# Tommy Armstrong (singer-songwriter)

Thomas Armstrong (1848–1920), known as Tommy Armstrong, was an English poet, singer-songwriter and entertainer dubbed "The Pitman Poet"$^{:106}$ and "The Bard of the Northern Coalfield". Writing largely in the Geordie and Pitmatic dialects, he was renowned for his ability to chronicle the lives of the mining communities in and around Stanley in north-east Durham and to commemorate mining disasters.$^{:144–145}$

## Early life

Tommy Armstrong was born at 17 Wood Street in Shotley Bridge on 15 August 1848.$^{:12}$ His father, Timothy Armstrong, a miner originally from Hamsterley, and his mother, Mary (née Wilson), from Wigton, had married in Easington in 1842. Tommy was the second of five children.$^{:13}$
Where and at what age he first worked down a mine is unclear, with varying statements in the local press (Medomsley Colliery, aged eight) and by his eldest son (East Tanfield Colliery, aged nine). Official records show him employed at Addison Colliery in 1866, first as a putter, and then as a hewer. According to his younger brother, he then worked at East Tanfield Colliery from late 1866 for several years. The 1901 Census shows him as a "Coal Worker Underground", and later records refer to him as a miner or coal-miner. His death certificate records him as a "Retired Colliery Shifter".$^{:14–15}$

## Later life

In 1869, on Christmas Day, Tommy Armstrong married Mary Ann Hunter, who was 16, at Gateshead Register Office. They had 14 children: eight died young. Mary died in 1898, and in 1901, Armstrong married Ann Thompson, a widow, at Tanfield Parish Church.$^{:16,18}$
He lived for the most part in Tanfield Lea, though from 1902, for a few years, he moved to Whitley Bay to start and run a business as a newsagent. In 1906, he had an address in Ouston. In 1911, he was living with his widowed eldest child, Mary, and her children in Tanfield Lea; his second wife resided in Chester-le-Street with another daughter from his first marriage.$^{:28–31}$
He died on 30 August 1920, aged 72, in Tantobie, and is buried in the churchyard of Tanfield Parish Church.

## Style

Songs in domestic settings predominate in Armstrong's repertoire. He also wrote many concerning the life, work and struggles of miners in the pits, and several disaster ballads. The sociologist Huw Beynon states that what makes Armstrong stand out from other coalfield songwriters is his "impish irreverence" and "imaginative devilishness", with "nothing cloying or sentimental" in his descriptions of mining life, while the folklorist A. L. Lloyd, according to Beynon, thought Armstrong wrote "as a herald of the dawn, who welcomes the day with a cock crow".$^{:9}$ The folklorist Roy Palmer noted the playfulness, sympathy, and humour in his works. As Armstrong himself put it:
   When ye're the Pitmen's Poet, an' looked up to for it, wey, if a disaster or a strike or a murder goes by wi'oot a sang fre ye, they say: "What’s the matter wi' Tommy Armstrong? Has someone druv a spigot in him an' let oot a' the inspiration?" Me aad sangs hev kept me in beer, an' the floor o' the public bar hes bin me stage for forty years. Aw'd sing, we'd drink, aw'd sing, we'd drink agen, sangs wi'oot end, amen.
Folk-songs and the musical forms associated with music hall performances both influenced Armstrong's compositions. The stage was most strongly reflected in the lyrics, and the folk-song influence most clearly evident in the melodies he directed his songs be sung to – he rarely wrote his own tunes, and in most cases made up the words with an existing one in mind: many were urbanised versions of folk melodies.$^{:2}$ In particular, Armstrong loved and was influenced by the Irish ballads that were popular amongst coal-miners in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially the genre dubbed "Come-all-ye": these were usually written in lines of 14 syllables, with tunes in $^6$ $_8$ time, and often in the Dorian or Mixolydian mode.$^{:141}$

### Examples of compositions
#### Domestic songs

   It wes in Novimber an' aw nivor will fergit, The polis an' the candymen at Oakey's hooses met. Johnny the bellmin he wes theor, squintin roond aboot, An' he pleaced three min at iv'ry door te torn the pitmin oot.
   What wid aw de, if aw'd the poower mesel'? Aw'd hang the twinty candymen an' Johnny that carries the bell!
Armstrong directed that this be sung to the tune of The Pride of Petticoat Lane.$^{:137}$ The version below was collected and transcribed by A. L. Lloyd in Tanfield in August 1951.$^{:139}$

#### Workplace songs

   One mornin' whin aw wint te wark, the sight wes most excitin', Aw heard a noise an' looked aroond an' whe d'ye think wes fightin'? Aw stud amazed an' at 'em gazed te see 'em in such rages, But aw nivor heard a row like that between the Brockwill cages! Wor aad cage says: "Come ower the gates, Because it's my intention To let thee see whether thoo or me Is the best invention." The new'un bein raised, took off his claes, Then at it they went dabbin' The blood wes runnin' doon the skeets An' past the weighman's cabin ...
Armstrong directed that this be sung to the tune of Robin Tamson's Smiddy,$^{:139}$ a ballad written by Alexander Rodger. The version below was collected and transcribed by A. L. Lloyd in Tanfield in August 1951.$^{:143}$

