Perhaps some of you know of the carol singing tradition in the Stannington,Bradfield ,Loxley area.
The tunes bear local names i.e. Malin Bridge,Stannington.
Does anyone have memories of this tradition?

Not heard of these,but in my neck of the woods The Derbyshire Carol is a real tradition,they sing it every year at my sons christmas church service with his school. Not really a church person but its a wonderful carol.

"Hail Shiney Morn" was a carol which I understood was local to Stocksbridge...

My elderly (Born 1906) next door neighbour, when I lived out there used to treat us all to a rendition of it, for Christmas..

:D she "were" an old love, she "were"... lol

PT

Singing carols has been traditional in Ecclesfield as well, this link provides details of similar events taking place this year.

http://www.folk-network.com/events/2005/carols_05.html

A popular one in S6 is :

Hark now hear
The Wednesday sing, United ran away
And we will fight for evermore
Because of Boxing Day

I like the S6 carol!

:clap:

I once sang in a carol concert outside Sheffield Cathedral back in the early '70's and we sang a carol entitled:

E' Le ne le divine enfant

(Excuse the bad French spelling)

Hardly local to Sheffield, but I'd never heard it before or since.

Thanks for the link Basalt, a wealth of information.
Unfortunately over here in Canada we will have to dream pf being there.
I did visit a gentleman in 1998,who had published a book of the carols.
He lived up Stannington,if I remember correctly Oldfield Close

When I was a lad they used to print a 16-page Christmas carol pull-out in the Star near to Christmas with many a local carol, such as Stannington, alongside the more traditional stuff.

I miss that I tell ya.

Here in Canada its all Frosty the Snowman, and precious little traditional Christmas stuff. Plus the bars close at 6 on Christmas Eve:(

There's my Aunt Carol, she's indigenous to Sheffield.

The Wharncliffe Arms at Wharncliffe Side has strange local carols every boxing day - song sheets are handed out and it tends to be just the blokes who sing.

I think there are Scandinavian influence in the locality and these have been passed down through the years in the songs.

Local carols at the Royal Hotel Dungworth start first Sunday after Armistice Sunday.

There are literally dozens of local carols with names like Back Lane, Spout Lane, Holmefirth Anthem, Diadem, Jacob's Well, Old Foster etc etc etc. You have to know the words to While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night, as they sing these words to about 30 different tunes (including Amazing Grace and On Ilkley Moor baht tat....try it!).


You'll have to get there early though as they queue outside from about 11am.

Oh how I love these local Carols. There were old vinyl records of these Carols and music/word books to buy. The Worrall male voice choir sing a lot of these at Christmas. Fabulous!!
:clap: :clap:

You guys say 'was' like this is a dead tradition -- those carols are still everywhere, you just have to know where to look... there are about 50 different tunes for 'while shepards' sung in the area for a start.

Yes, I think RoyalRegular has pointed out the significance of 'While Shepherds Watch Their Flock'.
I am just looking at it from 4,000 miles away, so for me it is a tradition in the past.
If you look at basalt's link it is pretty obvious that the tradition is alive and well.

When I was a kid we used to sing to the tune While shepherds etc
While shepherds washed their socks by night
all seated round the tub
a bar of sunlight soap came down
and they began to scrub etc

I used to play loads of local carols when I played in sheffield brass bands. There are hundreds of them but the best ones I remember include.
Pratty flowers (holmfirth)
Back Lane
Malin Bridge
Stannington
Hail Smiling Morn
Oughtibridge (swaine hark)
Tyre Mill
Bradfield
Spout Cottage
Worrall

I have all the music and words for all these carols, and there are also about 12 different musical arrangements for while shepherds watched, which always goes down very well in pubs. Including "Ilkla moor bah't at"

In Banding ( Brass Band ) and local church and Choir circles these carols are known as Local Carols.

Many of them are anonymous and some have been passed down the generations for a century or more. They often have very interesting arrangements with solos and bits where Ladies sing one line and Gents sing the next.
And some of them have old fashioned local language included in their verses.

There was a documentary programme on radio 4 last Christmas covering this Sheffield Carol tradition.


I suppose it might be available from the BBC archives.

Originally posted by Plain Talker
"Hail Shiney Morn" was a carol which I understood was local to Stocksbridge...

My elderly (Born 1906) next door neighbour, when I lived out there used to treat us all to a rendition of it, for Christmas..

:D she "were" an old love, she "were"... lol

PT

Here's the first section of this Carol : -

Hail! Smiling morn, smiling morn.
That tips the hills with gold.
That tips the hills with gold.
Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of D-a---------y
Ope the gates, the gates of day,
Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!

<repeat from start>

Hail! Smiling morn, smiling morn
That tips the hills with gold,
That tips the hills with gold,
At whose rosy fingers open wide the gates of heav'n
the gates of heav'n
At whose rosy fingers open wide the gates of heav'n

*All the green fields that nature doth enfold
All the green fields that nature doth enfold
At whose bright presence
Darkness flies away
Flies away, flies away
Flies away, flies away
Darkness flies away, darkness flies away
At whose bright presence darkness flies,
Darkness flies away, flies away, flies away
Hail, Hail, Hail, Hail
Hail, Hail, Hail, Hail!

repeat from *


Thats the Dungworth version anyway.

Many years ago I worked in the Royal at Dungworth over the Christmas period. The carols were amazing, even more so the number of people who came in specifically to hear them. There were people from New Zealand, Japan and all over! It was absolutely brilliant.

When I was at Jr School we used to sing....

We 3 kings of orient are
One in a taxi, one in a car
One on a scooter blowing his hooter
Going to Hunter's bar

Ohhhh ohhhhh

Can't remember the rest but there was loads more references to Sheffield places in it - it was pretty well known at the time!

thank you Muddycoffeee and Royal Regular for that.

I called it "Shiny Morn" not "Smiley Morn". Whoops, my bad!

PT

Well to be honest PT,
the words do vary in different areas. So that was probably the right version for stocksbridge. Many of these carols were passed along by word of mouth anyhow, it was amazing how many people in the pubs of Oughtibridge knew them all from end to end without a songsheet!

Perhaps some of you know of the carol singing tradition in the Stannington,Bradfield ,Loxley area.
The tunes bear local names i.e. Malin Bridge,Stannington.
Does anyone have memories of this tradition?


Does anyone have the score music for Malin Bridge? I have heard one of James Montgomery's carols "Bright & Joyful Is the Morn" sung to Malin Bridge and would like the music to teach it to my church for this Christmas.

Bright and joyful is the morn,
For to us a Child is born;
From the highest realms of Heaven,
Unto us a Son is given.

On His shoulders He shall bear
Power and majesty, and wear
On His vesture and His thigh,
Names most awful, names most high.

Wonderful in counsel be,
Christ, the incarnate Deity;
Sire of ages, ne’er to cease,
King of kings, and Prince of peace.

Come and worship at His feet;
Yield to Him the homage meet;
From the manger to the throne,
Homage due to God alone.

I've got Jack Goodison's book somewhere...I'll try and dig it out.
All the top local ones are in there with the music.

I've got Jack Goodison's book somewhere...I'll try and dig it out.
All the top local ones are in there with the music.

Thanks

That would be great.

Noel

I have a CD of local folk singing these carols - recorded in a pub in Bradfield.
Listening to it brings back very fond memories or my very late Grandma belting out the same carols at gatherings in Stannington in the 1960's.