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Description: | Song about the Australian gold rush, by J. Bagnall.Emigration from Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century was generally associated with paupers and criminals and only taken up when faced with extreme hardship. America however, was regarded as a rather more fashionable destination than some of the colonies and in the 1830s and 1840s a number of emigration societies were formed. The discovery of gold in America and then in Victoria, Australia in 1854, also brought a rush of emigration to what had previously been unpopular destinations. On Tyneside a number of men chose to leave their native shores, most likely in the face of unemployment, or gruelling industrial labour with long hours and low pay.Similar to the cheap press of today these poorly printed books and broadsides catered for popular tastes, being sold by chapmen in the country and booksellers in the town. Usually sold for no more than a penny, the production of these little books and broadsides were extremely profitable for most printers. Sold in bulk the material required little proof-reading, was widely plagiarised, and badly printed.Newcastle was the second largest producer of chapbooks in the country at the time of this book's publication. 'Songs of the Tyne' were a short series of chapbooks printed by, J. Ross of the Royal Arcade. This book forms no.1 of the 'Songs of the Tyne' series and references to the building of the High Level Bridge dates the book's publication to no earlier than 1846. A number of the songs however, can be dated to the early nineteenth century, some such as 'The pitman's courtship' appearing as early as 1816.The book contains some of the region's best known traditional songs. From 'Cappy; or, the pitman's dog' to 'Canny Newcassel', the book has offerings from well known Tyneside composers such as William Mitford and would have been extremely popular among the local population. ; Popular Tyneside songs published in chapbook form. | Publisher: | J. Ross Royal Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear | Rights holder: | rights holder : Newcastle University | Subjects: | travel & gold rush & emigration & America travel and adventure | Temporal: | start=1841;end=1860; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:N1201602 | Go to resource |
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