Song of the Men of Hull

 The Victorians loved a good ceremony.  All sorts of events provided an excuse; visiting royalty, the opening of a new housing scheme, even the start of work on an infrastructure project could occasion a civic party with a band and a choir processing from the station or church or town hall.  So when the Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company, founded in 1880, cut the first sod to begin a new line between the two towns on 15 July 1881 there had to be an appropriate ceremony.  (It was 4 years before the railway was actually opened and didn't make it quite to Barnsley).

Step forward Henry Kemp, Master of the Charterhouse.  He wrote a poem, Song of the Men of Hull, in 8 stanzas, which was set to music by William Spark.

The medallion of Kemp on the front of the sheet music was, we are told, "executed by Mr Charles Mason, Hull, and presented by him to the Rev H W Kemp B.A."  Kemp was not known as a poet - not surprisingly.  But he did his best to get as much of Hull's history into the work as possible, including Michael de la Pole.  Unfortunately this meant that both the sheet music and the catalogue entry (below) had to go to great lengths to explain that history.  True to the title, it is all about great men.  No women were apparently involved.

I know of only two surviving copies of the song, but perhaps there are more languishing in piano stools or choir cupboards.

The music was the work of William Spark, a Leeds-based organist, composer and music teacher.  How the collaboration came about is not known.  As we see in the lengthy introduction, it starts off in 6:8 time.  Two choirs are then involved, a 3-part and a 4-part.  Perhaps these were intended to be the junior and senior members of a large church choir.  Each verse switches from 3-part to 4-part half way through, and switches rhythm from 6:8 to 2:4 as it does so.  

The event was reported by the Eastern Morning News in mind-numbing detail for those accustomed to watching such occasions on film.  There are two broadsheet pages of very small print unrelieved by pictures.  The full history of the railway company and its plans; the vast numbers of people taking part in the procession representing all aspects of the city's life; who conducted the ceremonies and how; all are described meticulously including the fact that there was a great deal of snowfall.  But one has to plough through to the last column of the first page to find the only mention of the song:  'The "Song of the Men of Hull" was then sung and the vast concourse dispersed"'.  That's it.  Who sang it, who wrote it, the article writer seems not to care.  It would seem that the song was not written especially for the occasion.  And to be fair, it is only the catalogue entry (above) which claims that it was.  The sheet music simply says it was sung then.  Maybe it was the fact that it was sung then which prompted Kemp to get Gough & Davy, Hull's long-lived music shop, to publish it (at the price of 3 shillings - about £10 in today's values, so hardly cheap).  But it was destined to sink into deserved obscurity.

Thanks to Steve Bramley and Andrae Sutherland for their considerable help with the research for this post.