Robert Allen was a
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
born farmer and poet.
Life
Allen completed his military service, and after gaining farm experience at a farm near Prendwick (11 miles west of
Alnwick
Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116.
The town is south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish border, inland from the North Sea ...
),
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
, moved in 1950 to Redesmouth Farm,
Redesmouth
Redesmouth is a village in Northumberland, England, just over to the south-east of Bellingham.
Governance
Redesmouth is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham.
Transport
Redesmouth (old spelling: Reedsmouth) was served by Re ...
, near
Bellingham, which was owned by his father Colonel Allen of
Haydon Bridge
Haydon Bridge is a village in Northumberland, England, which had a population of 2,184 in the 2011 census. Its most distinctive features are the two bridges crossing the River Tyne, River South Tyne: the picturesque original bridge after which ...
.
When he retired, he and his wife Angela, moved into a new house named "The Glebe" in Bellingham. Robert had always had an interest in his local dialect, which he called "Big hoose terk", the gentle and polite dialect used when talking to the vicar, rather than the more common and normal "village talk" and also in poetry, and his retirement allowed him the time to put the two together and write down the results.
He then produced three audio tapes of his poems "The Canniest Place on Earth", "Ridin' High" and "The Lang Pack", and eventually, in 1994, he published the whole in a book ''
Canny Bit Verse'', illustrated by local poet/illustrator and neighbouring farmer
Henry Brewis.
Both Robert Allen and his wife died in the early 2000s.
Works
Poems
*Bonnie North Tyne
*Canny Welcome (A)
*Cautionary Tale (A)
*Corbie Crow (The)
*Costly chimney cowl (The)
*End O’ Lambin Day
*Grittor (The)
*Lot Of It Aboot (A)
*Owld Farmor's Advice (The)
*Owld Men's Thowts
*Spuggies
*Whee's Deed Collum (The)
Prose
*God's Bairn A Northumbrian version of the Christmas story
Collection
*
Canny Bit Verse The contents of three audio cassettes of Northumbrian dialect verse translated into a single book of poems, which between them praise the valley of the North Tyne, talk about local village cricket, or tell of sad occurrences as in the whee's deid (obituary) column, and according to the sales details "and for those who don't know their cushat (wood pigeon) from their shavie (chaffinch), there's a glossary of dialect words"
See also
*
Geordie dialect words
Geordie ( ), sometimes known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English, is an English dialect and accent spoken in the Tyneside area of North East England. It developed as a variety of the old Northumbrian dialect and became espec ...
*
Canny Bit Verse
*
The Northumbria Anthology
*
Henry Brewis
References
External links
Canny Bit Verse
English male poets
People from Bellingham, Northumberland
2000s deaths
20th-century births
Year of birth missing
Geordie songwriters
20th-century English male writers
Military personnel from Northumberland
20th-century British military personnel
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