The Shoals Of Herring sung by Ewan MacColl

Photographs of the long departed herring fishing in Great Yarmouth with Ewan MacColl's The Shoals Of Herring

[@paulademichele1313]

To whoever took the time and care to find these pictures and post them, thank you! They are superb - our ancestors are still part of us and we need to remember how they lived and what they survived.

[@nicdavdi]

Paula Thank you much appreciated

[@sweetiepiedave]

A true classic. Ewan McColl really had it.

[@amandagay7830]

I love this song! All the herrings were gone by the time I went to school in Yarmouth, but my grandma came from a fishing family. Her father was born in the Rows and lived as a child in a Peggotty Hut ...

[@elausraliano]

I always had a lot of respect for fishermen. I remember seeing them going to sea from the school bus and I really felt for them, risking their lives (at times the sea looked really choppy) to bring back the daily catch. And you never picked a fight with a fisherman, if you knew what was good for you!

[@andrewcolchester]

A real classic; first heard this 50 years ago at our local folk club when Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger came passing through. Used to go out on the boats in those days and he really caught the mood.

[@normandate7696]

This is a welcome tribute to all those who earn their living on the sea and may they all have safe sailing on every voyage they take on the oceans of the world.

[@jamesmount8109]

Beautiful old song from the glory days of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

[@sandramorey2529]

Ewan wrote this and other great songs for a series he and wife, Peggy Seeger did for BBC radio. This one was called"Singing the Fishing" and the entire series paid tribute to ways of earning their livings that no longer exist for working people. He did a great one about the traveling people. Ewan also was a wonderful ballad singer and has a series of recordings of the Child Ballads that is absolutely wonderful. RIP Ewan. I just noticed that RadioBalladsFilms has the Shoals of Herring in 5 part series. on KZbin

[@ianwilliamson2980]

Great song my granny vida worked in Yarmouth at the herring in 1920s

[@georgiemac1106]

This song and many others like it have broken my heart a thousand times since I was aware. God bless the singers, the songs and the tradition. xx

[@alexmorris452]

A lasting testament to mc Coll’s writing abilities ,,,,,,if you didn’t know he had wrote it I’m sure down to a man you’d think it was TRADITIONAL ,,,,but we all know it was mc Coll ,,,,,,,of course all his other songs he wrote were just magical RIP,,

[@biggerthanacadillac]

......& the words are sheer magic. "I was cook & I'd a quarter sharing" "There was little kindness & the kicks were many" "From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands" "I used to sleep standing on my feet & I'd dream about the S o H"...I used to be at sea 'on the Mackerel' [8 years] & I can vouch for the truth of the songs' sentiments. I still perform it to this day & it truly gives me 'gooselumps'!!! Great songs 'say it ALL' & 'Shoals' is ONE of them. RIP Ewan.

[@tomoolasitchin6531]

"a quarter share in"

[@zerotoleranceforsataniceli4794]

😊❤🙏

[@brianbennett7383]

I have heard this song for years in Gaelic by the Lochies, a Scottish folk band. I never even knew it existed in English until the movie Inside Lewyn Davis. Great song

[@cabezadevaca4508]

Its writer hailed from Salford, though his parents were from Scotland.

[@nbenefiel]

I loved Inside Lewyn Davis, especially this song.

[@JohnBrogden29]

This is from his radio ballad called 'Singing The Fishing', one of several radio ballads he wrote celebrating people's working lives. I love his songs, and many of them sound as they've been around as folk songs for years.

[@nbenefiel]

I’ve listened to at least 50 expletives singing this song. No one comes close.

[@doctorferris]

Brings back memories of the Marrs boats in Fleetwood... Starella....Thank you Edward Heath and John Major for your work to destroy the British fishing Fleet. You will not be forgotten, unlike the fishermen who have died over the years.

[@ivorhalsey2143]

Unfortunately that was down to Harold Wilson who would not accept the quota that Iceland offered us and we had not got the ships to catch.Read fish and ships and get some facts.

[@doctorferris]

@@ivorhalsey2143 The link does not work.

[@zerotoleranceforsataniceli4794]

​@@ivorhalsey2143 So did Heath & Major do anything to correct the situation ? No None of them did or do because the Globalist is a minimalist and abhors manlind

[@Dissent-Rising1]

This hits me like a brick my respects to those who came before us we owe them much!

[@geoffreyhoughton4225]

this song takes me back many years when i went to the folk music clubs

[@alicie649]

Me too, we used to sing this in Scottish pubs, and as you say in concerts or clubs. There's a tone about this song that is very melancholic, can make you cry, it's so sort of nostalgic even it's before your time.

