Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge

Subject: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From:
Date: 19 May 99 - 10:12 AM

Does anyone have the words for The Battle of Sowerby-Bridge. (it's not in the DT database). I last heard this comical Yorkshire song from Geoff Lakeman at the Herga Folk Club in North London but I don't know where he got it from.

From the fragments that I can recall, it seems to be about a gang fight in an amusement park (fairgrou

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 May 99 - 10:59 AM

Geoff Higginbotham or his band the Phatt B'Stards. Yorkshire or Lancashire (Cleckheaton or somewhere near). If you have no progress post again and I can probably transcribe them or find someone who has them.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BATTLE OF SOWERBY BRIDGE
From: Songbird
Date: 20 May 99 - 03:42 AM

Here is my interpretation of the song, checked out against a local map as well. Sorry if the formatting is all wrong but there you go!

I have always steered clear of singing it because it has such a localised content which means much to the good people of Halifax yet little to those in foreign parts (like Leeds?)

THE BATTLE OF SOWERBY BRIDGE

The Battle of Sowerby Bridge were fought on the forty-fourth of March.
The King’s Cross Fusiliers turned out. They marched as stiff as starch.
They marched as far as Bolton Brow and the enemy hove in sight,
And they called us generals nasty names and they challenged us to fight.

CHORUS: We were amongst them. We were amongst them.
We stitched and we slashed and we slaughtered and we slew
‘Till the air for miles around were blue.
For an hour and a quarter, we held the foe at bay.
There were only two were left that day, and we were amongst them.

At break of day, down Copley way, we went to fight the foe.
Our good scout Billy Higgins come to tell the tale of woe.
He said the enemy had advanced, so we retired pell-mell.
They shouted to surrender but we shouted, “Go to hell.”

The enemy then retired into the wilds of Shibden Glen.
The switchback were invaded by an hundred thousand men.
They hung their wounded out to dry across the aerial flight,
And they stuffed their guts wi’ monkey-nuts and challenged us to fight.

We chased the enemy round the town till their stockings all fell down,
From Cavering Slacks to Boulder Clough and to Norland Town.
We came across a public house and there we raised a cheer,
For in that cellar we did find an hundred casks of beer.

FINAL CHORUS: We were amongst them. we were amongst them.
We supped and we drank and we drained and we drew
‘Till the air for miles around were phew!
For an hour and a quarter, we put that beer away.
There were only two were carried on that day, and we were amongst them.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BATTLE OF SOWERBY BRIDGE
From: Ian
Date: 20 May 99 - 07:26 AM

This is the version I have (from Swan Arcade, 1975)

The Battle of Sowerby Bridge were fought on the forty-fourth of March.
The King's Cross Fusiliers turned out. They marched as stiff as starch.
They marched as far as Bolton Brow and the enemy hove in sight,
And they called us generals nasty names and challenged us to fight.

CHORUS: We were amongst them. We were amongst them.
We slished and we slashed and we slaughtered and we slew
Till the air for miles around were blue.
For an hour and a quarter, we held the foe at bay.
There were only two were left that day, and we were amongst them.

At break of day down Copley way, we went to fight the foe.
Our good scout Billy Higgins come to tell the tale of woe.
He said the enemy had advanced, so we retired pell-mell.
They shouted to surrender but we shouted, "Go to 'ell".

The enemy then retired into the wilds of Shipley Glen.
The switchback were invaded by an 'undred thousand men.
They hung their wounded out to dry across the aerial flight,
And they stuffed their guts wi' monkey-nuts and challenged us to fight.

We chased the enemy round the town till their stockings all fell down,
From Cavering Slacks to Boulder Clough and to Norland Town.
We came across a public house and there we raised a cheer,
For in that cellar we did find an hundred casks of beer.

FINAL CHORUS: We were amongst them. We were amongst them.
We supped and we drank and we drained and we drew
'Till the air for miles around were pheeeeew!
For an hour and a quarter, we put that beer away.
There were only two carried home that day, and we were amongst them.

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Luke of Halifax
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 11:25 AM

I knew this song and sang a version of it in the clubs round Halifax in the mid 70s. One utterly pedantic point is that in Halifax the area of town heading out towards the uncivilised side of the Pennines is King Cross. King's Cross is somewhere down south. And we "slished and we slashed and we slattered" (to get the pronunciation right) "... and we slew"

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 11:37 AM

Great song - used to love Swan Arcade singing it, but Geoff Higinbottom does a pretty good version.

Subject: ADD: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: IanC
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 11:38 AM

BTW, did it ever get harvested for DT (nice to have the linebreaks put in too)

:-)

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 03 Oct 02 - 03:09 PM

Bignick

After Geoff Lakeman moved back to the West Country, Pete and Kate Rose sang it at Herga instead! But I don't think it's been heard in the Royal Oak for many years. Now there's a thought.....

