Annotation:All the Lads of Copper Alley

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ALL THE LADS OF COPPER ALLEY. AKA and see "Money Musk (1)." English, Reel. England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The melody appears in the c. 1812 music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician John Bell (1783-1864). He appended this note with the tune:

Caleb Angus, a coach maker in the Biggemarket, Newcastle, he bought a piece of property part of the States Hall Property with ...title for very little money which he built by workmen called Angus's Mechanic's Court, which he called Angus's Court and Saint John's Lane, the latter known to the public by the nam eof Copper Alley from his paying the workmen their weekly wages in Birmingham Copper halfpence which gave rise to the song and tune of "All the Lads of Copper Alley." He was born in the year 1742 and was married at ...10 June 1771 to ... Jameson, who was daughter of ....and died 13th May 1823 aged 89 years.

A notice at Sitelines [1], regarding Angus's grave at Elswick, Westgate Hill Cemetery, gives that: "Caleb Angas (1742-1831) was a coach maker and industrialist. He studied coach and carriage manufacture in London.In 1780 he opened a business in the Bigg Market. He imported mahogany and other timber from British Honduras on his own ships. The business became the largest of its kind outside London. His youngest son, George, emigrated to Australia and had a town named after him (Angaston). Caleb Angus also owned a copperas factory in the Lower Ouseburn which made sulphuric acid for the soap and glass industries. His grave monument has a square urn on top of it."

The title "All the Lads of Copper Alley" also appears in Henry Robson's list of Northumbrian song and dance tunes, c. 1800, however, the song Bell refers to did not survive.

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