Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...

Subject: Lyrics/Men or Bells Of North Lue, Ring
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Mar 97 - 11:57 PM

About 12 yrs. ago a Friend & I heard someone sing a song about bell ringing, I don't remember how the verses went only that the chours started off with either Men , though I think it was Bells Of North Lue rang ***** and true. and that's all that either of us can remember of it, except I think it mentionsit being in the Brittish country side . Thanks for any help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 11:34 AM

THE BELL RINGING, in the DT, contains the line "But the men of North Lew rang so steady and true" but in other versions that have been posted here, the town is "North Looe" or "North Lewe" or "Northlew."

For other versions, see these threads:

Lyr Add: Bellringing

Lyr Req: The men of North Looe rang so steady...

Lyr Req: Bellringing

Chord Req: Bellringing Song - One Day in Oct

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady..
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 02:35 PM

Take a look at the placenames in that bit of the country- the Devon/ Cornwall border. Glorious.

Sticklepath
Tongue End
Virginstowe
Honeychurch
Doublewaters

The "Lew" form would seem to be right for the area: Looe is quite a way down into Cornwall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 03:48 PM

Northlew, it is a real place as are all the others in the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: BillE
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:19 PM

Lewtrenchard??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 07:31 PM

Northlew. I have it from a bellringer. 'Tis near Okehampton in Devon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Little Robyn
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 09:31 PM

Lewtrenchard is where Sabine Baring-Gould was the Vicar.
I've just looked in his 'Songs of the West' and he has:
No 82 page 168
'But the men of North Lew....'
In the notes it says 'Words and air from William George Kerswell, Two Bridges, Dartmoor; sung also by James Down, blacksmith, Broadwood Widger.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 11:03 PM

If anyone needs bellringing songs I have one about women who rang bells to bring their husbands into the Columbia River from the ocean before there were lighthouses. mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: GUEST,Guest Betsy
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 03:45 PM

I can still remember Tony Rose singing ' Twas in Ashwater town....
Fine fella

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 03:49 PM

mq - why not post the song as a Lr. Add?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 03:34 PM

OK..it will be Seaview Bells. I think I have it typed up. True story. Itw as in CHinook observer. mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 09:11 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northlew

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 09:33 AM

Doesn't commemorate the most epic of events, does it?

I've heard it sung once. That was enough.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 11:38 AM

Your name isn't short for campinology then.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Marje
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 11:42 AM

You obviously have no idea, Jack, how seriously they take bellringing here in Devon.

I've heard it said that the North Lew ringers were in fact rubbish, and the song is a kind of in-joke among bellringers. But I must add, in case any Men of North Lew or their lawyers are reading this, that I have absolutely no idea if this is fact or fiction.

I like the song for its distinctive bell-like melody, even if the story doesn't exactly hold the attention for long.

Marje

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 03:40 PM

Jack C - I guess you didn't hear it sung by Tony Rose...

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Effsee
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 04:20 PM

Or Cyril Tawney HK!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Gurney
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 09:33 PM

Well, Jack, a good many songs are about going on train journeys. To me they are also very much a non-event. Must be even more tedious in larger landmasses.
The sound of church bells in the distance, the sound waxing and waning with the breeze, is very English to me, evocative of times gone by, and because it often sounds best over water-meadows, good fishing trips. That is what you will see concertinists trying to reproduce by swinging their instruments around at arms length when they play this song.

That last sentence is not a joke. They do, and it does evoke the sound, but you have to know what the sound is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: Jim Martin
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 07:48 AM

Yes Gurney, I was going to make the same comment myself about the bell sound from concertinas. Fascinates me everytime I hear it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The men of North Lue rang so steady...
From: GUEST,Dave G
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 04:47 PM

Whenever I hear this song (particularly sung by Devon's Tony Rose) it reminds me of the fact that Northlew (The Men of Northlew) lost more men in the First World War, per head of population, than any other parish in Britain.