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Below is the text of a blog I did to preseve a record I had written on a cafe’s tissues in order a capture an extract from an old book in their library. Following the original blog is the Discussion to which it was addressed – from a University of Strathclyde MOOC on Mining and representations of miners and mining with Kirstie Blair, one of the Lead Educators (with responsibility for literature & art) for Straclyde on the course. Kirstie identifies the poet correctly and gives excellent background information.

Corrections added. Thanks Kirstie from Steve

ORIGINAL BLOG FOLLOWS

This is an except from a poem by Robert Giston (Gibson? – my notes and hand-writing are unclear) ‘Pitman Poet’ from North Bondgate Bishop Auckland (1817 – 1878), From Edward Lloyd (1916) History of the Crook and Neighbourhood Co-operative Corn ill, Flour & Provision Society Limied and a History of the Town and District of Crook. Pelaw-on-Tyne, Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works.

I wrote the excerpt down on the back of a paper tissue (all I had) from the book which was in the café’s library of ‘The Blue Stone Tea Shop’. Wish I’d got more.

Illustrates that miners were aware of the stereotype of the lewd and rude miner (the pit is described as if it were Hell itself) but also of the joys of religion and the holy day, Sunday. Light and dark are moral things here too. But the ‘kind hewers’ are interesting too – not just horrible tales down there then. In Sid Chaplin’s The Thin Seam the mine is sexualised and spoken of as a woman. I have heard of this in other sources too. Some deep stuff about gender and sex politics here.

And, wailing and groaning, he’d leave his dear home,

Ar five in the morning, for regions of gloom;

And there until seven at ev’ning, he’d sigh

Where a gleam from kind hewers never fell on his eye;

The light but one day in seven he saw; –

That transient Sunday which mercy made law;

And it seem’d but a dream of life’s delicious form,

And pass’d like a gleam of the sun in a storm.

Gloomy and woeful was time as it roll’d,

Horrid and awful the tales that were told.

Hellish and fiendish the blasphemy wild;

And tho’ twas outlandish at first to the child,

The vile repetition the legacy gave,

And oft in derision twas hurled at a knave,

CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE MOOC

Hi Kirstie

This (Kirstie’s short lecture on representations of miners) sent me running to a note I made on a tissue from the cafe at Crook because I came across some mix of the stereotypes you mention. i have typed them out in a blog and also asked Blue Stone tea Shop if they still have this book in their cafe library. I live in Crook.

Here is blog with my transcription and reference:
THe connection to this blog was here.

Kirstie BlairLead Educator14 MAY@SteveBamlett Thank you! I think this might be Robert Gibbon? Here’s an advance preview of my entry for him in the ‘Piston, Pen & Press’ database (in 2 parts due to word limits):
1/2

‘Robert Gibbon was born in the mining districts near Durham, in West Auckland, and remained in the area, working as a collier for most or all of his career (see entry for Job’s Hill Colliery). He is listed in the 1851 census as a coal miner in Auckland, and may be the Gibbon who is a ‘news agent’ in the same area on the 1871 census date. It is possible that he spent time in Scotland, because his 1868 book, Reflections from Nature, is dedicated to the Waverley Burns Club, Glasgow. Gibbon’s obituary in the Northern Echo (18 May 1878, p.4) says that ‘Throughout the coal-mining districts of Durham and Northumberland everybody knew Bobby Gibbon, as he was familiarly called.’

He knew Edward Rymer, who mentions him in his autobiography (see Newcastle Chronicle, 8 April 1893).  Liked1 LikeYou like this comment 1 Reply Bookmark Report

Kirstie BlairLead EducatorFollow14 MAY2/2
As a poet, Gibbon published at least three pamphlets in the early 1860s: 

• The Poetical Works of Robert Gibbon, 
• Wavelets of Fancy and The Spirit of Temperance. These are reviewed in ‘Collier Poetry’, in the Durham County Advertiser (8 August 1862). 
• Reflections from Nature (Bishop Auckland: G. E. Briggs, 1868) is a substantial collection. Written in standard English, it contains many conventional poems and songs on standard topics, and poems addressed to Dora Greenwell (who may have known Gibbon personally) and Edward Rymer. A small number of poems are on political topics, such as ‘Reform’ (p.90) or industrial and mining themes (see ‘Literary Work’ for ‘The Engineman’).
• No newspaper poems have been located, so he may have published under a pseudonym or initials.’  Liked1 LikeYou like this comment 1 Reply Bookmark Report

Steve Bamlett20 hoursThanks so much for those extras Kirstie.