Charlotte Peters Rock - Home Page

Charlotte Peters Rock - Home Page

Reviews on my poetry and song

 

Tweett

Hello,
Pleased you called in.
'This life is a work in protest'
Lots to read on this site though.. songs, poetry. 
Sit back. Scroll down and click links. 

You will find videos of some of my work at my 
https://www.facebook.com/PoetryasCommunication 
There are more on YouTube

My recordings are now available at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LIBERTYnSONG  

Recent reviews are also available on that site.

Enjoy!

Charlotte
***
Events - past and future

31 July 2021 - As we come back to life following the dire time of Covid, I have several new CDs, and recently gave  my hour long performance of "The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo" its third outing, at Festival at The Edge at Hopton Court. (So good to be back in live circulation.)  I have recorded an hour long CD of the complete performance.

"The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo", is available at the link above, together with a small number of Caps of Liberty/Bonnets Rouge, whose use during the French Revolutions and other conflicts, including at Peterloo, made them a famous symbol of revolutionary spirit!

The "Lifeboat Rescues" series of 4 CDs is now complete.. and available at the link above 

1 North Wales

2 Wales

3 The British Isles

4 Out From The British Isles

I have started a new series, which is called The Human Condition. The first CD is now available at the link above.

The Human Condition 1

Reviews of all 6 CDs are also available at the link above. 

2020 - This year, I'm publishing recordings about the heroism of Lifeboat crews.. beginning with 

"Lifeboat Rescues - 1 - North Wales" in September / October 2020.

2019

During June, I have a month long Peterloo Exhibition at Knutsford Library, which may run longer. 

Thursday 25 July 2019

I'm currently involved in the Commemoration of 200 years since 
The Peterloo Massacre 
took place on St Peter's Field, in the centre of Manchester

I have an hour of completely new work, a dramatico-sung piece, called 
The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo
A part of the Manchester Histories series of events. 
It will take place on the site of The Peterloo Massacre:

18.00 - 19.00 - Thursday 25 July 2019
The Performance Space

Manchester Central Library
St Peter's Square
Manchester
M2 5PD

It is a FREE Event. Booking is now required. EventBright link

Please feel free to wear your Caps of Liberty/Bonnets Rouge, at this event!  

These pictures were taken 

as I performed my lead song, 

"The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo" 

at Manchester Histories'

Peterloo Bicentennial Commemoration Launch Event 

on 06 June 2019 at Manchester Central

Also looking for other venues in which to perform 
"The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo". Contact me
****
Previous Performances Composite picture - below - is made up of various performances over the years at Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza.

Hover your mouse over the words - and click 
Scroll down the page for a biography and a link to exhibition photographs
A broad ranging series of installations across the town of Northwich, Cheshire
Northwich Town Centre Installations 2014 - Parrots n People n Poetry 
Northwich Town Centre Installations 2014 - Park to Park to Park 
World War 1 - no celebration *****
Northwich Salt & history

And in Knutsford, Cheshire 
18 October- 16 November 2014
Knutsford 'Old Town Hall' and Canute Square

And in Middlewich, Cheshire 
04-05 October 2014
Middlewich Library 



Songs and Poem-Stories - links and stuff

The links below are to various aspects of my work in song and poem-story. Enjoy! Songs
British Lifeboat men
Health and Change
Read my 'Community Centre Poster Plan for Empowerment 


A few songs of disaster and comment
The Royal Charter 1859 
MPs and expensive manure
Cranage Airmen - Defenders of Peace
Waltzing with William
Alcock and Brown
Tales of Alfie
The High Arctic
Salacious Urban Fish
SS Waratah
RMS Leinster
Our Bloody Language
Ritalin Johnnie
Lancashire's Pits
Survivor of the Wells Lifeboat Disaster
The Gander
Forgotten People
PQ-17 to Murmansk - 1942
Col-Sgt P Humphreys CGC

Protest poems and songs
Dementia and Will
Tracks'n'Trains
When this Delightful Dawning Ends
Friends and Remembrance
The Poppy for Remembering
Joan Leach MBE
John Reginald Holmes

