Thomas Raine of Teesdale

Subject: Teesdale, Black Country and Dymock
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 03:09 PM

Roy Palmer is working on a new book about industrial song and has been making enquiries about Thomas Raine of Teesdale. If you can offer any information about Thomas Raine, who may well have come from Barnard Castle originally, I will happily pass it on to Roy.

Roy is as busy as ever and has just completed a book on Black Country folklore. This has gone to the printers and should be launched before Christmas, while his book on Shropshire folklore is reprinting too.

Beyond their interest in folk, Roy and Pat have both contributed to a programme on the Friends of the Dymock Poets. This should go out on BBC Radio 4 at 4.30 pm on Sunday, 30th September, repeated at 11.30 pm on 6th October.

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 06:53 PM

Try asking Tony Morris at.

www.tonymorrispoet.com

He does a lot of poetry about Ironstone mining in and around the area, he may be able to point you in the right direction.

CC

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: Peace
Date: 05 Sep 07 - 06:56 PM

This help at all?

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: Betsy
Date: 06 Sep 07 - 12:12 PM

Might be connected to fiddler Parkin Raine of Teessdale as sung by Vin Garbutt and also the Fettlers "Come all you musicians of Teesdale ....." ( Ithink ) Ballad of Brave Parkin Raine

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: Daniel Kelly
Date: 25 Apr 19 - 05:34 AM

Resurrecting this old thread after trying to hunt down the providence of "Four Pence a Day". It is variously attributed to Thomas Pain, or Thomas Raine the 'Bard of Teesdale'.

The only evidence for a 'Bard of Teesdale' in the 1800s (child labour was abolished in 1843, at least underground) is a Richard Watson, remembered in the Teesdale Mercury in
1854.

Is there any evidence for a Thomas Paine/Raine? The similarity to the 1700s Thomas Paine, and the fact that it is a workers rights song, suggests to me that this was a pseudonym.

Richard Watson was educated in the Lead mine school, and would have had good reason not to put his name to 'Four Pence a Day'.

Daniel Kelly

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 25 Apr 19 - 05:13 PM

Thomas Raine, originally from Barnard Castle, was a lead miner and writer in Teesdale. The Birkdale Shepherds, a thirty-six verse poem, is another of his works.

Now shepherds all who tend your flocks, who ramble void of care,
A warning be this unto you that you for death prepare.

The song tells the story of two shepherds trying to save their flock in a snowstorm on 23 November, 1836. The sheep are trying to escape the storm by jumping into the Tees. Eventually help comes, but it is too late for one of the shepherds.

This been published in a number of other publications including 'Those boys of Bondgate' and 'Teesdale in ballad and song ... [etc.]'.

Birkdale Shepherds

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Apr 19 - 05:31 AM

Wasn't 'Fourpence a Day' collected by Ewan MacColl- that might be the direction to go?...

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 26 Apr 19 - 10:41 AM

The Birkdale Shepherds. From the Teesdale Mercury, November 20th, 1872.

The following simple and affecting ballad, from the pen of a youthful rustic poet, was [MS] printed at Middleton, and such was its popularity in Teesdale and elsewhere that more than a thousand copies were disposed of in a very short time. It has now, however, become so exceedingly scarce that the offer of a great price has recently been found insufficient to acquire a copy. At the earnest request of some of our readers, and with the author's permission, we gladly reproduce it in the columns of the Mercury, from a manuscript provided by a correspondent.

The Birkdale Shepherds. An Account of the Sufferings of W. Ritson and the
Death of J. Allinson, at Birkdale, November 23rd, 1836. By Thomas Raine.

Durham County Record Office Catalogue;

Ref: D/HH 10/17/523
The Birkdale Shepherds or An account of the sufferings of W. Ritson and death of J. Allinson. by Thomas Raine, 23 November 1836

From Music at the Heart of Teesdale;

Joan Littlewood / Ewan MacColl        1949        
John Cowland (sic)/ Thomas Raine        Middleton-in-Teesdale        
Typed Script        Fourpence A day                
Original script (Tracking Down Folk-songs in Teesdale 5th June 1949) says
singer is Johnny Dowland (sic). Only three verses which EM says is the complete song. EM records song late 1950 on a Topic Records 78rpm with the three verses. After that 2 more verses are added.

