All those Families that came from the far ends of the Country as well as those already in the North Riding who spent there lives in and around the ironstone mines.
Sounds Like
An ironstone miner telling yarns and singing songs of the 1850 to 1900 period.
TOM LENNARD'S TALE (To book for performancess of 'IRON RUSH' please contact my carer through www.tonymorrispoet.com)
I was born in Middlesborough in 1869. This was because, with an elder baby sister to look after, my Mother went home to her mother to have me. We then moved back to my Dad in Guisborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire to live.
My Father had been born at Sleights near Whitby in 1849 where he had been apprenticed as a shoemaker but on getting married he needed more money so went labouring and then ironstone mining. I eventually followed the same path into labouring and then into the ironstone mines.
I was a bright lad and didn’t go down out to work at 12 years old as was expected but was sent to live with my Uncle William at a little farming village called Roxby. He was the Village Schoolmaster and as sometimes happened to youngsters of my age I was expect to help the little’uns with their learning and get a bit extra myself in the hope of bettering myself. There were 39 pupils in the School at this time in 1881. The main farming family was called Welford.
However, my Family were short of money with more bairns being born and I had to get a job labouring and give up the idea of becoming a Schoolmaster like my Uncle William. Eventually I married and went down the ironstone mine.
Ironstone mining was the big thing in those days in the North Riding. It was like the Gold Rush in America, in fact some of the mines were called ‘California’ and ‘Klondike’. There were great tented cities of thousands of people camped all around the little medieval villages of the area right the way from Rosedale to Eston. In the early days ironstone went by sea from the port of Whitby to Newcastle and Teesside but when the railways came along everything went by rail. Still some of the miners were seamen in summer and miners in winter.
For a time, as a result of this local supply of ironstone to extract iron ore and make iron, Middlesborough became the iron and steel capital of the World.
I have been preserved to live in modern times (I’m with all this modern technology I may have lived a long time but you’ve got to keep up to survive) to tell the story of those early days of the Great North Yorkshire Iron Rush. It’s the story of ordinary folk in hard times who had to get by. Most of them took it in their stride, got on with and from time to time they had their fun (not without a bit of conflict with the law and the mine owners and the landed gentry).
I tell the stories with songs and sometimes a bit of bowed psaltery, which hadn’t been invented then but gives a bit of dramatic sound to the stories. The psaltery in the Bible is a different instrument all together.
I live in retirement in Whitby now so there some pictures of Whitby and the sea, as well as me.
This years festival is headlined by Billy Bragg (Friday), Seth Lakeman (Sunday) and Peatbog Faeries (Saturday) with many more top artists also performing incl the award winning The Demon Barbers.
Visit www.beverleyfestival.com for TICKETS and MORE INFO
Dear Tom, I felt I just had to tell you about my new CD Album of Music Played on Native American Style Flutes so here goes.
New Album 'SPRITES - WATER AND LAND' The Album comes in a brown CD mailer (I have gone for a home made, environmentally friendly look). This is what it tells you on the Mailer about the Album:
SPRITES
WATER AND LAND
8 Tracks – 66 minutes
Though each of the instruments used on this CD is a Native North American (American Indian) Style Flute, the music has no connection with Native American culture save that the themes are of the natural world which embraces all; embraces all creatures, races, creeds and cultures on this Planet, in this Universe among many universes.
Each of the tracks is an improvisation woven round an English pastoral theme. On the longer tracks the story is one of seduction where the sprite at the core of the theme erotically conjoins with the spirit of the pastoral visitor.
Good to hear from you. My wife's ancestors worked in the Yorkshire iron mines & she's going to be very pleased to hear your excellent songs - I'm sure she'll soon be in touch herself!
I've just put up a load of songs on my website www.tonymorrispoet.com as I plan to get as much of the stuff I've written and recorded 'out there', as they say. I'm afraid I've included some of your songs that I recorded but at the moment I think they are different from the one's here.
Hi Tom , thanks for finding me. I'd love to play in York again at The Black Swan. I'm playing tomorrow night at the City Screen Basement Bar in Coney Street. Hope to see you again soon XX
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men. That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
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