Poetry site - ***New uploads - 25Apr2014                                        

An eye on the void
Lapis lazuli
Justice
If I'm corrupt..
Bluer than the moon
What degree?
Windmill
Time away
A degree of thought
The point
Give me jade

Animal Poems

Anarchy
Canadas
2am hare
A Tail to wag
Rabbit Trap
Pantry interloper
November Swans
Russian Poems
Kreka of Vyatichi
The Warrior of Siberia 

the Chinchorro poems
Chinchorro at the shore
Chinchorro child lament
Chinchorro teaching
Leaving the ocean


the Altai poems
Apprentice to The Telling
Bronze Mirror of the Ice Maiden
Pazyryk Chief
The Magic Lake
The Wiser Man


Tillya Tepe
Destroying History in Tillya Tepe

Atlantis
The End of Atlantis

***** 
Curfew
There is no money..
*****
Exhibition photographs

Biography - Reviews - Comment


Child poems and Poems of Childhood 
  

A Real Story 

Chicken Feather
Dragon Lady 
Elaine's Mother
Grannie Shopping
Grannie and Scot at the Seaside
Grannie Scot and the Robber
Newspapers and Sunday School
Responsible for Me
Statia and the Standing Stones

Main site
Poetry
Songs
Child Poems  

Knutsford - Aspects of The Great War - etc

A full installation of

Aspects of The Great War

The Old Town Hall

and Canute Square, Knutsford

18 October - 16 November 2014

By kind permission of Mr Henry Brooks

and Tatton Estate Management

This links to a performance of some of the songs and stories which are to be found in the Old Town Hall.

That  performance will take place at

Knutsford Heritage Centre

12 - 2pm

Saturday 08 November 2014

£8 ( £7.20 to Friends) from Knutsford Heritage Centre

01565 650 506 - www.knutsfordheritage.co.uk

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Aspects of The Great War

Five Windows in The Old Town Hall

The side window shows aspects of the end of the war

and its aftermath 



Along Top Street to

Canute Square, Knutsford

for further installations

World War 2

Side Window 

Front Window

Other Conflicts - & People

Tabley History

Child & Childhood Window

Please come to Knutsford and read.

I do hope you enjoy the stories found here. 

Your feedback would be welcome.

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Middlewich Library Aspects of The Great War 04-05 October 2014

This installation took place, by agreement with Middlewich Library,  during

The Great War Weekend in Middlewich (2014)

more information should appear at this Middlewich Heritage link

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This installation moved on later to Knutsford, taking over the entire window space of the Old Town Hall, opposite the Court Building for the month 18 -October - 16 November 2014.

Further instalaltions, in Canute Square showed World War 2, Other Conflicts, The History of Tabley, People - local and distant, and Children and Childhood.

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Northwich Town Centre Installations 2014 No 1 - Parrots n People n Poetry

Parrots n People n Poetry
14 June to 13 July 2014
Northwich Town Centre

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This consists of a series of installations across Northwich town centre, in otherwise empty shop windows and market hall spaces. This is achieved with the kind help of Cheshire West and Chester Council, Colliers and Andrew Hynes.

Please Note: The shop windows displays are all open for viewing between 7am and 6pm since the centre area has shutters pulled down after 6pm

This years extensive displays are very broad ranging and include parrots in every window, to complement and cheer the written word

In Town Square there are 4 shop windows

No 4 - above - has writing about how humans spread around the world, about the Indus Civilisation in what is now Pakistan, the Chinchorro Civilisation of South America and about North American history. There is also a piece on an aspect of more modern India.

Nos 5 & 6 - above - are concerned with many animals an birds

No 9 - above - has writing around Arctic Foxes and Polar Bears, an Arctic love story about the balloonist Nils Strindberg and his love Anna Charlier - and reference to the patient Christmas Cat

On the corner of Town Square and Weaver Square -above - there is a large Guest window, which contains some of my own work and Guest work on parrots, produced by pupils of University of Chester Academy, Rudheath - and a Wall hanging produced by pupils of Witton Church Walk, C of E School

In Weaver Square there are

Nos 16-18 - show child poems and children's stories

Nos 20-22 - above -   has a Guest window which shows more child and animal poems and stories but also contains photographic and authorial work by Jane Butcher, the author of "Joel".

