malone? My Mother in Law has always said her Father wrote this song just before he went to London, along with a few other songs. She said he had a song book of songs he wrote, she didn't know if he had sold the songs. Sadly he caught TB in London and came home to die, either in the 1920s or early 30s. She is 92 now but was only young when he died, I promised her I would try to find out more. I would be very grateful for a reply or an email with a copy of the sheet music [email protected]

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Hi,
I'm a native of the US and live in North Carolina. Today I stumbled across a print of the sheet music for Just a Cot in Ribble Valley while cleaning out old files. That print lists the author and copyright owner as Jim Ainsworth. The paper doesn't look very old, so it could be a reprint.

I decided to do a little casual research, and this forum was among the few listings that Google offered. There was also a listing for a sale of an original copy of the sheet music, which listed Jim Ainsworth as the author.

My wife's grandparents were Brits who came to the US before World War 1. I believe that Jim Ainsworth was a relative, but I don't know the exact connection. I could ask my wife if there was any interest.

I'm sorry that that doesn't agree with your family's understanding of the song's past, carolfranchesca. It's possible that there is other history, but this is all that I know.

Regards, Bruce

Re: Lancashire Folk Songs
 

Thanks for this, Bruce. I am in no doubt that Jim Ainsworth wrote the song.