The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #72880 Message #1260390
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
31-Aug-04 - 12:53 AM
Thread Name: Tunes reqd: (Songs from) Devon
Subject: RE: Tunes reqd: Devon
There don't seem to be any traditional songs from Bideford that I can find reference to; nor any found being sung there. Truly local songs are rare in any case.
There was, however, a broadside printer operating there in the 1860s or thereabouts: J Wilson on Bridge Street. You can see a decent selection of his output at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:
That will give you an idea of what sort of thing was circulating there at the time, at any rate.
Charles Kingsley included a verse of the Bonny Portmore / Sunderland for Me / Streams of Lovely Nancy type in his Westward Ho!, for which see thread Origins of Bonny Portmore
Apart from that apparent localisation, I can't think of anything. Perhaps other people will know of more.