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Description: | The dance to which Thomas Bell, the author of this manuscript, refers appears to be the traditional Christmas sword or rapper dance. The tradition of sword dancing at Christmas has been well documented for over a century. This manuscript gives a similar account to that given in 'Monthly chronicles of lore and legend', which gives details of the specific dances and plays performed at Christmas in the late 19th century. According to John Stokoe, in the Chronicles for 1887, Christmas performances in Northumberland and Durham were undertaken by groups of around a dozen pitmen who, each with a sword by his side and clad in white shirts decorated in ribbons, travelled to the towns to perform a traditional play to song and music. The captain of the group, who traditionally wore a cocked hat and peacock's feathers, was attended by a 'clown or bessy', who acted as treasurer and collected the money. The captain then formed a circle, round which he walked; the Bessy opened the proceedings by singing the first verse, the captain followed by introducing the various characters in succeeding verses. The dance then followed and the ceremony concluded with a general dance to the tune of 'Kitty Bo-Bo'.This song forms part of a fascinating selection of material relating to pitmen and keelmen of the North East. The collection was compiled by Thomas Bell, the less well known brother of the collector of Northumbrian traditional song, John Bell. Little is known of Thomas other than his work as a surveyor, but his interest in the collection of local song seems more than evident from his painstaking inlaying and mounting of some 140 pages of material. The collection comprises largely of songs taken from broadsides, chapbooks and manuscripts, but also includes some rare cuttings, descriptions and illustrations of the subject matter. This is a unique collection and perhaps one of the earliest examples of a collecter of traditional song devoting his energies solely to one aspect of regional life. ; Songs and ephemera relating to the keelmen and pitmen of Tyneside collected by Thomas Bell | Publisher: | unknown | Rights holder: | rights holder : Society of Antiquaries | Subjects: | dancing & sword dancing & rapper dancing & Christmas entertainment and sport festivities & leisure | Temporal: | start=1801;end=1840; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:R0902601 | Go to resource |
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