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Lyr Req: Six Jolly Miners
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Subject: Lyr Req: Six Jolly Miners From: GUEST,Shanty Kees Date: 09 Jun 01 - 03:01 AM Is there anyone who can help me to the words of the Yorkshire song "Six Jolly Miners". The song is recorded by Coope, Boyes and Simpson on their CD "Hindsight". |
Subject: Lyr Add: SIX JOLLY MINERS From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 09 Jun 01 - 07:00 AM SIX JOLLY MINERS
Here come six jolly miners
Chorus:
So we'll riddle and we'll fiddle
Two came from Derby
We've travelled all of England
All our delight, boys
We'll call for liquors plenty
Sometimes we have money
This set of the song came from Louis Wroe of Wortley near Sheffield; it was recorded from him by Peter Kennedy in 1959. It appears in Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (1975, re-issued by Oak Publications 1984) together with the following comments from Mr. Wroe:
"As kiddies we used to get a pick, an old shovel, bit of coal, and if we could get some motties [numbered metal pierced tallies which evert collier had to exchange for his coal allowance] knee-pads, and black faces, and back-sides-out trousers and shirt pulled through. We used to go singing from door to door and they would have us singing in the public houses, gathering coppers at Christmas time." He added that even if only two colliers went round they still sang Six Jolly Miners.
Roy Palmer (English Country Songs, Dent, 1979) gives a shorter version from Mr. I. H. Baxter of Ecclesfield (Sheffield),
Six jolly miners,
Chorus:
So we'll riddle and we'll fiddle
Two came from Derby
Come on you jolly colliers
Final chorus:
Chambers in his chariot,
Recorded at the Black Bull in Ecclesfield in 1973. Though so far as I know, local children no longer go in for "Jolly Minering", the song has found a new lease of life as part of the local Carol tradition in the north of Sheffield. "Coil" is the local pronounciation of "Coal"; Newton Chambers were mine-owners.
The song is known in mining areas of Scotland, and may originally have come from there; a great many Scottish miners moved to England to work in new pits, and South Yorkshire certainly got its share. In fact, the song was also found in tradition over most of Southern England, too -not just in mining areas- and was probably spread by broadsides, which were also issued in Ireland. There are copies at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:
Six Jolly Miners Printed c.1867 by P. Brereton of 1 L[owe]r Exchange Street, Dublin.
Six Jolly Miners Printer and date unknown.
The place-names referred to vary depending on where the song was found, but it seems only to have been in Yorkshire that it was used for a quête tradition. It has also turned up in Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia.
A midi of the tune as noted from Louis Wroe goes to the Mudcat Midi Pages; until it appears there, it may be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site: |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Six Jolly Miners From: Shanty Kees Date: 09 Jun 01 - 09:00 AM Malcolm, Thank you very much for helping me to the words of this song and the extra info about it. I would never have known what "motty" means. Thanks again and I hope I can help you someday. Kees (Holland) |
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