More Abernethy songs are here
The songs are drawn from the many hours of recorded interviews Abernethy Museum volunteers have done with Abernethy people.
Find out about the Museum at http://www.museumofabernethy.co.uk/
The songs are drawn from the many hours of recorded interviews Abernethy Museum volunteers have done with Abernethy people.
Find out about the Museum at http://www.museumofabernethy.co.uk/
FISHING MEMORIES
Tune: The Piper O Dundee
Tib Smith remembered the men gaun tae the fishin
They aa had their big kist tae pit their ain stuff in
Archie Bett wi horse and cairt cam roon the gates collectin kists
He cairried them to Newburgh tae send them tae the bothies
Salmon fishin on the Tay, those were the grand days
Plenty salmon in the Tay, but noo they've gone away
Dave Stalker told the tale, he left school not yet fourteen
A thousand grilse a season went tae the cannery in Dundee
Two crews o young lads livin in the bothy
If the fish were too wee, they ate them, bones an aa
Salmon fishin on the Tay, those were the grand days
Plenty salmon in the Tay, but noo they've gone away
The bothy lads had cobles, pullin hard on the oars
Newburgh sprat yawls had sails an nets an booms
Catchin sprats and spurlins, but they wid catch the salmon too
Till they got caught and confiscated, served them right said Dave
Salmon fishin on the Tay, those were the grand days
Plenty salmon in the Tay, but noo they've gone away
Salmon fishin on the Tay, those were the grand days
Plenty salmon in the Tay, but noo they've gone away
BOB MORRISON THE JOINER
Tune : Micky Dam
Provost Morrison, Bob to me an you
Any job of joinery he'd guarantee to do
'Ah'll dae it in the mornin, well, maybe no the morn
But soon enough, soon enough, ah'll no be very long'
Janet Paton's mother asked Bob tae fix her shed
After five years of phonin, she got some else instead
Bob said, 'Jinge, ah didny think that you wid dae that
Ah wis comin roond the day, ah'd just pit on ma hat'
Provost Morrison, Bob to me an you
Any job of joinery he'd guarantee to do
Janet's mother passed away, and after eleven years
Bob came to Janet's back door, 'Ah've a chair ah mended here
Yer mother gave it me tae mend, ah've just got it done
Here's the bill, can ah have cash, ah'm retirin soon
Provost Morrison, Bob to me an you
Any job of joinery he'd guarantee to do
An, by the way, ah've anither back hame, ah'll bring it roon'
TIB SMITH AT THE BERRY-PICKIN
Tune : The Calton Weaver
Tib Smith went tae pick the berries
School summer holidays
Six weeks just likea picnic
At Sandilands, hip hip hooray
Tib Smith liked it fine
Summer was berry pickin time
Mrs Sandilands was a gem
Brought tea in the mornin an the afternoon
Blackcurrant jam, ye could taste it yet
An she'd earn enough for a pair o shoon
Tib Smith liked it fine
Summer was berry pickin time
Ye got a check when ye filled a pail
They coonted it up until the end
No pay till the fields were cleared
But then, ah, ye'd money tae spend
Tib Smith liked it fine
Summer was berry pickin time
Their fields were either side
Of the Newbury Road bungalow
No rasps noo in Abernethy
Why did they have to go?
Tib Smith liked it fine
Summer was berry pickin time
FERRYFIELD OF CARPOW – Nan Jarvis
Tune: Ha Ha The Wooin O't
Carpow Ferry is very old, Kings came here to cross I'm told
Going to be crowned at Scone, on the Coronation Road
MacDuff's Cross is where they'd start, then over the Earn to Easter Rhynd
Balhepburn to Elcho Castle, must have been a ferry there at the time
Ferryfield of Carpow, a ferry then and a ferry now
I have a neighbour, ninety two, told me what she used to do
Walked down here to go across to Cairnie Pier, then catch a bus
Into Dundee, looking for Caird's famous department store
A bus right back, and the ferry home with a new school school uniform under her arm
We used to have a proper ferry, came in at the pier, but I have the ferry rights, they're still here
Now and again some walkers ask can we bring them across, it's an easy task
I phone my Newburgh nephew Tommy, he brings the motor boat up for me
We carry them across, they offer to pay, but we say, 'That's all right, no fee'
BRINGING IN THE HEAVY NETS - NAN JARVIS'S SONG
Tune: Oh Rogerum
I was born in Newburgh, Tom lived at Ferryfield
More than fifty years ago I came here
His father taught me, when I was only seventeen
'You'll come down to the fishing and you'll learn to work the gear'
Fishing in the Earn, the salmon and the trout
Turning the windlass, bringing in the heavy nets
The tides bring the fish in, so you go out
We always fished the three tides, high, ebb, and the low
All hours of the night, you never miss
My mother came to see us, saw the blisters on my hands
'I never brought my daughter up to be doing this!'
Trout net for the low water, that has a small mesh
Bigger for the high water, different for the ebb
Hang them at the weekend, up on the pie poles
Mend the holes with needles, a nylon spider web
The Tay and Earn stations all came off in ninety six
We hung on for eight years, but the fish had all gone
The Earn is full of mud now, it's covered our nice pebbled beach
Farewell to the fisheries, but life goes on
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