Road rules0 min ago
the alley alley oh
17 Answers
the childrens nursrey rhime goes : the big ship sails on the ally alley oh the alley alley oh alley alley oh on the last day of september
i worked out the alley alley oh was the manchester shipping cannal but what was the big ship ?
Answers
1 to 17 of 17
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by x georgia x. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
So sorry we're all letting you down georgia. 1588 was the date of the Spanish Armada; but it was in July, not September, so I don't think there's any connection with the rhyme. Nobody seems to know for certain what the rhyme's about but it has been traiditonally believed to be related to the Manchester Ship Canal. The big ship is probably just a big ship.
Having grown up in Salford ,the Manchester ship canal actually terminated in Salford Docks not Manchester, can i add a little. Even though the thread has been "dead" for a while.
Someone answered earlier and said about the Irish children referring to the sea as the Illey alley o,bear in mind a lot of the workforce on the MSC were Irish "Navigators" (navvies as they became known in the area) so called as they dug ,by hand, the NAVIGATIONAL canal's of the time.
A lot of them settled in the area and there families remained for generations,my own included, so originally it may have been from the Irish Illey alley o, but Anglicised.
One of the reasons for this Anglicisation may have been down to the geographics of the area. I recall as a child in 1960s and 70s that at certain points you could look down the alleys that ran between the back to back terraced houses and quite literally see the big ship sailing "down the alley".
The Docks are long since quiet and the area is now a Marina ,the warehouses of yesteryear are luxury flats.
The foghorns on the "Big ships" at midnight on new years eve at the Docks are still alive each year,but only in my mind,as I go back to those childhood days.
I may be an adult and moved away,but those days in Lowry's Salford have many happy childhood memories.
Someone answered earlier and said about the Irish children referring to the sea as the Illey alley o,bear in mind a lot of the workforce on the MSC were Irish "Navigators" (navvies as they became known in the area) so called as they dug ,by hand, the NAVIGATIONAL canal's of the time.
A lot of them settled in the area and there families remained for generations,my own included, so originally it may have been from the Irish Illey alley o, but Anglicised.
One of the reasons for this Anglicisation may have been down to the geographics of the area. I recall as a child in 1960s and 70s that at certain points you could look down the alleys that ran between the back to back terraced houses and quite literally see the big ship sailing "down the alley".
The Docks are long since quiet and the area is now a Marina ,the warehouses of yesteryear are luxury flats.
The foghorns on the "Big ships" at midnight on new years eve at the Docks are still alive each year,but only in my mind,as I go back to those childhood days.
I may be an adult and moved away,but those days in Lowry's Salford have many happy childhood memories.
Just because some kids in Salford sang this ditty it doesn't mean it has anything to do with the Manchester Ship Canal. Canals have "cuts" or "cuttings" not "alleys". It's a coruption of the French Allez as in "alley-oop" said by acrobats, and "ho" as in "heave-ho" chanted by sailors when pulling up the sails. So the people would shout Allez Ho meaning "come on let's go!" which rang around the docks.
Tall ships needed to get underway for long voyages by the begining of autumn at the very latest to avoid being caught in the winter storms ie last day of September.
Simple really
Tall ships needed to get underway for long voyages by the begining of autumn at the very latest to avoid being caught in the winter storms ie last day of September.
Simple really
Just because some kids in Salford sang this ditty it doesn't mean it has anything to do with the Manchester Ship Canal. Canals have "cuts" or "cuttings" not "alleys". It's a coruption of the French Allez as in "alley-oop" said by acrobats, and "ho" as in "heavy ho" chanted by sailors when pulling up the sails. So the crew would shout Allez Ho meaning "come on let's go!"
Tall ships needed to get underway for long voyages by the begining of autumn at the very latest to avoid being caught in the winter storms ie last day of September.
Simple really
Tall ships needed to get underway for long voyages by the begining of autumn at the very latest to avoid being caught in the winter storms ie last day of September.
Simple really
It seems most likely the Ally Ally O- comes from the Irish nursery tune, and brought to the NW with the huge Irish diaspora, and adapted. It is logged in the Irish Musical archive from Dublin,.
The famous Clancy Brothers notably sang this song as the " The Big Ship sails on the "Illy Ally Oh" - rather than Ally Ally Oh. The Salford ship canal did not open until 1894- but had a large Irish community working on the docks canals etc, so it would have been well known.