[@grahvis]

When I was a kid, we learned how the herring shoals would move from north of Scotland down the east cost with boats going out from the fishing ports in turn taking a catch. The fishing became more efficient and overtook the ability of the fish to sustain their numbers and so it died.

[@alexandrMGr8]

ewan maccoll is a pure legend!!!!

[@GilesConradWatson]

I suppose there is no greater tribute to a songwriter than to write a song which people come to think is "traditional". I have just been watching a BBC4 programme on sea songs and shanties which treated this as if it was a much older song... Wonderful set of photos with this!

[@eviled2006]

Love this song...heard many versions and I know he wrote it, but Ewan's is still the best....ever.

[@kennygl2008]

What a haunting song and singing of it by its writer, Ewan MacColl! I first heard this song almost 50 years ago, as performed by The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, and it stirred my emotions way back then. I like Ewan's solo rendition for its heartfelt intimacy. Thanks for posting "Shoals Of Herring" and the wonderful photos of the Great Yarmouth herring fleet!

[@LadyMaelBethad]

MacColl wrote the song.

[@frankienorthtroptriton4771]

That's what they said

[@vjab1108]

Ewan MacColl who wrote "The first time ever i saw her face".

[@zerotoleranceforsataniceli4794]

I never realised that ! Or perhaps forgot over the years as I discovered him quite recently A beautiful song indeed.

[@johnlaband770]

One of the first songs I can remember hearing for the first time.

[@UnbelievableEricthegiraffe]

Ewan was regularly spotted along the Bridgewater Canal that ran near his house in Salford , On a Sunday morning looking for Shoals of Herring as well as the Manchester Ship Canal Unfortunately he ended up having no look and had to settle for a Fry up at Ma Garanzinis cafe.

[@cyllaruscentaur2632]

These photos are wonderful, and greatly enhance the song. Thank you.

[@nicdavdi]

Thank you

[@Deejaay83urj38]

@@nicdavdi just wonderful thanks so much

[@jonno52]

I heard this on the radio last night for the first time, and thought he was singing "Shores of Erin" until the penny dropped. Wonderful! and favourited. I was never the greatest fan of Ewan MacColl but this is making me think again. Thank you.

[@AnSturbin]

Shores of erin is an alternate version sung by the irish! 12yrs late, I know

[@Maksimfan]

Poor Great Yarmouth. To see it now is tragic. Break my heart every time I go into town :(

[@professorshermanpeabody1237]

I attended a concert with Ewan and Peggy in Freiburg, Germany in 1974. Small venue and just the most enjoyable I've ever experienced.

[@philipsalmon6597]

Ewan MacColl was a seriously gifted songwriter and had wonderful voice.

[@heardashot]

Well said that man, completely agree.

[@nbenefiel]

Evan McColl was a genius.

[@RichardZombie]

Yarmouth Norfolk , on the mouth of the River Yare was where the Scottish Herring Fleets moved to so that they could follow the herring as they matured from the south in the North sea. It was the highlight of my childhood to watch them.

[@zerotoleranceforsataniceli4794]

What about the English fishing boats ?😊

[@nettpolice]

lovely song!

[@AlanHamilton]

Magic, thank you.

[@derek71245]

My dad went from London to hull to work on the fishing fleets. He died 20 years ago today. 13 Feb 2018

[@maryryan3442]

I read somewhere that E M Coll said "I simply asked the old Fishermen about fishing the herring, and wrote their own words for this song" and, so, perhaps that is why it sounds so right to the ear? Anyhow, sounds great, next best is The Clancy Bros and Tommy Makem's version, my opinion.

[@billycaspersghost7528]

You can get "singing the Fishing" a BBC sound documentary from the early `60s. In it there is an interview with an old guy who went to sea in the 1880s in the Yarmouth Herring fleet. Ewan McColl derived the song from these memories.

[@alderwoodrecords1362]

RIP to your Father Derek. I find it saddening to see what modernity has and is doing to the fishing industry, once the chosen trade for many a brave man

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

@@billycaspersghost7528 Sam Larner was the fisherman who's interviews Ewan mostly based this song on.

[@chez3884]

@@billycaspersghost7528 When the BBC championed the indigenous people

[@angelf1re]

No wonder Luke was a fan of Ewan MacColl. A stunning performance.

[@potdog1000]

this takes me back to my folk days

[@pebble73]

I spent most my childhood holidaying at Yarmouth. Even from an early age it struck me how important the harbour was to the fishing industry. There are still parts of Yarmouth harbour this song reminds you of the bustling life that once was. Great memories

[@carolineandrews3292]

One of my all-time favourites.

