Annotation:Silver Street Lasses

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X:1 T:Silver Street Lasses M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Lionel Winship music manuscript collection, B:Moat Hill, Wark, Northumberland, 1833. B: http://www.farnearchive.com/show_images.asp?id=W0101601&image=1 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amin cB|A3B AGEG|AGAB cBcd|e^fge dedc|B2G2G2 cB| A3B AGEG|AGAB cBcd|e^fge dedB|c2A2A2:| |:c2A2A2 eg|agab ageg|agab agef|gage dedc|B2G2G2 cB| AGAB cBcd|efed cBAG|(AB/c/) (Bc/d/) (cd/e/) dB|c2A2A2:|]



SILVER STREET LASSES. AKA and see “Biddy Mickey's,” "Loch Leven Castle," “Humors of Tuamgraney,” “Loch Gamhna,” "Tomgraney Castle (1),” “Tuamgraney Castle." English, Reel. England, Northumberland. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune is better known in Scotland and Ireland as “<incipit title="load:leven" width=850 link="https://tunearch.org/wiki/Loch Leven Castle">Loch Leven Castle</incipit>” or “Tuamgraney Castle.” It appears under the “Silver Street Lasses” title in the music manuscript collections of Tyneside musicians Lionel Winship (1833) and James Moore (1841). There are several Silver Streets in northern England, notably in Durham and Newcastle. The title probably refers to Silver Street (now defunct) in Newcastle, Northumberland, once known as “Jew Gate” in the 13th century as it was home to a Jewish community there. The street, which led down a hill too steep for horse-drawn carriages, seems to have had several names, according to “The present state of Newcastle Streets within the walls” from Historical Account of Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Including the Borough of Gateshead (1827, pp. 160-82): “it was anciently called All-Hallow-gate, and also Temple-gate, it should seem from the circumstance of its communicating with All Saints church. It occurs too in old writings with the name of Jew-gate, which, as well as its present name, probably originated in the same cause, that is, from the placed being principally inhabited by Jews who dealt in silver plate. There is at present a Presbyterian meeting-house in this street.”

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1956; p. 58. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 186.

Recorded sources: -



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