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Tommy Armstrong (singer-songwriter)

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Tommy Armstrong
A photo of Tommy Armstrong (1848-1920), poet and songwriter from Stanley, County Durham, in northeast England; known as "The Pitman Poet" and "The Bard of the Northern Coalfield".
This photo was used as the frontispiece in a book of his songs.[1]
Background information
Birth nameThomas Armstrong
Born(1848-08-15)15 August 1848
Wood Street, Shotley Bridge, County Durham, England
Died30 August 1920(1920-08-30) (aged 72)
Havelock Terrace, Tantobie, England
GenresMusic hall
Occupation(s)Songwriter, performer

Thomas Armstrong (1848–1920), known as Tommy Armstrong, was an English poet, singer-songwriter and entertainer dubbed "The Pitman Poet"[2]: 106  and "The Bard of the Northern Coalfield".[3] Writing largely in the Geordie and Pitmatic dialects, he was renowned for his ability to chronicle the lives of the mining communities in and around Stanley in north-east Durham and to commemorate mining disasters.[4][5]: 144–145 

Early life

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Tommy Armstrong was born in Wood Street, Shotley Bridge, County Durham, on 15 August 1848. Armstrong was of very short stature, and very bow legged (thought to be caused by rickets when young) and this caused him to have problems all his life, including using a walking stick when older. He started work in the mines at the age of nine as a trapper boy, and at the age of 12 had progressed to a "pony boy". He worked at various collieries in the area including Tanfield Lea colliery,[6] near Stanley, and also worked at the collieries at Addison,[7] East Tanfield,[8] and Tanfield Moor.[9]

Later life

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In 1869, on Christmas Day, Tommy Armstrong married Mary Ann Hunter, who was 16, at Gateshead Register Office. They had 14 children: eight died young. Mary died in 1898, and in 1901, Armstrong married Ann Thompson, a widow, at Tanfield Parish Church.[10]: 16, 18 

He lived for the most part in Tanfield Lea, though from 1902, for a few years, he moved to Whitley Bay to start and run a business as a newsagent. In 1906, he had an address in Ouston. In 1911, he was living with his widowed eldest child, Mary, and her children in Tanfield Lea; his second wife resided in Chester-le-Street with another daughter from his first marriage.[10]: 28–31 

He died in 1920, aged 72, in Tantobie.

Works

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Songs in domestic settings predominate in Armstrong's repertoire. He also wrote many concerning the life, work and struggles of miners in the pits, and several disaster ballads.[11] The sociologist Huw Beynon states that what makes Armstrong stand out from other coalfield songwriters is his "impish irreverence" and "imaginative devilishness", with "nothing cloying or sentimental" in his descriptions of mining life,[12] while the folklorist A. L. Lloyd, according to Beynon, thought Armstrong wrote "as a herald of the dawn, who welcomes the day with a cock crow".[citation needed] The folklorist Roy Palmer noted the playfulness, sympathy, and humour in his works.[13]

Folk-songs and the musical forms associated with music hall performances both influenced Armstrong's compositions, with the stage most strongly reflected in the lyrics, and the folk-song influence most clearly evident in the melodies he directed his songs be sung to: he rarely wrote his own tunes.[14]: 141 

Selected songs

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  • The Blanchland Murder[i]
  • Bobby En Bet
  • Th' Borth E Th' Lad
    [The Birth of the Lad]
  • The Cat Pie
  • The Consett Choir Calamity[ii]
  • Corry's Rat
  • Dorham Jail
    (or, Durham Gaol)
  • The Durham Lock-out[iii]
  • Funny Nuaims It Tanfeeld Pit
    [Funny Names at Tanfield Pit]
  • Gateshead Poor Children's Trip To Stanley
  • Geordie Broon
  • The Ghost Thit' Anted Bunty
    [The Ghost that Haunted Bunty]
  • The Hedgehog Pie
  • Jack Reckonen
    [Jack's Reckoning]
  • The Kaiser And The War
  • Kelloe Disaster
  • Marla Hill Ducks
    (or, Marley Hill Ducks)
  • Murder of Mary Donnelly
  • Neglectful Sally
  • Th' Nue Ralewae Te Anfeeld Plane
    [The New Railway to Annfield Plain]
  • Oakey's Keeker
  • The Oakey Strike Evictions
    (or, Oakey Strike)
  • Old Dolly Cook and Her Family
  • Old Folk's Tea at West Stanley
  • The Old Men's Trip
  • The Picture Hall at Tantobie
  • A Poam To The Kaiser
  • The Prudent Pitman
  • Th' Row Between Th' Cages
    (or, The Row 'Atween the Cages)
  • Th' Row I' Th' Guuttor
  • A Sewing Meeting
  • The Sheel Raw Flud
  • Th' Skeul Bord Man
    [The School Board Man]
  • The Sooth Medomsley Strike
    [The South Medomsley Strike]
  • Stanla Markit
    [Stanley Market]
  • The Summer Flies
  • Tanfeeld Lee Silvor Modil Band
    [The Tanfield Lea Silver Model Band]
  • Tanfield Braike
  • Tantobie Wednesday Football Team
  • Tantobie Workmen's Club Oxo Banquet
  • Tommy The Poet Signed On
  • The Trimdon Grange Explosion
    (or, The Trimdon Grange Disaster)[iv]
  • The Trip From Tantobie Union Club to Jarrow Excelsior Club
  • The Unhappy Couple
  • Th' Wheelbarrow Man
  • Wor Nanny's a mazer [v]

