• Source: 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.




Works


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". The folklorist Roy Palmer noted the playfulness, sympathy, and humour in his works.
Folk-songs and the musical forms associated with music hall performances both influenced Armstrong's compositions, with the stage 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.: 141 




= Selected songs

=




= Examples of lyrics

=



Domestic songs


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


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


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 




= 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 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 




Armstrong on Armstrong


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.




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.




See also


English language in Northern England – Modern Northern English accents and dialects
Geordie dialect words – Northern English dialect and demonym native to TynesidePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
music hall – Type of British theatrical entertainment popular between 1850 and 1960
Pitmatic – Dialects spoken in former mining areas of Northumberland and Durham




Notes






References






Further reading


Tilly, Ray (2010). Tommy Armstrong: The Pitman Poet. Newcastle upon Tyne: Summerhill Books. ISBN 978-1-906-72130-5. OCLC 912959994. A biography by a grandson of Tommy Armstrong.
Armstrong, Tommy (1987). Forbes, Ross (ed.). Polisses & Candymen : The Complete Works of Tommy Armstrong, the Pitman Poet. Consett: The Tommy Armstrong Memorial Trust. ISBN 978-0-951-40070-8. OCLC 24471485. Music and lyrics of songs, with an introduction by the sociologist Huw Beynon.
Armstrong, Tommy (1971). Tommy Armstrong Sings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Frank Graham. ISBN 978-0-902-83383-8. Lyrics of 25 songs introduced by Tom Gilfellon, past member of the High Level Ranters band.
Lloyd, A. L. (1965). Tommy Armstrong of Tyneside: Songs of the Great Balladeer of the Coalfields (sleeve and liner notes for vinyl record). London: Topic Records. Topic Records id 12T122. OCLC 4459356. Brief biography, and notes on 14 songs.




External links


Tommy Armstrong at Discogs
Thomas Armstrong at Find a Grave
Sunniside Local History Society: Tommy Armstrong
The Tommy Armstrong Society (archived 21 January 2020)

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