Kitty

PS we're celebrating Herga's 40th birthday next March

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Dave in Wakefield
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 09:28 AM

The version I've heard is almost the same as those submitted, except that Cavering Slack is Catherine Slack (a place name between Bradford and Halifax) and Bolton Brow (above Sowerby Bridge). Shipley Glen is quite a way off the area, so I'm sure the place referred to is Shibden Glen.

And that's the way I'll continue to sing it!

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 09:38 AM

Swan Arcade got this song from a local singer in Halfax called Alasdair Cameron who tragically died in a boating accident on the River Wyre some years ago. Alasdair was a brilliant comic singer and always popular at the [ now defunct ] Bradshaw folk club in Halifax.
He was a neighbour of Christy Moore when Christy lived in the area.
eric

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Flash Company
Date: 29 Jan 04 - 10:07 AM

The Swan Arcade words are pretty much as I remembered it, the only variations being in the chorus, line2 'Slishing And Slashing And Slaughtering too' with a suitable explanation about slashing being with swords, and in the final chorus, 'Pouring and Pulling And Boozing too', Finishing with 'There were only two who were carried home drunk, and we were amongs't 'em.

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: John J
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 08:09 AM

I remember it as Shibden Glen too.

A rather fine band called Hebric from over (or should that be 'ovver'?) that way sang it with gusto in the mid-seventies.

Ah, happy days!

John

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: muppett
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 10:00 AM

I got told that a couple of Scout Masters from St.Bedes in Heaton, Bradford wrote this song origanally and it was called the battle of Baildon Bridge, and Shipley Glen was used as they did and still have an aerial flight (the oldest working one in the world) and all the other place names mentioned were local to Baildon. I tried to find the origanal words, but drew a blank, so I made my own version,

The Battle a Baildon Bridge were fought on 44th a March
Local fusiliers turn art, thee march as stiff as starch
They march as far as Baildon Brow, till enemy camp in sight
They called us generals nasty names un challenged us t' feight.

Chorus

We were amungst em, we were amungst em,
We slished an we slashed an we slaughtered an we slew,
Till air f' miles around were blue,
F' hour an a quater we eld thefoe at bay,
There only two of us left that day,
An we were amongst em.

At break a day down Shipley way, we went t' fight foe,
Our good scout Billy Higgins cum told us tale a woe,
Ee said the enemy ad advanced
So we retired pell mell
They shout t' surreder but we shouted go t' ell.

Chorus

T'enemy then retired t' wilds a Shipley Glen,switch back t'were invaded be a undred thousand men,
They ung their wounded out t' dry across the aeril flight,
An stuffed their guts wi monkey nuts an challenged us feight.

Chorus

We chased t'enemy round the town till their stockings they fell darn
From Bracken Hall t' Baildon Brown an all around the town
We cum across a public ouse an there we raised a cheer (HURRAY)
F' in the celler we did find a undred casks of beer

different chorus

We were amungst em (HICK)
We were amungst em (HICK)
We supped an puked
An puked an we supped
till air f' miles around t'were blue
f' an hour an a quater we put that ale away hay hayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
There were only two of us left that day
An we were amungst em.

Then repeat the orginal chorus again

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 01:48 PM

It were more likely to be King Cross fusileers... King's Cross is a railway station in London, King Cross a part of Halifax... just on the hillside above Sowerby Bridge.

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,eliza c
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 02:40 PM

There's a King's Cross in Sydney,too, though it's probably safe to say that the song isn't about that. I'll get me coat...

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,alexis
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 06:08 PM

A regularly sung song heard in the Sair oft. Mostly sung by Duggs and co from the Slubbing Billy`s.
Alex

Subject: RE: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: IanC
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 10:15 AM

Just a tad on the place names.

I'm sure that Catherine Slack is correct. However, it has to be Shipley Glen as there wasn't a switchback or an aerial flight (aerial slide) at Shibden Dale.

Here's a summary of a book giving some more detail.

100 YEARS AT SHIPLEY GLEN - The Story of the Glen Tramway
By Michael .J. Leak (2003)
Nice booklet, to tell the story of the Shipley Glen Tramway the oldest cable operated tramway in the British Isles. (not including cliff lifts) The book also includes information on the Shipley Glen Pleasure grounds which was home to a Switchback and currently home to the Aerial Slide, possible the oldest roller coaster in the world and certainly the oldest suspended coaster.

Kings Cross Road is on the Sowerby Bridge side of Halifax, so that figures.

