"The Collier’s Rant" is a traditional
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 many years ago (possibly around 1650), the writer is unknown. It is one of the oldest mining songs in existence. It was already popular, and had been for how long we do not know, when
Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English antiquary who was well known for his 1795 compilation of the Robin Hood legend. After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the ideals of the French Revo ...
published it in his Northumbrian Garland in 1793. It is still a very popular piece by choirs throughout the North East of England.
Lyrics
There have been mine disasters as long as coal has been mined, going back long before medieval times. Some of these have been caused by gasses (the first reference to an explosion in a North East mine appears to have been in 1621), some by rock falls, and some by plain carelessness.
From early times the miners had viewed the pit with suspicion, and it was part folk lore, part fright, and part plain superstition, that many of the disasters had been attributed to the de’il (the devil) or his henchmen who lived at the bottom of the shaft in every pit. This old north eastern song confirms the superstition.
The song appears in many publications including Joseph Cawhall’s “A beuk o’ Newcassel sangs” published in 1888:
Recordings
Thomas Allen Thomas Allen may refer to:
Clergy
*Thomas Allen (nonconformist) (1608–1673), Anglican/nonconformist priest in England and New England
*Thomas Allen (dean of Chester) (died 1732)
*Thomas Allen (scholar) (1681–1755), Anglican priest in England
* ...
fro
Songs of Northumbria– volume II (reference number MWMCDSP87). The song was arranged and conducted by David Haslam With the Northumbria Concert Orchestra & Chorus The CD was recorded in 1993, and included 28 songs in total.
Appletwig Songbook recorded a version of The Collier’s Rant on The Miner’s Welfare (2012).
Appletwig Songbook
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See also
*Geordie dialect words
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 constitute ...
References
External links
Collier's Conrad Bladey's Beuk O' Newcassel SangsGoogle books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier's Rant
Collier's Rant
Songs related to Newcastle upon Tyne
Collier's Rant
Collier's Rant
Songwriter unknown