[@jonparrott3616]

Apparently wrote in memory of local Norfolk fisherman and singer, Sam Larner. (Try and hear Sam's version of 'The Lofty Tall Ship' - Martin Carthy had it for one of his Desert Island discs). This is a great song, and great video of my birthplace (YH)!

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

It was written whilst Sam Larner was very much alive. Ewan MacColl wrote this song as part of the Radio Ballad "Singing the fishing." He incorporated words and phrases from interviews made with Sam Larner and others.

[@jonparrott3616]

Andrew Wigglesworth I didn’t say Sam was dead!

[@MartinchoDH]

Greetings from the south's seas! I'm a fisherman from Argentina!

[@nicdavdi]

Hola Martichino, you are very welcome

[@rosmclean4229]

Helloooo!

[@MartinchoDH]

Ros Mclean Hello Ros!

[@unclephil440]

Hello from Edinburgh, Martincho.

[@roberthercliffe4783]

Martincho Chevy Hola Martincho. I’m British. You guys fought bravely in the Falklands. Hope one day Britain and Argentina will be friends again.

[@dengibson6905]

Referring to the “cupped ear” comment, my dear old father, Frank Gibson, he did that all the time. He was from Galway, (where I was lucky to be born), he worked for Silks out of Galway, in the 40 to 50`s, before coming to England to get some proper wages. As he got older, and more probly to annoy me dear old Mother, Margaret, he would, if he couldn’t hear the TV, he would do that, and make it obvious, he WAS doing it. I’m older now and I do it, mind you, I have gone through the 70`s rock band era so I’m lucky to have any hearing at all now, but, my wife Maria, she would always say, when I cup my ear, “your just like your Dad”. Great memories and the Ewan MacColl song, shoals of herring, even though I’m a rock man, I still love that song.

[@lizmassey1316]

just discovered Ewan MacColl love his voice and this song

[@kennygl2008]

One of my favorite sea songs!

[@bunnybgood411]

Love this!

[@jessesands4099]

This is probably the original version some beautiful old Fishing photos!🙂🚢🐟🐟🧔🎙️🎸🎼🎵🎶🇮🇪🇬🇧

[@craigdiez]

Great song and lovely slide show of past times, thanks

[@anajinn]

You did a good job. The photos are great, and so is Ewan MacColl. Thank you so much. My ancestors were sailors and fishermen. Photos help bring them closer. Thank you again.

[@aidikel852]

Magnificent

[@Bykerbob]

Bykerbob Ewan MacColl was a Salford man, and DID YOU KNOW, he wrote the song made Famous by Roberta Flack " First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Amazing but true.

[@jkjerome1]

Bykerbob what a great bit of trivia. Love that song too.

[@andrewcyes2049]

Written about Peggy Seeger.

[@gaconnochie]

" Hi, anyone know what the song talk about?" MacColl wrote the song after interviewing Sam Larner a fisherman and folk singer from Norfolk, England. The lyrics of the song are mostly lifted from Larner's own words. The song is simply about his life fishing. No hidden meanings.

[@johndavidcollins6163]

Yarmouth

[@pauldodson3720]

allan connochie silver darlings are herring . Great Yarmouth was the largest Herring fishing Port and kipper producer in the world.

[@johndavidcollins6163]

Took 100cran of the silver darling we was hunting for the shoals of Herring. What a horrible job to pack them.

[@karlconnolly3994]

Workers of the world unite...

[@dave4gee]

This is part of the BBC series of 8 'Radio Ballads' composed by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker (circa 1958) see wiki. All the Radio Ballads are worth listening to, this song is from Singing the Fishing, which is my fav. as my family were fisher folk, owning the steam drifter Maggie Gault.

[@bobferris8361]

Clancy Brothers gave a great rendering of The Shoals Of Herring

[@kathylynne8872]

Oh rats, Why does this song bring tears to my eyes?

[@paulworthington8666]

Grand. Men had well-earned pride in their work. And were clear about what was real. And loved and respected their women.

[@alicie649]

I've just got here from searching this old song, because of the recent problems between British and French (and other EU ) fishing in waters around the British Isles. I had to show to some people what fishing was like in those days. Who really want to work in that job today ? Fishing might have got more technical or modern whatever, i don't know, but no youth would want to work like they did in those days, but not those days but just more recently. People still do that job for a living. It's often by families, but less and less youth wish to do that job. (there's no date for those pics, i guess early 1900s ? ).

