English Dance and Song April 2026
This news item is based on articles in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts.
The Song That Shaped Me: Jennifer Reid
When I was 20 years old, I got “H.B” tattooed on my arm, and a year later I followed that up with “P.G.” H.B. was Harry Boardman and P.G was Paul Graney, two North West folk singers and collectors that made a huge impression on me, both, sadly, posthumously. I sing a couple of songs from both of these luminaries, one of which I’ll discuss today: Th’ Coaler.
Th’ Coaler was written by Walter Emsley of Salford and appears in his ‘Lancashire Dialect and other poems for recitation’, published in 1918. I heard Harry Boardman’s recording of the song in 2015 and I was so taken with it that I tend to open a lot of my sets with it. A decade later, propping up the merch table for the eighth night in a row while on tour with Eliza Carthy, a woman would comment to me that her uncle enjoys Lancashire dialect poetry. Short of grabbing her by the lapels and demanding his contact details, I ended up with his email address. Just a week before I was due to fly out to Aotearoa for a four-month tour, I received a phone call whilst sat in the M&S multistorey car park at Rochdale. It was Mr. Langston, this lady’s uncle, who is Burnley-born but Bristol-based, and we spoke for 30 minutes solely about his research into Walter Emsley. Well reader, my head almost fell clean off. What luxury!
In this game you hear a lot of the same names being bandied about as folk go on their collecting journeys, but never had I had someone indulge me in Emsley before. His work is really quite remarkable, and it puts me in mind of the overlooked genius of Richard Rome Bealey in the Rochdale dialect. The way Emsley writes about what he knows is clear as day, Th’ Coaler provides you with all you need to know about the miners’ time beneath the surface as well as the worried souls who potter about up top waiting for them to come home. Such a risky job as there ever was and it is of special significance to me as my grandfather – amongst other things – was a miner at Agecroft Colliery and later, Bradford Pit, both in Manchester.
Emsley achieved the usual promotion from newspaper poet to published poet that’s afforded to gradely rhymesters but before all this he was following a poorly paid occupation as a watercolour artist – previously he’d been apprenticed to a copper engraver and liked artistic expression rather more than being almost blinded as a chemist’s errand boy. After a spell in London under the tutelage of Sir Hubert Herkomer, he returned to Manchester to pursue painting. His paintings of Barton Aqueduct are something else lads, and he received a warm welcome at the Manchester Literary Club whenever he visited.
His reflective, sincere approach to both painting and verse shine through. I love singing his work as the audience is left with a feeling akin to standing at the bar unsure if they’re next to be served or not. Th’ Coaler is a real workman’s song, in that it states the truths of the situation and puts on no airs or graces. It is graceful in guiding you to the point but it doesn’t come to your aid in understanding it. If you’ve a mind to put yourself in that bloke’s shoes then this is the place to do it, and if not, well, it’ll be over in two minutes and you can get back to your absent-minded wanderings upstairs can’t you.
There was a bit of a to do in the working class arts scene the other day where a provocative piece of art provoked a conversation around working class spaces. Emsley’s work doesn’t suffer under this concept. He puts you in the working class space, and to hell with you if you don’t know what to do with it. That’s your problem I’m afraid.
Jennifer Reid will be performing Th’ Coaler as part of Songs for the Workers at Cecil Sharp House on Thursday 7 May.