#### Disaster ballads

   Men and boys left home that morning For to earn their daily bread. Little thought before the evening They’d be numbered with the dead; Let us think of Mrs. Burnett, Once had sons and now has none –
   With the Trimdon Grange explosion, Joseph, George and James have gone.
Armstrong wrote this song to the tune of the parlour-song Go and Leave Me If You Wish It, and sang it, within days of the disaster, at the local Mechanics' Hall. A. L. Lloyd collected and transcribed the version below, noting "As sung (one verse only) by R. Sewell of Newcastle (June 1951)".$^{:129}$
According to Vicinus (1974), The Trimdon Grange Explosion exemplifies the later style of nineteenth-century pit disaster poem, with the traditional tone of lament accompanied by elements of reportage (the last four lines in the verse above).$^{:83}$

### Patter

Some of Armstrong's works incorporate patter – "passages of prose ... to be spoken in between the verses and chorus, both of which are meant to be sung."$^{:191}$ An example is Th' Borth E Th' Lad, one of his first poems:
   Aa can mind that mornin aa was born as if it was the neet. Th' pits was aal idle the next day – because it was Sunda; but ye wadn't thowt it was Sunda' in wor hoose. There was that much tea an' ginger-beer drunken, aa was forced to stop the tap. Dolly Potts got tite an' flung a saucer at Betty Green, but it missed hor an' catched me reet between the eyes an' the mooth, an' aa've ad a greet lump there iver since. But we seun maid hor an ootside passenger, an' we enjoyed worselves wi singen –
   He's the best of ony, His fyace it is se bonny; We'll caal 'im Tommy; He's the picture of his dad; So they popped on the kettle, As seun as things was settled, Then the tea was fettled Ower the birth of the lad.
He wrote one song, Th' Skeul Bord Man, in the form of a short play featuring the voices of a father, mother, son, and an inspector from the son's school:$^{:194–195}$
   One mornin it haulf-past hite, aw sade te maw bit bairn "On we thee clais, en get off te skeul, for thoo naws thit aw want th' te lairn." Boy: Th' skeul gans in it nine, en ye naws it's not vary far. Man: Thoo naws aw like for te see th' be in time, so thee beuk en thee slate's e th' drawer.
   spoken Man: Get off te skeul is sharp is ivor thoo can. Boy: Aw can't gan this mornin. Man: Thoo canna gan this mornin!! Wat's th' matter we th'? Boy: Aw heh th' tic. Man: Thor's alwis somethen th' matter we th' wen thoo has te gan te skeul. If thoo dissent gan aw'll be getten e lump of paipor, en it th' boddom there'll be ritten on –
   Send yer bairns te skeul, Learn them aa ye can. Make scholarship yor faithful friend, An' ye'll nivor see th' skeul-bord man.

## Memorials

Stanley Town Council unveiled a plaque commemorating Tommy Armstrong at Tanfield Church on 11 June 2016. Part of the ceremony was held next to Tommy Armstrong's two memorial headstones: the original, and one dedicated in 1986.

## Selected songs

* The Blanchland Murder
* Bobby En Bet
* Th' Borth E Th' Lad [The Birth of the Lad]
* The Cat Pie
* The Consett Choir Calamity
* Corry's Rat
* Dorham Jail (or, Durham Gaol)
* The Durham Lock-out
* Funny Nuaims It Tanfeeld Pit [Funny Names at Tanfield Pit]
* Gateshead Poor Children's Trip To Stanley
* Geordie Broon
* The Ghost Thit' Anted Bunty [The Ghost that Haunted Bunty]
* The Hedgehog Pie
* Jack Reckonen [Jack's Reckoning]
* The Kaiser And The War
* Kelloe Disaster
* Marla Hill Ducks (or, Marley Hill Ducks)
* Murder of Mary Donnelly
* Neglectful Sally
* Th' Nue Ralewae Te Anfeeld Plane [The New Railway to Annfield Plain]
* Oakey's Keeker
* The Oakey Strike Evictions (or, Oakey Strike)
* Old Dolly Cook and Her Family
* Old Folk's Tea at West Stanley
* The Old Men's Trip
* The Picture Hall at Tantobie
* A Poam To The Kaiser
* The Prudent Pitman
* Th' Row Between Th' Cages (or, The Row 'Atween the Cages)
* Th' Row I' Th' Guuttor
* A Sewing Meeting
* The Sheel Raw Flud
* Th' Skeul Bord Man [The School Board Man]
* The Sooth Medomsley Strike [The South Medomsley Strike]
* Stanla Markit [Stanley Market]
* The Summer Flies
* Tanfeeld Lee Silvor Modil Band [The Tanfield Lea Silver Model Band]
* Tanfield Braike
* Tantobie Wednesday Football Team
* Tantobie Workmen's Club Oxo Banquet
* Tommy The Poet Signed On
* The Trimdon Grange Explosion (or, The Trimdon Grange Disaster)
* The Trip From Tantobie Union Club to Jarrow Excelsior Club
* The Unhappy Couple
* Th' Wheelbarrow Man
* Wor Nanny's a mazer