Memorials

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Stanley Town Council unveiled a plaque commemorating Tommy Armstrong at Tanfield Church on 11 June 2016.[18] Part of the ceremony was held next to Tommy Armstrong's two memorial headstones: the original, and one dedicated in 1986.[19]

See also

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  • English language in Northern England – Modern Northern English accents and dialects
  • Geordie dialect words – Northern English dialect and demonym native to Tyneside
  • music hall – Type of British theatrical entertainment popular between 1850 and 1960
  • Pitmatic – Dialects spoken in former mining areas of Northumberland and Durham

Notes

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  1. ^ Robert Snowball, who ran a farm near Blanchland, was murdered on or around New Year's Day, 1880.[15]
  2. ^ On 26 August 1911, ten members of the Consett Co-operative Contest Choir were killed and 19 seriously injured when the charabanc taking them to perform at a flower show crashed.[16]
  3. ^ The Durham lock-out of 1892 preceded the 1893 miners' strike, a major industrial action affecting many areas of the UK.[17]
  4. ^ On 16 February 1882, an explosion at the Trimdon Grange colliery caused the deaths of 69 men and boys.
  5. ^ Or mazor, maisor, or maizor.

References

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  1. ^ Armstrong, Thomas (1930). Armstrong, W. H. (ed.). Song Book : containing 25 popular songs of the late Thomas Armstrong : compiled by his son W. H. Armstrong (2nd ed.). Chester-le-Street: Noel Wilson. OCLC 9566843.
  2. ^ Lloyd, A. L. (1952). Come All Ye Bold Miners : Ballads and Songs of the Coalfields (1st ed.). London: Lawrence & Wishart. OCLC 1228210179 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ "Detective work reveals the true coalfield bard". Darlington & Stockton Times. 10 December 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  4. ^ Jackson, Dan (2021). The Northumbrians : North East England and Its People : A New History (2nd ed.). London: Hurst & Company. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-787-38600-6.
  5. ^ Atkinson, Frank (1977). Life and Tradition in Northumberland and Durham. London: J. M. Dent. ISBN 978-0-460-04243-7 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Durham Mining Museum, East Tanfield Colliery".
  7. ^ "Durham Mining Museum, Addison Colliery".
  8. ^ "Durham Mining Museum, East Tanfield Colliery".
  9. ^ "Durham Mining Museum, Tanfield Moor Colliery".
  10. ^ a b Tilly, Ray (2010). Tommy Armstrong: The Pitman Poet. Newcastle upon Tyne: Summerhill Books. ISBN 978-1-906-72130-5. OCLC 912959994.
  11. ^ Paul, Ronald (2017). "Tommy Armstrong: Pitman Poet and People's Bard" (PDF). In Castro, Andrea; Granvik, Anton (eds.). Språkens magi: Festskrift till professor Ingmar Söhrman [The magic of languages: Festschrift for Professor Ingmar Söhrman] (PDF). Studia Interdisciplinaria, Linguistica et Litteraria (SILL) [Interdisciplinary, Linguistic and Literary Studies]: Report no. 8. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg Press. pp. 191–202. ISBN 978-91-984451-0-7. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  12. ^ Beynon, Huw (1986). "Tommy Armstrong: The Pitman's Poet" (PDF) (Working paper). p. 2.
  13. ^ Palmer, Roy (23 September 2004). "Armstrong, Thomas [Tommy] (1848–1920)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51479. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  14. ^ Lloyd, A. L. (1964). "Das Leben eines englischen Bergarbeitersängers" [The Life of an English Miner Singer]. de:Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (in German). 10 (2): 133–143. ISSN 0171-9904. OCLC 243418054. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  15. ^ Lloyd, Chris (30 September 2013). "A useful lass... or a killer?". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  16. ^ Leatherdale, Duncan (26 August 2011). "They sang to their deaths". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  17. ^ Webb, Sidney (1921). "Chapter IV: The Durham Miners' Association". The Story of the Durham Miners (1662–1921). London: The Fabian Society & The Labour Publishing Company. pp. 72–74, The Strike of 1892. OCLC 1077751634 – via Internet Archive.
  18. ^ Tommy Armstrong Plaque Unveiling 11th June 2016 (video). Tanfield: Stanley Fringe. 11 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2024 – via YouTube. The Oakey Strike Evictions and Stanla Markit sung by Alan Crawford of the Tommy Armstrong Society. Plaque unveiled 7:40 mins in.
  19. ^ Unwin, Bruce (21 February 2011). "Pitman poet's headstone returns". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 17 June 2024.

Further reading

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  • Tilly, Ray (2010). Tommy Armstrong: The Pitman Poet. Newcastle upon Tyne: Summerhill Books. ISBN 978-1-906-72130-5. OCLC 912959994. A biography by a grandson of Tommy Armstrong.
  • Lloyd, A. L. (1965). Tommy Armstrong of Tyneside: Songs of the Great Balladeer of the Coalfields (sleeve and liner notes for vinyl record). London: Topic Records. Topic Records id 12T122. OCLC 4459356. Brief biography, and notes on 14 songs.
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