Lyr Req: Severnside

Subject: Severnside
From: GUEST,Di
Date: 02 Apr 13 - 07:42 AM

From my folk-club days in Sheffield (Barley Mow?, early 60's?) I vaguely remember a song which had the following first verse:

As I rode down by Severnside,
A brown-rigged craft came down the tide.
Singing farewell shore,
It's Severn no more,
No more, no more.

I have never heard it since. Does anyone have the lyrics?

Di

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: rosma
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 04:50 AM

I am interested in this because I live on Severnside. One of our regulars
at the Dragon Folk Club has written as song Severndown but that's a
fictitious place as far as he is aware.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 08:37 AM

The song was published in The Countryman Vol 59 (see p511-512). This was published in 1961. As printed, it starts:

Severn No More

As I walked out by Severn side,
A brown-rigged craft went down the tide,
Singing 'Farewell, shore!
It's Severn no more.
No more — no more'.

O Severn is wide as the eye can scan,
But she wrecks them under craft and man.
.....


It was learned at Weston-super-Mare.

That's all I can see. There are some copied available via amazon in the £4-5 range (but make sure you get the right issue for Vol 59).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Newport Boy
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 01:10 PM

I don't know whether
this might be the same song.

Phil

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 03 Apr 13 - 04:18 PM

"Severnside" / "Severn No More" is one of the songs "collected" by Ruth Tongue. The Oxford Dictionary of Folklore describes her as a 'problematic figure'. Adding - "The problem is that Tongue was a performer, and that many years had passed since she had learnt these songs and tales; the uniform style and recurrent themes and phrases make it virtually certain that they had been reshaped, perhaps only half-consciously, to suit her personality. Some look like patchworks, built up round mere scraps of traditional beliefs or sayings. She should be regarded as a creative singer and storyteller reworking fragments of tradition, not as a reliable collector."

At the time that Barry Morton of the Rotherham Taverners used to sing it in the 1960's, however, it was regarded as a traditional song.

Georgina

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 07:09 AM

It's probably worth adding that, whatever it's origin, "Severn No More" is very singable and has a good chorus, so perhaps it deserves to become traditional.

Georgina

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Di
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 07:27 AM

Thanks to all of you for your help.

Georgina, you are right. It was a trio who called themselves "The Taverners" that I heard singing this song in Sheffield back in the 60's.
I now live close to Severn side (Wye side actually) but I have yet to come across anyone who has even heard of it. Strange!

I remember the tune well enough (great harmony), so unless someone can come up with the lyrics, I will just have to plump for one of the buying options–thanks Mick and Phil for the links.

Di

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Georgina Boyes
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 07:40 AM

Di - It might be worth trying to get the copy of "Seven Songs from Somerset Collected by Ruth Tongue" which is for sale on Amazon. I don't know if "Severnside" is in it, but it's not very expensive.

Good luck.

Georgina

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Newport Boy
Date: 04 Apr 13 - 04:28 PM

Di - Bear in mind that I couldn't find any of the lyrics for "Severn No More" on the songsheet in my link. However, it is a 3-part harmony arrangement, so it could be the right one.

Phil

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Sean O'Shea
Date: 18 May 19 - 02:45 AM

If you go to the Halsway Manor web site, somewhere on it you can hear Meg Rose singing your song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: GUEST,Sean O'Shea
Date: 18 May 19 - 02:48 AM

SPECIFICALLY,it's on the 2016 project section under FAUSTUS and called Seven No More[wrongly]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 May 19 - 02:58 AM

I see no archive of any past events on the Halsway site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Reinhard
Date: 18 May 19 - 03:31 AM

Faustus – 2016 Halsway Manor Artists in Residence

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Reinhard
Date: 18 May 19 - 03:48 AM

Ruth Tongue and members of a local WI sing Severn No More

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Severnside
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 May 19 - 02:38 PM

Here's my transcription from the two recordings mentioned above. There's a third version online by a Biddy Rhodes who was taught it by Ruth Tongue when she was a girl. It's used as the background to a video and is only partial, though the clearest recording: Shadowlands Project at Halsway Manor - just over halfway down the page Shadow animation test for Walford's Gibbet.

I'll try and put the tune up, but it might be a few days.

Mick

---

SEVERN NO MORE
(Ruth Tongue)

As I walked out by Severn side,
A brown-rigged craft came up/down the tide.

  Chorus:
  Singing, "Farewell, shore
  It's Severn no more.
  No more."
  Singing, "Farewell, shore,
  It's Severn no more"


Now/O Severn she's/is wide as the eye can scan
And/But she wrecks them under both craft and man.

There's none can ride her mighty bore
Where/When she do rise with a terrible roar


O Severn do shine and she lies still
And all come home both safe and well

  Final Chorus:
  Singing "Welcome, shore,
  It's Severn no more.
  No more",
  Singing "Welcome, shore,
  It's Severn no more"


Source: Meg Rose and Ruth Tongue

There are some slight differences in wording in the two versions. Those to left of / are Meg Rose, those to the right Ruth Tongue.

Ruth Tongue's own chorus is slightly different (and is as the first version I posted originally):
  Singing, "Farewell, shore
  It's Severn no more.
  No more. No more"

and similarly for the final Welcome shore chorus