BLAYDON RACES
Geordie Ridley (1862)
Aa went to Blaydon Races, 'twas on the ninth of Joon,
Eiteen hundred an' sixty-two, on a summer's efternoon;
Aa tyuk the 'bus frae Balmbra's [1], an' she wis heavy laden,
Away we went 'lang Collin'wood Street, that's on the road to Blaydon.
Chorus
Ah me lads, ye shudda seen us gannin',
We pass'd the foaks alang the road just as they wor stannin';
Thor wis lots o' lads an' lassies there, aal wi' smiling faces,
Gannin' alang the Scotswood Road [2], to see the Blaydon Races.
We flew past Airmstrang's factory [3], and up to the "Robin Adair" [4],
Just gannin' doon te the railway bridge, the 'bus wheel flew off there.
The lassies lost their crinolines off, an' the veils that hide their faces,
An' aw got two black eyes an' a broken nose gannin' te Blaydon Races.
(chorus)
When we gat the wheel put on away we went agyen,
But them that had their noses broke they cam back ower hyem;
Sum went to the Dispensary an' uthers to Doctor Gibbs [5],
An' sum sought out the Infirmary to mend their broken ribs.
(chorus)
Noo when we gat to Paradise [6] thor wes bonny gam begun;
Thor was fower-an-twenty on the 'bus, man, hoo they danced an' sung;
They called on me to sing a sang, aa sung them "Paddy Fagan",
Aa danced a jig an' swung my twig that day aa went to Blaydon.
(chorus)
We flew across the Chain Bridge [7] reet into Blaydon toon,
The bellman he was callin' there, they call him Jackie Broon [8];
Aa saw him talkin' to sum cheps, an' them he was pursuadin'
To gan an' see Geordy Ridley's show in the Mechanics' Hall at Blaydon [9].
(chorus)
The rain it poor'd aall the day an' mayed the groons quite muddy,
Coffy Johnny [10] had a white hat on – they war shootin' "Whe stole the cuddy?!" [11]
There wis spice stalls an' munkey shows an' aud wives selling ciders,
An' a chep wiv a hapenny roond aboot, shootin' "Noo, me lads, for riders."
(chorus)
NOTES
[Summary] The Blaydon Races gives a first-person account of how a bunch of intrepid revellers set off from Newcastle city centre to head for an island on the Tyne near Blaydon to see an annual horse racing meet.
On the way, disaster strikes when a bus wheel falls off - but, despite several folk suffering injuries, 24 people remain on the repaired vehicle as the party reaches Blaydon town. Unfortunately, their day does not much improve and heavy rain restricts the amount of races which they see. Nevertheless, as the narrator points out, there is plenty of alternative entertainment on offer - and, of course, Geordie Ridley's concert to attend later that evening.
Although the account of the trip to Blaydon is actually a work of fiction, there are some elements of truth in the final verse. Heavy rain on 9 June 1862 and missing horses were both reported in the local press. Racing was delayed until around 4pm.
[1] Balmbra's was a music hall in Geordie Ridley's day, named after its proprietor John Balmbra who had carried out extensive renovation work at around the time of the song. Based in the Cloth Market in Newcastle city centre, Balmbra's was the first place in which the Blaydon Races was performed by Geordie Ridley, and, in the song, it acts as the start point of the journey - something replicated in the present day by the 5.6-mile UK Athletics road race.
In 2004, Balmbra's was taken over by Birmingham chain Mitchell & Butlers who rebranded it as part of their Reflex franchise. Under pressure from the Newcastle Evening Chronicle and local politicians, the new owners incorporated the Balmbra's name into the title of the bar (Balmbra's Reflex). The building - now owned by the Malhotra Group - is currently closed but set to be renovated again.
[2] Scotswood Road was and still is the major throughfare between Blaydon and Newcastle city centre, currently part of the road network as the A695.
[3] Airmstrang's factory was a large munitions works, founded on the banks of the Tyne by one of the country’s greatest industrialists Lord William George Armstrong in 1847. Based in Elswick, it merged several times - notably, in 1882 with the shipbuilding firm Charles Mitchell to form Armstrong Mitchell & Company, and in 1897 with the engineering firm of Joseph Whitworth, whereupon it expanded its business into the manufacture of cars, trucks, and eventually aircraft. In 1927, it became Vickers-Armstrong, latterly Vickers, until a takeover by Rolls Royce in 1999. In the 17 year since then, the site has been owned briefly by BAE Systems and is now part of the Newcastle-based engineering company, the Reece Group. The address of the site remains the Armstrong Works.
[4] Robin Adair was a public house on the Newcastle side of the Scotswood Bridge, now demolished.
[5] Doctor Gibbs was the pre-eminent medical practicioner in Newcastle upon Tyne at the time of Geordie Ridley's verse - he charged all patients the same price and he remained in practice until his death in 1916.
[6] Paradise was not a paradise - but, rather, a reference to a local dump situated on Scotswood Road.
[7] The old Scotswood bridge was known as the Chain Bridge, a suspension bridge with two stone towers, from which a road deck was suspended by chains. Constructed in 1831, and widened a century later, it crossed the Tyne until 1967 when it was demolished following the construction of its replacement which stands to this day.
[8] Jackie Broon, referred to as a bellman in the song, was the town crier for Blaydon at the time of the song. He lived in Wesley Place and was buried in Blaydon cemetery on his death in 1901. His bell is now preserved by the Discovery Museum in Newcastle and is still today used to set off the runners from the bottom of the Cloth Market in the UK Athletics race.
[9] The Mechanics' Hall at Blaydon was established in 1846 for the eduction of the working classes. In 1852, a building - long since demolished - was erected in Tyne Street and contained a library, a reading room, and a lecture hall. It was supported and largely furnished by the secretary Joseph Cowen jnr. Of course, the real reason for this line in the song is that Geordie Ridley was effectively advertising his show which was to take place that evening after the horse racing had finished. As such, it is probably the case that the original song ended with this exhortation before a sixth and final verse was added later.
[10] Coffy Johnny was a blacksmith from Winlaton. A tall man for the Victorian period, he stood at well over six foot, and was something of a local celebrity - he would have certainly been well known to Geordie Ridley's audience. A formidable bare-knuckle fighter, Coffy Johnny knocked out a fellow hardman, Will Renwick, in a bout on 27 May 1850 which lasted over an hour and went 36 rounds. Coffy Johnny died in 1900 and is buried in the cemetery at St Paul's Church in Winlaton.
[11] "Whe stole the cuddy?!" - Geordie for "Who stole the horses?!" - likely to be a sarcastic jibe by Geordie Ridley on account of the lack of racing due to inclement weather to which he refers at the start of the verse: the rain it poor'd aall the day...
Sources
http://www.winlatonhistorysociety.btck.co.uk/BLAYDON-TheRoadtoBlaydonRaces http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DUR/Winlaton/Coffee
http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/GatesheadBlaydon.html
Artwork
The Blaydon Races by William Irving (1903)
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