Billy Bell, Part 2 The rest of the Redesdale Roadman’s Poems

By William Bell and Susanne Ellingham

"Billy Bell, Part 2 The rest of the Redesdale Roadmans’s Poems" is an ebook companion volume to "Billy Bell: Redesdale Roadman, Border Bard". That book contained a selection of the poetry he wrote with wit, warmth and humour a century ago about the area and people he knew, mainly in Northumberland and around the Scottish Borders. This book contains all the rest of the poems plus a Glossary of Border and Redesdale dialect words and a chapter about many of the people in the poems. The project to publish the poems was supported by the Northumberland National Park who recognised its contribution to bringing alive the landscape and the social and cultural heritage of the area. For more about Billy Bell see the Bellingham Heritage Centre website.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Bell
• Release date: Nov 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9780957542624

Book preview

Billy Bell Part 2:

The Rest of the Redesdale Roadman’s Poems

William Bell, Susanne Ellingham

Copyright 2013 Susanne Ellingham

Smashwords Edition

This book is issued as a companion to the selection

of poems and other articles printed in

Billy Bell, Redesdale Roadman, Border Bard

which is available as a print and ebook.

An index to those poems is at the end of this book

This second ebook contains

a glossary to the words used in the poems,

all the rest of the poems and

an article on some of the people mentioned in the poems

Published by The Heritage Centre, Bellingham, NE48 2DF

with support from Northumberland National Park

ebook Edition 2013 ISBN 978-0-9575426-2-4

William Bell enjoyed hearing his poetry recited and sung. Please feel free to perform any of his poems or set them to music. In return, please acknowledge Billy Bell as the author.

Cover photographs courtesy of:

Byrness Memorial Window: Revd Dr Susan Ramsaran

Catcleugh water spillway to River Rede: Susanne Ellingham

There is a photo of Billy Bell on the Bellingham Heritage website

All BB’s poems have been numbered in roughly chronological order, based on his hand-written notebooks. Use the Index poem number and the ‘Find’ facility to go directly to any poem. Spelling and punctuation are as in the typescript. Apologies are offered for any mistranscriptions from 1968 (typing up) or 2011-2012 (digitisation)

Acknowledgements are due to everyone who helped to preserve the poems over the years and who helped, however indirectly, in their publication. Particular appreciation is due to Susan Rogerson who rescued the notebooks in 1951 and to William Butler to whom she lent the notebooks in 1968 so that they could be typed up and thanks also to Ian Roberts who liaised with various people and organisations.

Johnny Handle performs a selection of Billy Bell’s poems on his CD: Billy Bell, Redesdale Bard which is available from www.johnnyhandle.co.uk

This ebook is free but all profits from the first book will be shared by the following charities/organisations, without whose essential help Billy Bell’s work could not have been published:

Heritage Centre, Bellingham;

Old Gaol, Hexham,

Northumberland National Park (to be used for Catcleugh Black House)

Byrness & Horsley Parish

Table of Contents

.-----1 Glossary of words used in the poems

.-----2 Introduction - Susanne Ellingham

.-----3 People in the Poems Susanne Ellingham

.-----4 The Rest of Poems

.-----5 Index 1 - alphabetical by title (or first line if no title) and poem number

.-----6 Index 2 - the selection of poems in Billy Bell, Redesdale Roadman, Border Bard.

1 Glossary

NB words may be local dialect from either side of the Border or from Bible/mythology. Spellings are often phonetic

--- Agley- awry

--- Ahint - behind

--- Ayont - beyond

--- Bairns/barnies - children

--- Banes - bones

--- Bates (nane him bates) - beats

--- Bent - type of wiry grass

--- Blate - shy, modest, bashful

--- Blether - nonsense chatter

--- Blethert - foolish talker

--- Boosed - drunk,

--- Boreas - North Wind

--- Bos'ell's Fair - major horse trading fair across the Border at St Boswells

--- Brass nebbed shoon - shoes with metal tips (‘noses’)

--- Braw - handsome,

--- Brawly deckit - in fine clothes

--- Brawxy / braxy - internal inflammation in sheep. (Brawxy mutton was eaten if no better meat could be afforded or obtined)

--- Breeks - trousers

--- Canny - nice, agreeable (ie the English not the Scots usage)

--- Canty - lively, merry

--- Cauldrife - very chilly

--- Chiel - young man

--- Chloral - sedative drug (Victorian use)

