Remembering the ‘Pitman Poet'

A report from Mr Gerald Ash with news of his quest to research the life and times of Tanfield Lea's Tommy Armstrong

It is over two years since the publication of the article in the Summer 2005 issue of “The Banner” magazine asking if anyone knew anything about Tommy Armstrong, the ‘Pitman Poet' of Tanfield Lea. The village's Regeneration Committee were trying to gather information about this wonderful character with a view to setting up a website about him.

We would like to say a big thank you to the readers of The Banner who responded to the article. We are still hoping to gather more information and make contact with other descendants of Tommy so I would like to offer our thanks and a report on progress so far.

As a result of the first article, we have had contact with the following descendants of the siblings of Tommy Armstrong – Betty Marshall of Durham, Cecil Armstrong of Canterbury, William Hall of Wigton, Cumbria and Diane Ward of Low Fell. They have all contributed their help to our proposed website.

Another contact from the article, whilst not a descendant, was a real bonus to us. She was Judith Murphy of Pelton, who for her MA Degree in History submitted a dissertation entitled “Heritage and Harmony”. She dedicated a whole chapter of her dissertation to Tommy Armstrong, which set out the results of her research into his life, his work and his skill with the pen. This was a great help to us which as well as providing interesting information, facilitated further research.

So far as we are aware, Ray Tilly who now lives at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire is the nearest living descendant of Tommy – he is Tommy's grandson. Ray found us as a result of his research to find his father who turned out to be William Hunter Armstrong (nicknamed ‘Poety'), the eldest son of Tommy. Ray has been very helpful to us with his family research.

It is now known that Tommy fathered 14 children of which only 6 lived long enough to marry and possibly produce children. We have identified the other descendants of his son W H Armstrong, one of which is Tommy's great grandson Alan Armstrong who lives at Boldon Colliery. I called on Alan who was amazed to learn that his great grandfather Tommy Armstrong was known as the ‘Pitman Poet'.

Tommy gained a reputation for helping others in need, even though he had to provide for his wife and 14 children and was a low paid miner, as most were in those days. Newspapers as far back as 1880 carry reports of Tommy giving his services free of charge at benefit Concerts. It has been suggested from certain quarters that he spent most of his time drinking but this cannot have been the case. As stated, he had a wife and 14 children plus at that time he would have worked six days a week and long days at that.

Since 2005, we have arranged concerts with folk groups singing songs written by Tommy Armstrong. Two have been held at St Margaret's Church, Tanfield with Tommy's songs performed by Tom Gilfellon, Benny Graham and Johnny Handle. Another one is arranged to be held there on 27th September 2008. We hope to arrange other events and in the not too distant future to get the website up and running.

There must be other descendants of Tommy's children and some are probably living in the North West area of County Durham. There must also be people who are not related but who have knowledge of Tommy, which could be of help to us.

If you are a descendant, or you know anyone who is, or if you have any information which could help, we would be delighted to hear from you so please get in touch with either me at: 30 Beckenham Avenue, East Boldon, Tyne & Wear NE36 OEH (Telephone 0191 5362498) or Joe Wilson (Telephone 01207 280101)

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