[@nicdavdi]

Hi The pictures span quite a lions period. I have no firm dates either but some feature sailing loggers which would make them early in the 1900s to probably late 1950s for the steam drifters. I was born in 1953 and i can remember as a boy watching the boats in the river. Not the vast number there once was but certainly still a good number. Overfishing caused the decline of the herring fishery and the boats could no longer make the fishing pay. Fishing was. And still is, a way of life in many costal communities. It was always hard, fishing is still a dangerous occupation, but there was often little other work. A lot of the herring trawlers were Scottish, they would follow the herring shoals down the North Sea Coast every year. There were boats out of other ports too including Yarmouth and Lowestoft. If fishing was more profitable, then i think it would still draw men and boys to it. Other, safer, jobs have pulled many away from the sea, and overfishing killed the industry stone dead by the 70s. Fishing is an emotive subject, sometimes romanticised by those who have never been to sea. It must have been cramped, smelly and dangerous in those loggers and drifters. Without doubt it was hard work, and if a better job comes along, who would blame someone for taking it. Thanks for your comments

[@alicie649]

@@nicdavdi and thanks for yours. I knew something was up by the 70s, as fish n chips were missing, and herring. I now have the confirmation it was over-fishing by Brits, not the French ;)

[@nicdavdi]

@@alicie649 You're welcome. It wasn't just the Brits as herring were caught all around the North Sea coasts. They weren't used for fish and chips though. They were mostly smoked to make kippers or bloaters in the UK and pickled as well. I have Danish relatives and I love the pickled herring thet have there.

[@alicie649]

@@nicdavdi Hi, yes I know they weren't for 'fish & chips', mostly cod, i suppose, and we had kippers for tea sometimes in Scotland, and i had them for breakfast once in a hotel ! In France they've always had herring but fresh not smoke so much, like with small pototoes as a 'starter' with a meal But that has more or less disappeared, as being a sort of poor man or workers' food. But I think we can still find it, tinned or in other forms. But that is obviously because of the lack of them for so long, as you say ? You should go on TV to tell things as they really are, or were, because seeing all the quarrels and false ideas, people need to have some historical facts.

[@TheMightOfTheEnglish]

great song by ewan ,our greatest folk songwriter and singer,just a shame the tories signed the common fisheries act , and a shame we backed down to iceland in the cod wars,devestated our fishing industry ,all were left with is songs like this to tell us how it was like

[@dannyboywhaa3146]

Thank you - only heard the version from the film! Nice to hear the original/older rendition! Lovely song...

[@Milverton68]

Wonderful. What a gift Ewan MacColl was to us.

[@HROM1908]

I agree 100% but how he bore the voice of Peggy I will never know.

[@cjsb22lr]

an arsehole

[@nicdavdi]

@zonkozonko In 1966 1.2 million tonnes of herring were landed from the North Sea. Thats a lot of fish. By 1975 only 200,000 tonnes. It was estimated that 70% of the herring stock were taken each year. Not surprising that the stocks crashed. From the Unnatural History of the Sea by Callum Roberts

[@zerotoleranceforsataniceli4794]

Beautiful 👍❤️🙏 Thank you.

[@nicdavdi]

Thanks

[@autolycuscus]

saw this man in the '70s sing this song on the BBC - just him, in glorious black and white, of course. He did stick a finger in one of his ears, but it added to the charm.

[@abiezercoppe8886]

Actually, he cupped his hand around his ear. Many singers do that to better hear themselves etc. Sticking your finger in your ear would be pretty pointless.

[@Maksimfan]

If you want to know more, see if you can find 'BBC The Radio Ballads-Singing The Fishing' it's a brilliant CD with songs written by McColl and others (I can't quite remember who) with stories told by actual fishermen, including Samual Larner who fished Yarmouth's waters from the 1890's. he was an folk singer in his own right. He died not long was recorded and saw yarmouth in it's hay day right to it's decline. He's buried in the church yard in front of my allotment in Winterton-On-Sea.

[@scotrelf]

@jonno52 Funnily enough MacColl told a story of how he visited relatives in irekland and was taken out to a local pub where they were singing this song. The singer intorduced it as "a traditional Irish song, the Shores of Erin". It was of course written, words and music , by MacColl.

[@edejan]

Excellent story.

[@kathylynne8872]

Love this. Want more.

[@RobMillerartist]

Thanks for the upload great images and music

[@TheArgieH]

This is excellent, thanks for posting. It brings the Corries version to mind (another favourite) and reminds me of a family visit to the superb Scottish Fisheries Museum at Anstruther, which gives an excellent exposition of the history and traditions of a vanished hard and dangerous way of life.

[@thelonegroover]

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this. My mum's dad (Fraserburgh) met her mum (Eyemouth) in Yarmouth.