--- Chuckies/chookies - hens

--- Churl - fellow, (not very complimentary)

--- Claes - clothes

--- Claggit, claggy - sticky with mud

--- Clarty - dirty, muddy

--- Cleeks - hooks

--- Clegs - horse flies

--- Cleugh - steepsided river valley

--- Clyre - diseased glands in cattle

--- Cowp - tumble over or tip up

--- Crack - chat, gossip

--- Craik - chatter (cf.: gaelic/Irish craic or crack)

--- Crannim - cranium/skull

--- Cree - pigsty - also pigeon cree,

--- Creel - fishing basket

--- Croose - cheerful, active, improved

--- Crowdy - oatmeal porridge

--- Crummy/crummie - a cow with crooked horns

--- Curnies - currants

--- Cushetts - doves or pigeons

--- Cynthia - the moon

--- Dander - temper, anger or pacing in a bad mood

--- Dightin' - clearing up by hand

--- Dinmont - young ram

--- Dour- sullen, stern

--- Drooth - thirst

--- Duntit - knocked, hit

--- Dyke - stone wall

--- Fashious - troublesome

--- Firkin/ferkin - keg for liquid, wet food or butter

--- Flitting - moving because of a change in tenancy or employer

--- Gaberlundsie - tramp, beggar (archaic)

--- Gan oot - go out

--- Gey/gay - very

--- Gimmer - young ewe

--- Girn - grimace, complain peevishly

--- Gleg - quick, alert

--- Goss - goshawk

--- Grane -groan

--- Grumphie - pig

--- Haugh - marshy area by river

--- Heid - head

--- Hemmel e'e - entrance to open shed

--- Herd - shepherd

--- Heugh - rugged hillside or steep slope undercut by river

--- Hind - general farm worker

--- Hinny - term of endearment (cf. honey)

--- Hint / ahint / hintend - behind, back end

--- Hirples - limps

--- Hizzie - hussy, derogatory word for a woman

--- Hogg - young female sheep

--- Hoopled / hooples - hobbled

--- Hoose - house

--- Howdy - midwife

--- Ilka - every

--- Jades, jads - young girls (can be uncomplimentary)

--- Jaloose - suspect something, guess

--- Jethert - Jedburgh

--- Johnny Mace -, should be Jem Mace, a famous 19th century boxer

--- Keek - peek at, steal a glance

--- Ken / Kent - know / knew

--- Kekkle - cackle

--- Kirkyard - cemetery

--- Kite - stomach

--- Kittle - puzzling, ticklish

--- Kittled - had kittens

--- Knowes - upper hill slopes and tops

--- Kye - cattle

--- Landrail - corncrake

--- Lang nebbed - long nosed/posh

--- Laverock - skylark.

--- Leal - loyal

--- Leister- fish spear

--- Linn - waterfall

--- Loof - palm of hand

--- Looses - lice

--- Loupin’ ill - sheep disease causing spasms

--- Lowp - leap

--- Lum - chimney

--- Lynn - waterfall

--- Marah - biblical reference to bitterness (in No.143)

--- Marra - workmate, friend

--- Masher - fellow who fancies himself as a ladies man or smart dresser

--- Mask - letting the tea brew

--- Mavis - song thrush

--- Navvy - labourer on large constructions eg canal, road, railway, reservoir

--- Nibby - walking stick with hooked head

--- Nid the first - Adam

--- Nimrod - mighty hunter (Biblical)

--- Nobby - classy

--- Oxter - armpit

--- Pairting - separating (from)

--- Pawkey - 1) sly, knowing or 2) fussy

--- Peeler - policeman; after Sir Robert Peel’s London Police Force begun in 1829

--- Peesweep - peewit

--- Philomel - swallow

--- Phoebus - sun

--- Press - cupboard

--- Pricker - reiver (from his spurs)

--- Prig (verb) - steal, filch

--- Pudden cloot - cloth for steamed puddings

--- Pyke/pike - haycock

--- Queen - young woman (cf.: Scots quine)

--- Quench your drooth - quench your thirst

--- Quey - calf, young cow

--- Racker teeth - cross-cut saws have teeth raked alternately to right and left

--- Rackit - racked, fully stretched

--- Ramfoosed - ? (possibly made up in order to fit the rhyme)

