The Tyneside Songster by J. W. Swanston

The Tyneside Songster (or to give it its full title – "The Tyneside Songster containing a splendid collection of Local Songs by popular Authors, in the Northumbrian Dialect Printed by J W Swanston, 67 & 69 St Andrews Street, Newcastle and may be had at all Booksellers, Newsagents, &c" is a chapbook of Geordie folk song consisting of 39 songs, crammed into its meagre 16 pages, and published in the 1880s by J. W. Swanston, a Newcastle printer and publisher.

The Tyneside Songster

Author	J. W. Swanston
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English (Geordie dialect)
Genre	chapbook
Publisher	J. W. Swanston
Publication date	possibly early to mid-1880s
Media type	Print
Pages	16 pages – 39 songs

The publication

The contents include a general collection of, either at that time or sometime earlier, well known and popular, local songs written by a collection of songwriters.[1] A set of the original documents is retained by the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museum Service. This is the record office for the cities and districts of Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside and North Tyneside.

The front cover of the book was as thus :-
THE
Tyneside
SONGSTER
CONTAINING
A splendid collection of Local Songs by
popular Authors, in the Northumbrian
Dialect
– - – - – - – - – - – -

– - – - – - – - – - – -
NEWCASTLE
Printed by J W SWANSTON, 67 & 69 St Andrews Street
and may be had at all Booksellers, Newsagents, &c
– - – - – - – - – - – -
One, two, or three copies of this Song Book may be had direct from the
Printer, for the published price, with an additional halfpenny for postage,
and will be sent to any address in the United Kingdom. Larger numbers
at the same rate.

On the top right, above the title, is printed the price, “One Penny”

Contents

are as below :-

	title	songwriter	tune	comments	notes	ref
1	Front cover					[2]
3	Sandgate Lassie's Lament (The)	Henry Robson
4	Bewildor'd Pitman (The)		The King of the cannibal Islands			[3]
4	Howden for Jarrow. Loup oot	Harry Haldane		The pseudonym of Richard Oliver Heslop		[4]
5	Bonny Clock Feyce (The)	Robert Nunn	Cole Hole			[5]
5	Sweet Tyneside	T Kennedy	Kelvin Grove			[6]
5	Lizzie Mudie's Ghost. Or the Jenny Howlet	W Armstrong				[7]
9	Cappy or the Pitman's dog	W Mitford				[8]
9	Cum an' stand a Jill		The moon behind the hill			[9]
12	Jemmy stops lang at the fair	Joseph Skipsey				[10]
12	Coaly Tyne		Auld Lang Syne			[11]
12	Sairt failed Hinney	??	??			[12]
13	Sandgate Lass on Ropery Banks (The)	Robert Nunn	The Skipper's Wedding			[13]
13	Hey ye seen wor Cuddy	George Guthrie	The King of the cannibal Islands			[14]
13	Elsie Marley	?	?			[15]
14	Pitman's Dream (The)		Newcastle Fair			[16]
14	Half-Drowned Skipper (The)		Cvhapter of Donkeys			[17]
14	Waggoner (The)					[18]
15	Honest Working Man (The)		Runaway Jack			[19]
15	Muther's best, iv a, (A)		Newcastle is my native place			[20]
15	Wor Charlie's a Medium		Cappy's the dog	"Wor Geordy's a Medium" in index		[21]
16	Pitman's Happy Times (The)	J P Robson	In the days when we went Gipsying			[22]
16	D'ye ken John Peel	John Woodcock Graves				[23]
16	advert for "The Sailor's Songbook"
The following songs also appear in the book, but the page numbers are unknown
	Beggar's Wedding (The)	William Stephenson	Quayside Shaver
	Blyth Camps (or The Girl I Left Behind Me)	unknown
	Cliffs of Old Tynemouth (The)		Leitch David Ross
	Dance To Thy Daddy		Watson William
	Give me life's largest cup
	I attempt from Love's Sickness to Fly
	(Weel May) The Keel Row
	Marsden Rock	John Peacock	Jockey to the fair	Marsden Rocks in index
	Noodle – (The)	John Brodie Gilroy	Jeannette and Jeannot
	Peter Waggy	Henry Robson		Written in 1826
	Pitman's Courtship – (The)	William Mitford	The night before Larry was stretched
	Pound of tea (The)	John Stobbs	Dame Durdon
	Rifleman Sowljor (The)	J P Robson		appeared in his book "Evangeline" or The spirip of progress – Which contains his rather lengthy poem of the same name together with many more shorter works
	Sandhill Monkey (The)	William Stephenson	Drops of Brandy
	Till the Tide cums in	Henry Robson
	Washing-Day – (The)	Thomas Wilson	There's nae luck aboot the hoose	actually entitled "The Weshin'-day" in this book
	X. Y. Z. At Newcastle Races, 1814 (or Pitmen's Luck)	William Mitford

Notes

Due to the only copy of the book available being damaged, it was not able to ascertain the page numbers of many of the songs. Therefore, the second section the above, list those songs in alphabetic order. Can anyone help with the numbering of these pages?

See also

Geordie dialect words
J. W. Swanston

References

1. compilation by various writers (sometime between 1881–1887). The Tyneside Songster. J W Swanston, 67 & 69 St Andrews Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. Check date values in: |year= (help)
2. "Front cover". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
3. "Bewildor'd Pitman (The)".
4. "Howden for Jarrow. Loup oot".
5. "Bonny Clock Feyce (The)".
6. "Sweet Tyneside".
7. "Lizzie Mudie's Ghost".
8. "Cappy or the Pitman's dog".
9. "Cum an' stand a Jill".
10. "Jemmy stops lang at the fair".
11. "Coaly Tyne".
12. "Sairt failed Hinney".
13. "Sandgate Lass on Ropery Banks (The)". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
14. "Hey ye seen wor Cuddy". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
15. "Elsie Marley".
16. "Pitman's Dream (The".
17. "Half-Drowned Skipper (The)".
18. "Waggoner (The)".
19. "Honest Working Man (The".
20. "Muther's best, iv a, (A".
21. "Wor Charlie's a Medium".
22. "Pitman's Happy Times (The)".
23. "D'ye ken John Peel".

External links

• FARNE archive – click “Tyneside songster” and “go”