"The Cliffs of Old Tynemouth" is a

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

written in the 19th century by David Ross Lietch. This song is a ballad, romanticising about one of the tourist sights of the Tyneside area.

Lyrics

This song appears in a small pamphlet or

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

being Number 2 of a series appearing to consist of only 3, forming a series of 'Shields' songs. They were published in the 1850s by the Shields Gazette editor, William Brockie. The songs reflect the towns of Cullercoats,

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, North East England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, hence its name. It is 8 mi (13 km) east-northeast of Newcastle upon T ...

, North Shields and

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

, small coastal towns on both sides of the Tyne. All are variously famous for fishwives, press gangs, ships, boats and sailors, and beautiful scenery. The song was written in 1843. "The Cliffs of Old Tynemouth" To the tune of the Irish Air “The Meeting of the Waters”: \relative c'' Tune: "The meeting of the waters".Melody taken from Tyneside Songs 1927 edition and reengraved in Lilypond.

Places mentioned in the song

is the town at the mouth of the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wate ...

*Rocks may refer to the “ Black Midden rocks" which over the years have claimed numerous ships attempting to sail into the Tyne. *Abbey refers to the Tynemouth Priory originally built by Oswald, King and saint of Northumbria in 637 A.D.

Comments on variations to the above version

*In the early 19th century, as today, there were cheap books and magazines. *Many of these “ Chapbooks” were on poor quality paper to a poor standard and with poor quality print. The works were copied with no thoughts of copyright, and the work required very little proof-reading, and what was done was not required to a high standard. Consequently, the dialect words of songs varied between editions. *This particular song shows several variations between the various published versions, some very minor, mainly in the spelling of the words, some are interpretation of the dialect, some down to simple mistakes, and sometimes there are variations within the same edition. Some of the most common are listed below : * Verse 1, Line 3 - ruin'd and ruined *Verse 1, Line 4 - alternatives are "Tis the joy of my fancy" or "Tis the star of my fancy" *Verse 3, Line 2 - alternatives are "o'er the bright sand" and "o'er the bright strand" *Verse 3, Line 3 - alternatives are "And sweet were the echoes, the dark Cliffs above” and "And sweet were the echoes of the dark Cliffs above," *Verse 3, Line 4 - alternatives are "But sweeter her voice" or "But oh!, sweeter her voice" (with or without an exclamation mark) * Verse 5, Line 1 - alternatives are "but naught can be seen" or "-- naught can be seen" *Verse 5, Line 1 - nought often spelt naught *Verse 5, Line 2 - alternatives are "Like the place where our first love" or "Like the shore where our first love" *Verse 5, Line 3 - alternates are "Oh! give me the rocks" or "Oh! give me the Cliffs"

Recordings

* MWM Records website. The version performed by soprano Sheila Armstrong is set to a different tune. The CD “The Day We Went To The Coast - Around Cullercoats Bay” (ref MWMCDSP35) which includes “The Cliffs of Old Tynemouth” together with 13 other titles - (http://www.mawson-wareham.com/player.php?play=mwmcdsp3506&tkid=664&aid=0&pid=101).

References

External links