--- Riggin stane - stone forming part of roof ridge

--- Rill - small stream

--- Rob the Ranter - Rabbie Burns

--- Sark - nightshirt

--- Saut - salt

--- Scraggit - scraggy

--- Shanky's nag - on foot

--- Shiel - summer pasture land

--- Shoon - shoes

--- Sic(k)-like - such

--- Siccar - sure

--- Smit / smitten, infected (Billy uses it for falling in love)

--- Snaw - snow

--- Snell - sharp, biting, fierce

--- Snooty mou - snout/mouth of animal

--- Sonsie -friendly, jolly

--- Soo - sow

--- Sough / seugh - open ditch for drainage

--- Spang - leap, jump

--- Spavin - bony tumour on horse's hock

--- Spawn - young, especially offish

--- Speir - ask

--- Spree - lively outing

--- Stell - sheep enclosure out on hillside

--- Streinding post - straining post, strongest post in a length of fencing

--- Swother - confused, bewildered

--- Syke - small stream, often marshy

--- Tallow - fat (sheep's tallow is used for candles)

--- Tattie/tattoe - potato

--- Teem - pour into, overflow

--- Theekit - thatched

--- Tommy - food, especially that supplied in employer-run shops

--- Tup - ram

--- Wairsh - lacking savour, insipid

--- Wame/weam - stomach

--- Wean - baby (at weaning stage)

--- Weary Willie -tramp

--- Weel cork'd barm - stage of beer making

--- Whaulps -whelps

--- Whaup - curlew

--- Whin - gorse

--- Wizard of the North - Sir Walter Scott

--- Yetling - cast iron pot

--- Yowe - ewe, female sheep

Extra sources consulted include:

Alnwick dialect list 1870

Daft Laddies by Don Clegg and Clive Dalton

Dictionary of the Scots Language

Glossary of North Country Words. Brockett (1846 Ed)

Northumbriana org uk

Return to Contents List

2 Introduction

Billy Bell’s life and times are described in the first book (Billy Bell, Redesdale Roadman, Border Bard). His mother was Scottish and his father’s family came from south west Northumberland, They were mainly agricultural labourers and shepherds. Although born just over the Scottish Border in Riccarton he lived all the rest of his life in or near Byrness, just south of Carter Bar where the modern A68 crosses the Border. He was christened in 1862 and died in 1941. Most of the poems were written before World War 1, in the years after his first wife died in 1902. For nearly 50 years he worked as the roadmender on the seven miles of road south of the Border. Catcleugh Reservoir was built at this time, changing the character of the River Rede. When he began, horse, foot and, soon, bicycle were the usual means of transport; by the time he retired in the early 30s motor transport had taken over.

As told in the first book about Billy Bell, the original notebooks were saved from being burnt by Susan Rogerson in 1951. Mrs Rogerson made several attempts over the next 20 years to get organisations interested in taking on the publication of the poems. This lead to her lending the notebooks to William Butler who was Director of Tourism for Northumberland and a keen collector of everything to do with Northumberland, especially in relation to local music. At that time publishing was a very labour intensive process. As the first step the poems were typed up by Mr Butler’s secretary (who, in an understandable Freudian slip, typed pressure for pleasure in The Plucking of the Geese). However, the project then stalled, despite the involvement of people like the County Archivist. This was because, although Susan Rogerson undoubtedly owned the notebooks, the copyright in the words belonged to Billy Bell’s son, John Nicholas, who could not be traced. Since the copyright therefore could not be assigned, publication would create a potential legal dispute. After Susan Rogerson died no further efforts were made to pursue publication. Some more research into Billy Bell’s life was made in 1988 by Border Library staff in Hexham who were given help by several people who had known him when they were young. Following this, a cousin of John Nicholas Bell told the Border Library that their last contact with him had been at a family funeral in 1945.

It was therefore fortunate that it was only in 2011, seventy years after Billy Bell’s death, that a typed copy of the poems that had been given to the Border Library, came to my notice when I was a volunteer at the Old Gaol. The poems had just come out of copyright. Modern technology makes it much easier for one person to put in the time and effort needed to prepare something for publication, either in print or as an ebook. Print, while now proportionately less expensive than when all was done manually, still involves costs. Happily the Northumberland National Park recognised that the poems and other papers give an important historical insight into the social history of the Redesdale and North Tyne area and supported the publication of the book Billy Bell, Redesdale Roadman, Border Bard.