[@nicdavdi]

thelonegroover I bet it wasn’t the only time that happened. Nice story

[@john-wq8kf]

Both grandads where herring fishermen from the Firth of Forth to the Shetlands, Seahouses, Shields, Yarmouth, even my Scottish grandad fished Ireland. It was a way of life sadly no more. I worked at Peterhead and everything is hitech, pursers catching shoals mackerel and herring are still there. Funny one of thing old Jonnie from Fisherrow used to say "there is enough for mans need but not for his greed" how right the old boy was.

[@laccarialaccata2830]

What town? My family were fisherfolk from Anstruther and surrounding villages

[@john-wq8kf]

Fisherrow and Seahouses in Northumberland

[@jasonsanderson2724]

john

[@albertrogers8537]

Too many humans, not enough herring.

[@robertjh123]

Possibly the best contemporary folk song ever.

[@nicdavdi]

He was a great singer

[@Macangusagain]

Born in Salford Lancashire to two Scottish social activist parents, he is still the pride of Bonnie Scotland so they say , Albainn gu Brath

[@malachy1847]

You will get even more Goosebumps! if you listen to Luke Kellys Version of same..... Luke.... god rest him, made this song like so many outhers his own !!!! we are lucky that we can listen to these guys great songs and great singers never die!!!!!.......

[@dwm1943]

Haunting & nostalgic, better than the Kelly version - and the photos enhance the experience.

[@Isaac-uk8rv]

Sorry but this doesn’t even come close to Kelly’s version.

[@geoffhoughton7308]

really loved this song takes me back to my younger days at padgate college folk club in the sixties

[@the2boneheads]

Nice to see this on here - As a point of interest, this song was featured on one of the original Radio Ballads, Singing the Fishing, which tells of the east coast herring fishing industry. It's nice too to see that these original MacColl/Seeger/Parker radio ballads have been re-released on CD

[@adaminabyangler391]

This is true music!

[@nicdavdi]

Thanks, I think so too

[@door2yourheart]

I am a Northern soul freak but this is one of my all time fave songs! Ever since Junior school when we did a project on herring fishing.

[@michaeltoner3366]

Areetonoo, Laddies! And Paddies! Magnificent song here!

[@dagharr2]

wonderful job with the photos. very powerful song. thanks for upload.

[@alexmorris452]

Must be one of the all time favourite songs of mine ,,,and he wrote it in the fifties ,,,they don’t make em like this,,,,,h

[@williambrown5305]

Great upload...and the pics..want to keep 'em for posterity

[@janicerushforth-lee3179]

When we went to Scarborough Yorkshire at a certain time of year June I think, the Scottish fleets were in, doing just that, following the shoals of herring.

[@jimmcinnes]

this is best rendition of this song.......he wrote it

[@phillipryan1796]

Love it

[@wordreet]

Came to listen to this great little song, and found that I'd already clicked the 'like' button. :¬)

[@HROM1908]

Chills down the spine...

[@UISTMAN59]

Great Song. Great pictures too.

[@Harry-kw1fy]

..love it..

[@drybonesband]

what a great song writer -- wrote Dirty Old Town and Sweet Thames Flow Softly, too!

[@clivemilson2372]

Was there ever a better composer of folk songs?

[@mtsongs]

this a great song, sung by the great man himself. very nice photos too. well done nic.

[@francovojtisek6180]

Bellissima canzone piena energia e patos

[@Arkybark]

There are a lot of good performances of this wonderful song being sung here by its author. I am somewhat partial to the Corrie Folk Trio version, with the lead sung by Roy Williamson -- just as he did with the Corries, but more powerfully.

[@pfg125]

brilliant use of the photos in this video.

[@mrsterripurcell]

Still sounds great though a good few years have passed thanks

[@lytsepieter]

just goosbumps ovehere hearing him singing this song

[@gordonfrickers1092]

A relatively modern sea song, as sung by Ewan MacColl it has real feeling ~ unlike most modern pseudo sea shanties which are only fit for a pub not a moving deck.

[@cjsb22lr]

that cunt never fished in his life----------------I DID!

[@alastairhunter353]

thanks for uploading it!

[@sannefridolin]

beautiful beautiful!

[@martinabradley369]

My dear grandmother worked on the docks at Great Yarmouth with the Silver Darlings, my father as a lad too.

[@alicie649]

What does 'silver darlings mean' ? The colour of the fish ?

[@martinabradley369]

@@alicie649 Silver yes is the colour of the Herring fish, the 'Silver Darlings' were the ladies who processed them on land.

[@alicie649]

@@martinabradley369 oh, thanks

[@alicie649]

@@martinabradley369 thanks for that info

[@susanhoward4442]

I know Luke Kelly sang this brilliantly but Ewan wrote this song and he was wonderful.