I think Shipley Glen was included as being a famous local landmark, despite its relative distance.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Stan Sutcliffe - Halifax
Date: 13 Jun 06 - 10:16 PM

I also feel that the Alastair Cameron version was as near original as one can get. He was singing this song long before Swan Arcade recorded it and he visited a few other folk clubs up and down although he was more or less resident at the Bradshaw Tavern club in the sixties and seventies. He once wrote the words out for me when I went to hear a bloke called Dave sing it with him (Dave at a deep booming voice and always liked to sing his 'broken token' songs.)and Alastair wrote it with Catherine Slack, Shipley Glen, and King Cross Fusiliers but used slaughtered as opposed to slattered and this actually fits best as it doesn't repeat the vowel sound of the previous 2 verbs or the one following - slished, slashed, slaughtered, slew! He also wrote " 'ar generals " but told me that he sang "us" because we all knew that us meant our rather than we, so he changed it in the written version to preserve the meaning.

I have been hunting for a copy of the Swan Arcade record for the last 23 years without success, so if anyone has a recording it may be unique!

[e-mail]

Stan The Man (The Tyke With The Hat -->   (-:þ    )

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 07:58 AM

I have one I wonder if Sowerby Bridge is on it, i'll check it out

I never heard Alisdair Cameron but he is mentioned as source on the sleeve notes, so it must be !! [grey cells on the blink]

I believe Rennie Pickles use to sing this too

Notable singers in this neck of the woods were/are also, Ron Darnborough I think was in Hebric at some stage, John Bromley who is now with Joe Stead in Kimbers men and Frank Garbut who I meet at Whitby FF and who still extoles the great times he had at Bradshaw Tavern!

Christy Moore also had a great time there according to his autobigraphy

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Malcolm
Date: 11 Oct 07 - 05:48 PM

Quote: "I'm sure that Catherine Slack is correct. However, it has to be Shipley Glen as there wasn't a switchback or an aerial flight (aerial slide) at Shibden Dale"

It is interesting to note that Shibden Valley runs downhill from Catherine Slack. Following the valley below Shibden Park we come to the long defunct Sunny Vale Gardens - about half a mile further downstream there was an aerial ropeway connecting Walterclough Coal & Clay mine with a road higher up on the Hipperholme side of the valley. It was certainly there in the 1940's and the remains can still be seen today.

Shipley Glen Railway wasn't an aerial flight, it was and is a cable hauled tramway, the cable of which runs close to the ground. The Walterclough ropeway probably ran upto 100 feet in the air.

Still what Shibden Glen and Catherine Slack had to do with Sowerby Bridge is beyond me.

I remember Sunday nights in the Eagle Tavern in Leeds in the 70/80's. A band, Aikens Drum, played there and they sang this song. I have a copy on a record, but nowadays no record player! Doh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Rowan
Date: 11 Oct 07 - 06:26 PM

Pageant (based in Canberra but with members from as far apart as Sydney and Steiglitz) sang this in the mid70s. I never knew where it had come from but I'd put a fair sized bet on Swann Arcade being the critical link. Knowing nothing about the physical environs of Sowerby Bridge we sang "Shibden Glen" and several of us still sing it most years at Nariel. And you'd be surprised where Pageant tapes pop up; I know I am.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Someone from Sowerby Bridge
Date: 12 Oct 07 - 04:10 AM

And for anyone who's read the words but not heard them, it's pronounced Sorby, not Sow-er-by!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Betsy
Date: 12 Oct 07 - 04:30 AM

I'm sure all the versions mentioned were great, but I can only picture Swan Arcade - Dave Heather and Jim, enthusiastically singing this song. The raucous performance of Dave in particular, waving his arm (and half an arm ) wildly , combined with all the "slishing and slashing" - it was a powerful vision , verged on the frightening and will never leave me.God bless him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Sugwash
Date: 12 Oct 07 - 04:34 AM

The redoubtable Bruce Michael Baillie was also a founding member of Hebric, as was I on occasion when on leave from the navy. Happy days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,folkmonster
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 12:04 PM

There was a real battle of Sowerby Bridge. It was fought on the 4th of January 1644.

A force of some 600 roundheads advanced from their garrison at Heptonstall on the advanced Cavalier outpost at Sowerby Bridge (the Cavaliers were occupying Halifax at this time).

After a furious hand-to-hand skirmish, the bridge was taken; 3 cavaliers were killed & 42 prisoners taken. The roundhead cavalry pursued the fleeing cavaliers and, overextending themselves, were counter-attacked by Cavalier Cavalry from King Cross, pursued and finally cut to pieces near Hunter Hill at a place now called Slaughter Gap.