Johnny Handle and I choose about 70 poems from the collection of around 360 for the first book. Both our lists were very similar. Some poems were comic, often written in dialect for added effect. Others have more sharply thoughtful observations. Johnny also produced a CD, reciting and singing a selection of the poems. (Available from www.johnnyhandle.co.uk ) This second ebook makes all the rest of Billy Bell’s poems available to anyone with an interest in the poetry and lifestyle of the period and the area. While most are not of the standard of those selected for the first book they still give a flavour of the way people lived and died and how they enjoyed themselves in a rural landscape in the years before the First War. They range from Pic Nics in Rochester (89b) and village hall evenings in Noah’s Ark Soiree (191b) (a gathering which continued well into the 1920s) to fishing and courting. Maybe, as with The Lass o’ Coquetside (253b) and her potential swains, some will take your fancy

Return to Contents List

3 The People in Billy Bell’s poems

Adapted from the article An Unusual Source for Family History: Poetry in the Winter 2012 issue of the Journal of the Northumberland & Durham Family History Society.

Poem numbers with ‘a’ are in the first book; poem numbers with ‘b’ are in this book.

Unlike more well-known poets, many of whom are creating something philosophical out of a description or imaginary situation, the local poets of an area often mention local events and the real people that they knew. William Billy Bell (1862-1941) wrote three poems about Bellingham Show. This tradition was brought up to date in August 2013 when the local schoolchildren performed their modern poem about the show at the Bellingham Show & Country Festival.

The techniques of family history research (eg looking at Censuses and directories) can be used to help pick out which of the subjects in the poems are imaginary - or highly altered - and which concern real people. Many of Billy Bell’s poems are about the landscapes he knew, mainly Redesdale but also Tynedale, Irthingdale (around Gilsland) and the Scottish borders around Jedburgh. Others are about imaginary courtships, the seasons and local farming and pastimes. A few are about groups of people eg the navvies who worked on building Catcleugh Reservoir. Several, however, can be linked to named people who lived and worked in North Redesdale or were related to Billy. A few of these poems are, strictly speaking, letters - items that seldom survive when someone dies. However Billy seems to have much preferred versifying to writing prose and he kept copies of some of these letters in his many poetry notebooks. Most of such poems relate to only one person but the example below is interesting in naming several local people. Billy is writing to a friend, Wilkinson Dodd, who had been Clerk of the Reservoir Works at Catcleugh around the turn of the century. He was the same age as Billy who lived nearby at Low Byrness. Billy was the roadman for 48 years on the stretch of the A68 that goes north from Rochester, past Catcleugh and up to the Scottish Border at Carter Bar. Later, after working in Monmouthshire, Edward Wilkinson Dodd moved to Yorkshire and in 1911 he was working as Inspector of Public Works in Barnsley. (170a)

LETTER TO:- MR. WILKIE DODD, Low Birness,

Beaufort Rise. Monmouthshire. 7th December, 1905

My Dear old Friend,

pray you attend

I will answer your letter in rhyme

For to write you in prose, Sir great goodness knows

It would take up too much of my time.

I am glad Sir to hear, as you quite make it clear

Again you are busy navvy driving

‘Mong the Nobbies and Bens, and th' ring tailed Siens

And other funny names most surprising.

No doubt the old hands, one quite understands

Will not like to be bossed by a stranger

Don’t show the white feather, and the storm you will weather

And soon steer your ship clear of danger.

You're now far from the hills, and bonnie bonnie rills

And far from the friends you hold dear

Who often think on you, and wish you success

With hearts that are leal and sincere.

Wilkie’s Census entries show he was a Northumbrian, born at Ryal, in Stamfordham parish, after his parents moved from the parish of St John Lee. The next four verses are banter about work and finding a wife. Then it continues:

On Tuesday last, mid the stormy blast

Your bike passed along on a cart

To see it go by, Oh! I nearly did cry

For the sight Sir quite melted my heart.

I thought on the times I had seen it go past

With good old Dodd it astride

And the many happy days, and different ways

We often and merrily did ride.

As his other poems show, cycling was a popular hobby as well as a means of getting around the distances both men will have covered in their jobs.

As to news in the vale there’s a not much to detail

But this much I truly can say

At Elisha Farm a fire careered in its ire

And consumed Jimmy Davidsons hay.

But he had it insured, so it can be endured

As well and verily it should

For instead of a loss, I believe he'll be close

Unto twenty pounds to the good.

