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Description: | Song about an early balloon ascent and the excitement it generated. Balloon ascents were popular in Newcastle from the late eighteenth century onwards. As portrayed in the song these events drew large crowds from the surrounding area and caused much excitement. One of the first of these ascents was made by a man named William Sadler on September 1st, 1815 from the Bowling Green (later Prudhoe Street) in Newcastle. These ascents were often extremely dangerous and a number of fatal flights have been recorded. A number of years after Mr. Sadler's ascent a man named William Henry Hall attempted a balloon ascent in the old Cricket Ground on Bath Road in Newcastle. After performing a number of acrobatic tricks mid air, Hall was thrown from the balloon by its sharp ascent, falling a distance of 120ft. He later died from his injuries. Sadler himself was killed in a later balloon ascent on September 29th, 1824.This song forms part of a selection of songs from a volume of broadsheets collected by John Bell and known as The Bell/White 13 collection. The volume is held at Newcastle University and contains material printed from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. The book appears to have passed from Bell to local composer Thomas Wilson some time in the early 19th century, probably after Bell's collections were auctioned following his bankruptcy. A note at the front of the collection in the hand of Wilson's daughter, reveals that it was then donated to local song collector Robert White (1862). Although it is possible that some additions to the volume may have been made by Robert White, it is more likely that Bell himself was responsible for the compilation of the entire volume.This collection is one of a number of volumes of local song collected by John Bell. There appears to be no pattern or method to Bell's selection of the material, other than his genuine interest in all things regional. The material covers a broad spectrum of subjects, from political, historical and biographical songs to crimes and criminals, odd characters and strange events.It is to John Bell in particular that we owe much of the wealth of collected material available in the North East. A voracious collector of all things and books in particular, Bell amassed a huge collection of broadsheets, chap books and notated songs throughout his life. Unfortunately in 1856 Bell was bankrupted, forcing him to sell Bell/White 2, along with a number of other items, to book collector Robert White. Many of these volumes were eventually donated to Newcastle University Special Collections where they are now housed. ; Song sheets collected by John Bell | Publisher: | W. Stephenson Gateshead ; Tyne and Wear | Rights holder: | rights holder : Newcastle University | Subjects: | entertainment and sport Leisure hot-air balloons & sport & entertainment | Temporal: | start=1761;end=1800; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:N4100001 | Go to resource |
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