From mysongbook.de; From Joan Littlewood, Joan's Book (1994)

Well, at least Teesdale was new to me [as the subject of a BBC radio programme by J. L.]. I amused myself collecting fragments of an old song and got Jimmie [Ewan MacColl] a job completing it:

Fourpence a day, my lads, and verra hard to wark
With never a pleasant look from a scruffy-looking Turk
His heart it may fail, his conscience may give way
And he'll raise us our wages to fivepence a day

From the Workers' Music Association Topic Songbook (1951?);

Fourpence a day (Five verses)
Fourpence a day, my lad, and very hard to work
And never a pleasant look from a gruffy looking Turk.
His conscience it may fail and his heart it may give way,
Then he'll raise us our wages to ninepence a day.

Attributed to Thomas Raine, lead miner and bard of Teesdale, Yorks. Taken down from the singing of John Gowland (sic), retired lead miner, of Middleton-in-Teesdale, by Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl.

From the Alan Lomax Archive;

High Force Agricultural Show Middleton-in-Teesdale (Durham), North-east (England) 4/20/1951
Original Format: Reel to Reel
Session Notes: 1 - Ballads and local songs in dialect sung by Mark Anderson and Thomas Raine; dance tunes played by Anderson (melodeon), Robert Beadle (piano), and Tommy Beadle (fiddle).

Background Information

From the Northern Echo; From about 1750 to 1850 lead mining was big business and Britain was the world's leading producer. The North Pennine lead field comprising Teesdale, Weardale, South Tynedale and the Derwent valley formed the most important lead producing area in the country. By the 1850s, the best lead ore was removed in Britain and cheaper ore was available from the United States, Germany and most significantly from Spain. Many Northern mines closed in the 1870s and some miners sought work abroad, notably in the United States.

From the Working Class Museum & Library; Still current in North-East Yorkshire, this song is attributed to Thomas Raine, lead-miner and bard of Teesdale. The washing racks, where the lead-bearing rocks were separated from the clay and gravel were usually operated by young boys or old disabled miners. Mine owners were said to have become so incensed by the song that they closed the pits and imported leadminers from Germany.

From derbyshireuk.net; Matlock Bath was formerly a lead mining settlement but three centuries ago turned to tourism using the warm water from its springs and old mines as an attraction. At its most fashionable period around 1800, former miners vied with each other to take visitors underground, for about a shilling a time, then the best part of a miner's pay for a day.

From museum.wales; Coal mines in the 1840s
"My employment is to cart coals from the head to the main road; the distance is 60 yards; there are no wheels to the carts; I push them before me; sometimes I drag them, as the cart sometimes is pulled on us, and we get crushed often." Edward Edwards, aged 9, Yskyn Colliery, Briton Ferry.
For this a drammer would earn about 5p a day.

The words relate, perhaps, to the mid-nineteenth century. And it does appear unlikely that the composer of the Birkdale Shepherds was also the singer recorded at Middleton-in-Teesdale in 1951. But if there were two local writers/performers called Thomas Raine then, without further information, I cannot be certain that the composer of the Birkdale Shepherds was also the composer of Fourpence A Day. HP

Subject: RE: Thomas Raine of Teesdale
From: Daniel Kelly
Date: 27 Apr 19 - 09:22 AM

Hi Henry,

Many thanks for this detailed information. My searches of the digitized Teesdale Mercury online came up blank for Thomas Paine/Pain, but there are lots of entries for a farmer called Thomas Raine. Unfortunately the paper only started in 1855, so if the poem/song was published before that it would likely be lost. My Richard Watson theory looks unlikely.

Maybe they gave out 'bard of Teesdale' titles fairly indiscriminately.

Daniel,