• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Traditional Songs we sang at school

My dad can still receite a monologue he was taught at school 90 years ago...
The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God...by J.Milton Hayes....
It begins...
There's a one eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu.
There's a little marble cross below the town.
Where a broken hearted woman tends the grave of mad Carew.
And the yellow god, forever, gazes down....


One of my best memories from school was our English teacher reciting this,nobody could do it like Mr Green,and i had forgotten
about it until just now
 
I do wish people would calm down about Political Corectness. My wife is a music teacher and has never been stopped teaching any songs.Unfortunately to get the kids's interest a lot of ther old songs will not do, and don't blame the kids....go to funeral and see how many people sing....hardly any. I am a member of an Amateur Operatic Group and it is difficult to get people to watch Gilbert and Sullivan,, fashions change
 
I do wish people would calm down about Political Corectness. My wife is a music teacher and has never been stopped teaching any songs.Unfortunately to get the kids's interest a lot of ther old songs will not do, and don't blame the kids....go to funeral and see how many people sing....hardly any. I am a member of an Amateur Operatic Group and it is difficult to get people to watch Gilbert and Sullivan,, fashions change

Oh dear. We (well me for one) seem to have annoyed you somewhat Leonard. Of course you are entitled in your plea for some of us to calm down and smell the Un PC roses. I cannot imagine what got over me to accuse the School Authorities of influencing what teachers can and cannot teach in today's musical climate. Although the following might just give you a tiny clue....

Why black sheep are barred and Humpty can't be cracked
By Alexandra Blair, Education Correspondent, The Times.
RECOMMEND? (13)
TRADITIONAL nursery rhymes are being rewritten at nursery schools to avoid causing offence to children.
Instead of singing “Baa baa, black sheep” as generations of children have learnt to do, toddlers in Oxfordshire are being taught to sing “Baa baa, rainbow sheep”.

The move, which critics will seize on as an example of political correctness, was made after the nurseries decided to re-evaluate their approach to equal opportunities.
Stuart Chamberlain, manager of the Family Centre in Abingdon and the Sure Start centre in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, told the local Courier Journal newspaper: “We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do.

“This is fairly standard across nurseries. We are following stringent equal opportunities rules. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else.”

In keeping with the new approach, teachers at the nurseries have reportedly also changed the ending of Humpty Dumpty so as not to upset the children and dropped the seven dwarfs from the title of Snow White.

A spokesman for Ofsted, the watchdog which inspects Sure Start centres, confirmed that centres are expected to “have regard to anti-discrimination good practice” and that staff should “actively promote equality of opportunity”.


And as for the paucity of the numbers of people belting it out at funerals, or the number of potential adult (presumably) Pirates unwilling to sing in Penzance; I fail to see what this has to do with the price of fish...and Im fairly certain that none of the songs mentioned on this Thread were written with the idea of 'actively promoting equal opportunity". Quod erat demonstrandum. Capice?
 
Dennis you may be right. Personally I don't believe everything I read in the papers. When someone from the local authority writes and denies the allegations and proves that they are mis quoted, the papers never report it. hence we hear C**P about not being allowed to fly the flag, which of course is because "It offends people".
 
We had The Ash Grove, Bay of Biscay and Deriivale (tune of Danny Boy - "In Derrivale, beside the sparkiling waters. the salmon leap above the wear..") - not to mention the songs from the Scouts song book in our School Troop!
 
Rob128 I too went to Station road school but cannot remember the Sylvia song but we did sing round and round the mullberry bush and I loved the Sky Boat song. Jean.
 
An interesting thread which I have just read. Many, except for the dedicated school songs I recall singing in the past. In fact most of the hymns are still sung in many churches still.

One song I did not notice in the lists was along the lines of 'good morrow gossip Joan'. I don't know what the occasion was but just near the Robin Hood island, Stratford Road, Hall Green a small marquee had been erected. I was sent to see a film which contained this song - and presumably other. I am not sure why my Nanny and I were in that neck of the woods suffice to say that maybe she had heard there would be bananas or oranges or some such luxury available at one of the shops in that location. Most likely the Birmingham Co-operative Society store.

