Charlie Peace Ballad

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,Miketheknife
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 08:24 PM

Thanks for interest and sorry about the link- anyhow someone seems to have helped out.
re. Fiddle, it was in the Black Museum according to a clip by Shaw Taylor that you can see on youtube. It is shown.

On this forum
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=60844
Its said the fiddle is now owned by someone in Derbyshire who plays Old Time on it.
Charlie was missing the first finger on his left? hand, but was said to be the new Paganini, what ever that means? Its also said he played in every pub in sheffield (Cant be exactly true since we had a pub on every corner)
A friend tells me that when he "stayed" at Armly it was bad luck to say, "you will never come back", Charlie apparently said that and he did! I believe he found the treadmill awkward with his bad leg (He had a red hot steel wire go through it whilst working as a steelworker)

I find it intriguing that he was five feet high, bow legged, limped, had a tongue too big for his mouth, and a broken jaw but none the less irresistible to women!

He could contort his face and the early used of police mugshots were apparently rendered useless. In one he is described as a negro

He was featured in what I think were the first films about a criminal, about 1895, 1905 (and another in 1950s?)

The house where he murdered Arthur still stands on Ecclesall Rd and described in detail on the "Sheffieldhistory" forum.

Sadly, as far as I can ascertain, Arthurs grave has not been located.

Mike

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: Wyrd Sister
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 05:41 PM

Charlie Peace made a one-string fiddle, and many other things, including an ingenious folding ladder for burgling purposes. I did a small piece of work on him a few years ago, and visited Sheffield Archives, where I saw his final letter, written in his own hand.

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,MickG
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 12:46 PM

Charlie Peace is buried in Armley Jail in Leeds where he was executed. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the prison yard, When the prison dog handlers start a shift they need to 'clear the bowels of the dogs'. The instruction to the dogs is 'Go piss on Charlie' and that's what they do. One of the prison officers was friend of mine.

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,big al
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 02:21 PM

Thanks Bruce

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 09:18 AM

Does anyone know what kind of violin he played or where he learned to play?

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 09:02 AM

There's also this, with a card commemorating the execution with a few lines of verse: Charlie Peace (if your browser lets you view the image you can see the card clearly).

I won't hunt out any more refs; there are a lot of them!

I couldn't find a copy at the Bodleian, but the Roud index has a single entry for A New Song on the Trial and Sentence of Peace (first line Charles Peace the Blackheath burglar is sentenced now to die), to be found in Healy: Old Irish Street Ballads, 1 pp.63-65 (which I think was reissued as the The Mercier Old Irish Street Ballads)

Mick

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:53 AM

See if that works for you, Al.

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:50 AM

There's a long wikipedia article on Charles Peace. He seems to have inspired a body of writing!

Mick

Subject: RE: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:32 AM

Can't make that link work.

A pity - I like this sort of thing.

Subject: ADD: Charlie Peace Ballad
From: GUEST,Miketheknife
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:07 AM

Sorry if this has been covered but I cant find any thread. Wondered if there are any comments. The song does not seem well known even in Sheffield.
Found on- http://digital.nls.uk/english-ballads/pageturner.cfm?id=74891917&mode=transcription

"A new song on the Trial and Sentence of Charlie Peace"                              
                     
            For the Murder of Mr. Arthur Dyson,
            at Bannercross Sheffield, Nov. 29, 1876.

Charles Peace, the Blackheath burglar is sentenced now
to die
For Mr. Dyson's murder long ago,
He has been wild and reckless, but his day it has gone
For in the grave he'll soon be lying low.
He has led an evil life, of robbery and strife,
But his days are numbered in this world
The only friend that's left him is that poor neglected
wife
Now in the depths of misery she's hurled.

                          CHORUS.

In heavy irons lying he is condemned to die,
Charles Peace, the murderer, none can save,
Broken down and dejected his wild career's gone by
His crimes will soon be ended in the grave

Of all the bold highwaymen in the history of the land,
He hever had an equal in his time,
The riches of the wealthy he stole with cunning hand,
He has been the terror of those modern times,
He feared no living foe, with his pistol he would go,
Determined to escape or to die,
The life of Peace the burglar I'm sure will plainly show
That from justice he could not always fly.

For nearly fifty years he has pursued a life of crime,
Such as no one ever knew before,
Confined within a prison he has been many times,
But still he always would defy the law.
Tho' guilty he has been, by many it has been seen,
True affection sometimes he eould show,
He loved his pictures and his birds, they were a joy to
him
And his pony loved its master as we know.

He shot poor Mr. Dyson there cannot be a doubt,
There's no excuse for murder you will say
Mrs. Dyson he pretended he could Hot live without
But he'd no right to take her husband's life away.
Every crime beneath the sun perhaps he may have done,
But if with blood he had not stained his hand,
He may have passed the last few dayshis life had to run
In preparing for a better land.

He has fought for life many times, especially on the
line,
Although he's getting old and full of years,
If upon the scaffold his life he must resign,
There's sure to be a friend to drop a tear.
The poor he did befriend, and money he would spend,
In helping those around him who were poor,
Altho' the laws of England we know he did offend,
Many things untrue have bean said at his door.

His days will soon be over, the hangman soon will come
The body of the murderer to demand,
To suffer for the many crimes that often he had done,
Against the peace and welfare of the land,
His doom will teaeh us all that guilt will have a fall,
We cannot escape the convict's fate,
When once a crimes committed it is beyond recall,
And repentance perhaps may come for us too late.