This is James Davidson of Elishaw Farm, north of Otterburn

Our friend Thomas Brydon, we'll now see astride on

A hunter and following the hounds

'Lisha Farm he has taken and soon will awaken

The vale with his musical sounds.

Thomas Brydon was a Road Material Contractor who lived at Tilesheds, Otterburn, south west of the Elishaw farms. His son, also Thomas, was close in age to Billy and Wilkie. He was married and in 1901 was living in Otterburn. The Brydons will have supplied roadstone both for the reservoir paths and the public road.

The Angel of death hath been in our midst

John Hedley is with us no more

He sleepeth at rest, and perhaps it is best

Although we his sad loss deplore.

There are a couple of possible John Hedleys. The nearest to this date and area was only 30 and died in late 1905. The other was aged 78 but had died around 18 months before the letter was written. Both deaths were registered locally at Bellingham.

Whilst some have been sad there's others been glad

For such are the workings of Fate

Our neighbour Bill Dagg didn't let his love lag

But is married to his darling Kate.

In 1901 William Dagg was 23 and living with his parents and siblings at Cottonshopeburnfoot near Byrness.

I have oft been to see, your late landlady

And Meggie with her eyes bright and blue

She's expecting you soon, and perhaps the next moon

May bring you again to her view.

In 1901 Wilkie was living in Hut 7 at Catcleugh. The rest of the household were his brother (working as a general labourer), his sister-in-law (presumably the landlady in that she kept house for the brothers) and Wilkie’s young niece Margaret - who must be Meggie.

Don’t neglect now and than, a line from your pen

To convey how your health Sir is keeping

And may the Great Powers, watch over your hours

Whether resting or working or sleeping.

Now Sir, I must close, and seek some repose

In health I may say I am well

Till I see you again I will constant remain

Yours faithfully.

WILLIAM BELL.

Several of the other poems are addressed to William’s family. His cousin Sallie Bell helped her mother run a boarding house for tourists at Dacre House in Gilsland. (See 76b, 80b and 202a) One poem to her mentions her sister Jeannie Moore. Through his first wife, Mary Gray, Billy had several nephews and nieces. The poem Twice Motherless (51a) is about their infant niece Lily Thompson who came to live with them from 1899 until Mary died in 1902. Another sister, Mrs Dunn, had a large family at Willington on Tyneside. Billy wrote several poems to his nephew John Dunn, name-checking all his siblings eg Christmas Greeting (261a) and Letter to Mr John Dunn (68b).

Many other individuals were named in poems or had poems addressed to them. Two of them were fellow poets of a similar age who lived nearby. Lines to J. R. Waitt, Rochester (321b) was written to John Richardson Waitt who was a whinstone breaker for the County Council. He was a few years younger than Billy. In 1911 he was living in Rochester with his parents and brother. The poem An Appeal From the Muses - to Rev H Wright (113b) asks why he has stopped writing poetry. In the 1911 Census the Rev Herbert Wright was living in Byrness Vicarage, with his wife and one servant.

Jacob and Tom Robson farmed locally. Tom Robson of Bridgeford, was MFH (Masters of Foxhounds) for the North Tyne Hunt and Jacob (Jake) Robson was MFH for the Border Hounds at Byrness Their father had employed Billy’s father and as young boys they probably all played together and maybe even attended the same local school at Byrness when very young. The Horn of the Huntsman is Silent Today and To the Memory of a Bold Foxhunter (324b & 325b) are both about Tom Robson.

Robert Renwick was a local friend. The poem Roby's Farewell to his old Mare (34a) is about his sorrow when his old horse died. John Steel built the gate to the Catcleugh reservoir on the A68 - see John Steel’s Gate (90a). William Wullie Amos was a widower aged 36 in 1901. He lived at Whitelee Farm, north of Byrness with his young sons with his aunt, Jane Hunter, as their housekeeper. The poem addressed to him (182a) was banter over a huge walking stick Billy gave him.

The reference to Jeannie Murra’ in "To a Friend on his Approaching Marriage" (241a) shows it refers to John Douglas who married Jane Murray at Bellingham in 2nd qtr 1906. In the 1901 census she was living with parents at Whitelee Cottage, Chattlehope, Troughend.

Some poems are obituaries, like the ones for Tom Robson and In Memoriam Richard Oliver, Cottonshopeburnfoot (323b) which commemorated Richard Oliver who