Power To The People
We are now at the end of our ‘Meet the Songs’ series for our ‘Power To The People’ show on November 18th, 2018 at The People’s Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle. All the songs we are singing were written in support of change for the better. Here we also kick off our Meet the Singers series and another look back in history from Dave Henderson.
Cockersdale – Jarrow Song. Inspired by the Jarrow Crusade
Cockersdale is a folk music group from West Yorkshire, originally formed by Keith Marsden to perform his own songs. Their reputation grew making them a major force in the folk music world. After Keith’s death in 1991 they reformed. The vocals of Val Marsden, Graham Pirt and John O’Hagan re-established them as one of the leading unaccompanied groups in the country.
Graham wrote Jarrow Song about his hometown, with an amusing reference to the role of his Uncle Sammy in the Jarrow March. This was a protest march in the 1930s against unemployment and poverty and was also known as the Jarrow Crusade. Over 200 “crusaders” marched from Jarrow to London with a petition to the British Government. It called for help to re-establish industry in the town after the closure of Palmer’s Shipyard, Jarrow’s main employer at the time. As the petition was received but not debated in the House of Commons the crusaders went home thinking they’d failed. However, in the years that followed the march was seen as a defining event that eventually led to a change in attitudes and paved the way for social reform after the Second World War.
The story behind the lyrics
We’re really lucky to have some further insight into the lyrics from the man himself, Graham Pirt!
Look down the road our fathers walked
With music in their hands (there was a mouth organ band at the head of the march, hence the ‘music in their hands’)
And the bells of freedom now shall sound for them (the old bell from St Paul’s Church, Jarrow)
See the pathway worn by bootstraps
Of the Jarrow men
See them sing the songs (they sang a song called the ‘Road to Anywhere’ on the march)
The way they sang them then
Songs of mills, (the steel rolling mills making the plates for shipbuilding)
Songs of mines, (Jarrow Colliery)
Songs of shipyards that stood by the Tyne (Palmer’s Shipyard, the closure led to widespread unemployment)
Songs of hope and songs of glory
Songs we all may sing in time
The slipways bare and idle now
The ships all had their day
And the bells of freedom now shall sound for them
Men cast on the slag heap (The slag heap was a massive heap covering acres that was the slag from the iron works. It was in Monkton Village – climbed it as a child – it went as road surfacing material)
Murdered with their town that day (This was the quote from Ellen Wilkinson, the town’s MP who said it was,‘ The town that was murdered.’)
See them sing the songs
The way they sang them then
The cobbled streets rang with their notes
The banner stretched on high (The Jarrow Crusade banner)
And the bells of freedom now shall sound for them
The message carried through the land
To all as they passed by
See them sing the songs
The way they sang them then
Their songs now just a memory
In the hearts of marching men
And the bells of freedom now shall sound for them
Will show that we’re still waiting
And the time has come again
To sing the songs
The way they sang them then
So sing your songs, unfurl your flags
And walk the promised road
And the bells of freedom now shall sound for them
For those who went before you (That we should never forget them)
Will be there to share your load
So sing the songs
The way they sang them then
As a child, born in Jarrow, Graham lived with the story. His mother’s uncle, Sammy Rowan, was the treasurer of the march. His headteacher, of Jarrow Grammar School, Claude Robinson, was one of the main organisers. The caretaker at the school, Sammy Needham, was the ‘man with the dog’ shown here in the photo on the right.
Meet the Singers: Our People Stories 1 – Dave Henderson
It wasn’t only Graham who we know with connections to this song. Our very own Dave Henderson has an amazing story to tell…
“Two of the marchers are my family. The man holding the banner on the left is my great uncle and the man holding the other side is my grandad. They both worked in the mines from the age of 12.
20 years later they both left the mines. My grandad started fixing broken windows. My great uncle was a window cleaner. They then thought it would be a good idea if he broke the windows (by accident of course) while he was cleaning them, then my grandad would go and fix them. After that they went into insurance. They both fought in the war, survived but both suffered with health problems due to the years in the mines. I never knew my grandad.”
Wow, who knew we had our very own Sing United singer connection to this wonderful song and it’s history! Thank you so much Dave for sharing this with us.