The Irish Traditional Music Archive certainly list it as "Illy Ally Oh".
https:/
It is also listed as an 1880 tune, here
https:/
So it is a long time before, the opening of the ship canal that it was being sung.
Certainly was part of the link to the sea and the communities around the docks. and chimes with children and playground songs- so popular in the past.
So originally a nursery rhyme - added to and extended in folk spirit- and probably perhaps with opening of the Manchester ship canal and largeIrish communities in Salford and Manchester, who knew the nursery rhyme already. And popularised later.
It travelled well across the playgrounds of the land- but mainly NW, I believe. Beautifully represented , in the Taste of Honey film with Rita Tushingham and Thora Hird- about her life and expecting a baby with a black Liverpool sailor.
The SS Arctic which left Liverpool and collided with another ship off Newfoundland- in 1859 may be the best candidate in terms of a ship going don - it was the biggest loss of life at sea in the Atlantic on a steamer before the Titanic. No women or children survived at all. 359 lives were lost. It sank on the 27th September, perhaps late in the day Though many ships over the years wuld have sank on this date, it seems the most prominent, and a big incident only later eclipsed in popular memory by the Titanic.
It was shocking news both sides of the Atlantic. according to Wikipedia-New York New first heard of the disaster on October 11, with the arrival of the survivors rescued by Lebanon. Later that day, Baalham's report, telegraphed from Halifax, was received at the Collins Ship offices.
https:/
So news travelled slow in those times. but a close fit. To an added rhyme to the ditty. Though a lot of ships went down, and it may be simpler origin.
rhttps://www.thoughtco.com/the-sinking-of-the-steamship-arctic-1774002
The Bromley is listed in a web chat as leaving Salford quays and sinkinking in the Irish Sea on the last day of September, but I could not find an internet record of this, in this quick search- it is not memorable in news terms - so it chimes more with the arctic- but perhaps it is just a simple rhyme after all that fits people in different places.
An Intriguing little mystery
Best
Richard Scott, Liverpool
I will ask next time I go in Merseyside Maritime Museum what they think.
The famous Clancy Brothers notably sang this song as the " The Big Ship sails on the "Illy Ally Oh" - rather than Ally Ally Oh. The Salford ship canal did not open until 1894- but had a large Irish community working on the docks canals etc, so it would have been well known.
The Irish Traditional Music Archive certainly list it as "Illy Ally Oh".
https:/
It is also listed as an 1880 tune, here
https:/
So it is a long time before, the opening of the ship canal that it was being sung.
Certainly was part of the link to the sea and the communities around the docks. and chimes with children and playground songs- so popular in the past.
So originally a nursery rhyme - added to and extended in folk spirit- and probably perhaps with opening of the Manchester ship canal and largeIrish communities in Salford and Manchester, who knew the nursery rhyme already. And popularised later.
It travelled well across the playgrounds of the land- but mainly NW, I believe. Beautifully represented , in the Taste of Honey film with Rita Tushingham and Thora Hird- about her life and expecting a baby with a black Liverpool sailor.
The SS Arctic which left Liverpool and collided with another ship off Newfoundland- in 1859 may be the best candidate in terms of a ship going don - it was the biggest loss of life at sea in the Atlantic on a steamer before the Titanic. No women or children survived at all. 359 lives were lost. It sank on the 27th September, perhaps late in the day Though many ships over the years wuld have sank on this date, it seems the most prominent, and a big incident only later eclipsed in popular memory by the Titanic.
It was shocking news both sides of the Atlantic. according to Wikipedia-New York New first heard of the disaster on October 11, with the arrival of the survivors rescued by Lebanon. Later that day, Baalham's report, telegraphed from Halifax, was received at the Collins Ship offices.
https:/
So news travelled slow in those times. but a close fit. To an added rhyme to the ditty. Though a lot of ships went down, and it may be simpler origin.
rhttps://www.thoughtco.com/the-sinking-of-the-steamship-arctic-1774002
The Bromley is listed in a web chat as leaving Salford quays and sinkinking in the Irish Sea on the last day of September, but I could not find an internet record of this, in this quick search- it is not memorable in news terms - so it chimes more with the arctic- but perhaps it is just a simple rhyme after all that fits people in different places.
An Intriguing little mystery
Best
Richard Scott, Liverpool
I will ask next time I go in Merseyside Maritime Museum what they think.
1 to 17 of 17