Many of the survivors of this battle met again later that year at the Battle of Marston Moor.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Folkmonster

Source: "The Halifax Cavaliers and The Heptonstall Roundheads" by David Shires. Puritan Press, Halifax, 1993.
ISBN 0 9521528 0 0

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 12:46 PM

Is that where JoeStead got his war wounds .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: squeezebox-kc
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 01:48 PM

Also in Hebric and that is not as was originally spelt were Philip Bond Malcolm Stocks, Dave Calvert, Bruce Baillie, John Bromley,
Ron Darnbrough in the LP "Later Ron" changed over time into The Original Hot Punch Ceilidh Band who are still performing with Malcolm,Dave, sometimes Bruce plus Ken & Sue Clarkson.
Bradshaw mummers still performing and still singing
Battle Of Sowerby Bridge

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 07:24 PM

Ray,
I'm all for including this one. Who'd you have singing it? And did Alastair have a family we could contact for permission to include it on YG website?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: The Doctor
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 05:15 AM

As Malcolm says, it's on the Aiken's Drum LP, sung by John Birkby, where it is credited as 'trad', but that is just as likely to mean they didn't know who.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Man with False Beard
Date: 21 Mar 09 - 06:09 PM

Shipley Glen's Pleasure Grounds had an Aerial Glide...

http://www.joylandbooks.com/themagiceye/articles/taleofshipleyglen.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: r.padgett
Date: 22 Mar 09 - 04:33 AM

Just seen this again Steve!

This is/was a great song anybody from Yorkshire (sorry Kitty) feel that they can do a good job of singing this for the Yorkshire Garland website!!

How about Ron Darnborough, Bruce Bailie with Ken and Sue of Bradshaw mummers and anyone else near at hand?

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 09 - 07:05 AM

From the link I posted before and with reference to the lines in the song:

T'enemy then retired t' wilds a Shipley Glen,switch back t'were invaded be a undred thousand men,
They ung their wounded out t' dry across the aeril flight,
An stuffed their guts wi monkey nuts an challenged us feight.

"In 1887 a wooden switchback railway, probably only the second to be built in the UK and originally erected for the 1887 Saltaire Exhibition, was re-erected on the Glen and renamed 'The Royal Yorkshire Switchback' (closed 1917).

There was a giant camera obscura. In 1889, 'The Aerial Flight' (not to be confused with the 'Aerial Glide'), a cable car ride operating between two huge wooden towers was built (demolished 1920) and, in 1897, 'the Toboggan Slide' opened on the Glen but closed after an accident on Whit Monday 1900."

Thanks

Gary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: squeezeboxhp
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 11:56 AM

i think john Bromley has it on youtube Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,Frank O'Brien
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 02:41 PM

I was talking to my mother about this song on a visit to Leeds last week. She's a centenarian and remembers parts of the song from when she was very young.

This one began:
The Battle of Sowerby Bridge was fought on the forty fourth of March.
The men of the Wapping Fusiliers they marched as stiff as starch.
And when they came to Baildon Bridge the enemy were in sight.
We filled our guns with tiger nuts and that began the fight.

It's interesting to see the number of different local versions that have been circulating.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Arnie
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 07:27 AM

I'm from Halifax but the first time I heard this song was at Deal Folk Club in Kent. The mc in the 90's was Alan Sugden from Bradford (or Bratford as they call it). Alan sang this regularly and with much gusto - he was especially good at the drunken last verse! Since his untimely death a few years ago, I've never heard this song again. There is another strange link here - I was taught German in Bradford by Heather Bradley of Swan Arcade!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: r.padgett
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 07:49 AM

I recorded this from Paul Child at Cleckheaton ff 2010 for Yorkshire Garland and I am now also singing it!

Lyrics from mudcat (here) attributed to Geoff Higginbottom

Recent Whitby ff session had Bob Pegg who recorded in the Dales 66/67 and Swann Arcade believed to have learnt it from Alistair Cameron (a Scotsman with a broad Yorkshire accent)

Shipley Glen rather than Shibden is I think correct

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 10:06 AM

Correctly, Alasdair Cameron, who died some years ago in a boating accident, he was a regular floor singer at Bradshaw Folk Club, at some time which Jim Boyes was MC, Swan Arcade definately got it from Alasdair.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 10:08 AM

In fact at the time it was before Swan Arcade was formed, Jim Boyes sang in a duo with a guy called Frank Toward, whatever happened to him ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: squeezeboxhp
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 10:28 AM

last saw Frank Toward in Bacup 2 years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Sowerby Bridge
From: GUEST,keith 07976515892
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 02:51 PM

i have the record of Aiken's Drum.    no3 on side 2 Alfred Armitage of Heckmondwike credited with the music for the battle of sowerby bridge. i am not sure of the correct words , most of the first write up on the quest are correct, catherine slack to bolton brow. shipley glen are about the only things from my memory to change. to listen to the record i would have to set up my turntable oterwise i would have had the full set of words, more to change would be. slished and slashed and we slaughtered and we slew.