Incidentally I saw three references to a Devon song. The place name is correctly called Widecombe in the Moor and the fair is the famous one which still takes place on the second Tuesday of September each year.

Zo me 'ansoms eef 'ee wants to come down and zee ole Uncle Tom put it een yer diary.
 
We used to sing 'Old Hitler is a funny one, got a face like a pickled onion, a nose like a squashed tomato and legs like two sticks.' Somehow I don't think this is what you're after but we sang it in class anyway, especially after a raid. Regards, David.
 
I like it David but must admit I don't remember that one but I guess Hitler was gone before I was born. Jean.
 
We Plough the fields and Scatter the good seed on the ground......
Reminds me of The Harvest Festival at School.
The Display in Assembly Hall of all our Donations used to contain some artificial Platted Crusty Bread.....
and Cottage Loaves... It used to look lovely.
 
Thanks Jean now you've made me feel real old. My brother and I got the strap for running up and down behind the multitude of classmates pretending to iron during a rendition of 'Dashing away with the smoothing iron.' 'Bobby Shafter' was another. 'Barbara Allen' had a good airing also. Regards, David.
I like it David but must admit I don't remember that one but I guess Hitler was gone before I was born. Jean.
 
David we are going to the park next week for our last visit before going to our van. Anything you want photographed let us know. Jean.
 
We sang Over in the Meadow, Early one morning....I went to school in Coventry, the music books were all defaced with rude words. The Mermaid, Sally Brown...I don't think you can say mulater now, it meant mixed race, Sally Brown was a bright mulater, Whey hey roll and go, she drinks rum and chews tobbaccer, spend my money on Sally Brown. We sang lots of sea shanties like this. A Roving. The Drunker Sailor. More gentle was Pretty Robin Can you Tell. The Cuckoo, When Daisies Pied And Violets Blue (guess what they defaced that too?) which was Wm Shakespeare.
We also did our own in the playground like In And Out the Bonnie Bluebells, Tisha Ma Tossa Ma Teaser. Shake Shake Shakey, The Farmer Takes a wife. I wone some sweets on an oen air stage in Southsea singin Little Bird whih I learned at sunday school and 10 bob and a bag of crisps singing The Whale at a theatre in Rhyll. Enjoyed your songs know all of them. Nico ( I was born a Brummie by the way)
Nico
 
My recollection from my young school days was ;
john browns body ;
and poor old michael vinergan
and the old one was ten green bottles
always sung by dear old mrs annette at the infants of upper thomas st aston ;
the best school for me was st marys where upon i was a milk monitor and the teachers was great
then transfered to ickneild st hockley because my two cousin was already there mom said you have to go with your cousins
barry and bryan phelps if any body can recall them ;both succceeded in life barry lives in spain in retirement bryan still grafting in his own electric business in aston ; astonian ;
 
We sang a song at school, but not sure what it was called, the words started. Spring sends her greeting, winter is fleeting, swift is the snow declining away - ending with 'sing lets all be gay'.
 
Remember a lot of these songs, I went to a Grammar School, so we had a full assembly complete with hymns and prayers every day, something that is not done in these days of equality and PC! My favourite was Jerusalem, dads favourite too and I love the Gilbert and Sullivan operattas - our school had a house music competition every year, taken very seriously by all involved, the one I remember the best was Pirates, done in my first year and boy did we feel important at the time. WE sang Sounds of Silence in my second year and it still brings back vivid memories of school.
My 12 year old has a weekly assembly, but it is only his house that attend - each house has a different day for their assembly - but they have no music or prayer, sometimes someone outside comes in to tell them about their work and attendance prizes and detention lists are given out, so no wonder they don't learn school songs or hymns!
Oh and another thing that comes to mind is the time we were on Songs of Praise, practising for a week before, every day, but can't remember what year or what we sang!
Happy days!
Sue
 
I went to George Dixon Grammar School and our so called music lessons consisted purely of hymn practice. I think in the five years that I was there we had only about 4 or 5 lessons on music theory. Our music master was also organist and choir master at St Martins and I think his main concern was a) to find boys for the school choir and then b) the best of those for the church choir.

We did sing at my primary school but my voice was so bad the teacher actually told me not sing but stay silent whilst the others were singing. I can remember not singing the British Gennadiers, Bonnie Dundee, Do ye ken John Peel? and others.
 
I heard this morning on Radio 2 whilst driving 'Morning has Broken' sung by Cat Stevens. What a lovely song that was and which was sung at school. How come I still remember most of the words some 50 years on?? Now where did I put my car keys lol....
 
I remember singing that song most mornings at assembly really turns back the years carolina, how luckey we were to grow up on the 50's.
paul
 
I was belted at school for singing, 'Good King Wenles last looked out in his pink pyjamas, something hit him on the snout, it was a bunch of bananas, brightly shone his nose that night and the pain was crueelll. Slap slap slap. Regards, David.
 
Hello David, that brigs back memories, with a Tow row ro ro ro etc to the British Grenardiers, and The Bonnetts of Bonny Dundee, WHen we sang John Peel we did an extra long Haloooooooo! to the disgust of the teacher. My Coventry Gran used to sing "Oh the Land the land of Scotland shooting peas up a nanny goats bottom" to Men of Harlech, I got in to trouble for singing that version. My Stourbridge Nan to the same tune sang "Clear the way for old Bob Tyler hit him the belly and bost is biler," I think he was a very fat local man.?
Nico
 
Hi, All

I was in the school choir LoL and I remember singing at the town hall along with many other schools. Our music teacher was called Mr Beach, he was ok most of the time but some days he was a bit grumpy ( must have been our singing he he ).
Anyway, he had a small dark goatee beard and dark bushy hair so it only seemed appropriate that he should have a nick name.
Well eventually, “The bearded dotted crotchet“ came into being, you have to have a sense of humour about these things you know and… it is musically correct.
I do remember though, one day he let us bring in some music that we liked and he let us play “A Whiter Shade of Pale “by Procall Harem, so he was not that bad after all and do you know we sang our hearts out for him, why because he was one of us in our choir.

Charles.
 
In the junior school the headmaster always entered assembly to a piece of classical music, and I can remeber singing those somgs at school , great memories , and I can remember the hymn that we used to sing at the end of the school year
it started with Lord dismiss us with thy blessing
thanks for mercies past recieved
there are then two more lines which I have snatches of and finishes with
Those returning, those returning
Make more faithfull than before

dont remember the massed school bands, but was greatly disappointed to be excluded from a choir in the junior school, for not singing quieter and over powering the others.
 
We also sang 'Lord dismiss us from thy presence'. It seemed particularly sad on the day we left school though. It eended with 'Those returning, Those returning, make more failthful than before.
 
In the junior school the headmaster always entered assembly to a piece of classical music, and I can remeber singing those somgs at school , great memories , and I can remember the hymn that we used to sing at the end of the school year
it started with Lord dismiss us with thy blessing
thanks for mercies past recieved
there are then two more lines which I have snatches of and finishes with
Those returning, those returning
Make more faithfull than before

dont remember the massed school bands, but was greatly disappointed to be excluded from a choir in the junior school, for not singing quieter and over powering the others.

Hello Mewla, We always went out to a lovely piece of classical music I now know as Intermezzo from Cavallera Rusticana by Mascagni. I still like it now. It was in the Godfather and Kleenex tissues ads and now they put words to it as Attasea ans Sancta Maria. I can't remember what we came in to though. this was 1962 onwards in Cov and the gramaphone was a big piece of furniture. In the baby class our Miss Ellis who looked liked Geraldine James as Miss Marple, (she was lovely) wore gaiters. She had a wind up one with a silver trumpet.We went home after we had sang " Hands together softly so, Little Eyes Shut Tight, Father just before we go here are prayers tonight, AAAAAAAAAAAMEN,. Our hands closed and eyes tight shut, I used to peek, chairs on the desks,. I can smell the classroom, the plastcine balls, chalk. powder paints, nature table, pump bags, little bottle of milk, fish tank, coke stove, Glue in a bunged up bottle, white plasticky glue, roundy ended scissors,.... Ramble ramble....Nico
 
Back
Top