No 29 - above - has Aspects of World War 2 which might be less familiar.
During the convoys to Russia, the PQ 17 disaster, and aid willingly rendered by the Captain of the Murmanetz.
RAF Cranage and 96 Squadron.
HMT Scotia during the Dunkirk evacuation
Russian women fighter and bomber pilots

Nos 31-33 - above -  have Aspects of World War 1
The world before the war
The call up
The Pals Battalions
The families
The after effects

In Market Way there is one shop

The Seagull

No 6 - This is another Guest shop, its front window being largely taken up by an enormous flying Seagull, made by the pupils of Witton Church Walk C of E School. Otherwise there are poem-stories about the Romans in Britain, animals, birds etc

Its side window shows "The Lady of The Lord of Household Tai"

Please Note: The two markets are open for viewing during the daytime on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Indoor Market - Display backing onto the Shop at No 6 Market Way

This shows more aspects and pictures of World War 1
Also Aspects of the British Empire in India, with the story of the family caught in the Siege of Fort Gulistan, Kohat, in the Samana Range

The small window just round the corner shows a story about the vagaries of life in Calcutta.

The Covered Market display shows a large range of song-stories about Lifeboat heroes.

These will follow shortly - just as soon as I can get back to take the pictures

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World War 1

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This song was written around the terrible slaughter of our shire and farm horses in this senseless war:

The Stallion Tom

Ch1 Fair stood the wind fur France

The waves wus roarin mighty

Fair stood the wind fur France

An wi wuz leavin  Blighty

The stallion Tom an mi

Wi served the mare-run farmland

Then Kitchener called fur wi

So wi walked down frum Cleveland

(ch 1)

An Tom ee wuz called to war

To aul the guns in battle

The reason they called im fur

To aul wur bullets rattle

(Ch 2) Ill stood the wind in France

The rain wus pourin mighty

Ill stood the wind in France

An wi wuz outa  Blighty

An ee wuz a Shire alright

Iz eart wuz big an steady

Fur aulin the guns all night

An ee stood ever ready

(ch 2)

But Tom i wuz flesh an bone

Wi shells an bullets rainin

An ee’d work on alone

You'd not ear Tom complainin

(ch 2)

The shell that kilt im came

As a stood on iz leaside

Twas wun that bore mi name

An that wuz ow owd Tom died

(ch 2)

Ee lay as if asleep

Along the meada dreamin

The mud it wuz slick an deep

The very air wuz screamin

(ch 2)

An a wuz screamin too

The shell took both mi legs out

Well wat wuz a to do

The dragged mi ter the dugout

(ch 2)

A dreamed an screamed fur Tom

A dreamed that wi wuz walkin

Along the fields of ome

An Tom could ear mi talkin

(ch 2)

Ah wish a ad died wi Tom

A wud na wonce abandon

The patched mi an auled mi ome

Ee Tom i were a grand un

(Ch 3) Fair stood the wind frum France

The waves wus roarin mighty

Fair stood the wind frum France

An wi wuz back in Blighty

The stallion Tom an mi

Wi wauked the northern farmland

Iz mares an then mi tea

Wen wi wuz ome in Cleveland

(Ch 3) Fair stood the wind frum France
The waves wus roarin mighty

Fair stood the wind frum France

An wi wuz back in Blighty

© 1999 Charlotte Peters Rock

***

John Jem an Willie an Winnie

They'd been cuttin an rakin an cockin all week

When Polly wuz backed inter shafts fer the walk

An piled on the ay wain we rode - fur ahr cheek

John Jem an Willie an Winnie
Aggie an Mary an me

Wi watched as the pitchers put cocks on the wain

The loader built corners an rose on the ay 

  An just as the corner poles vanished again 

  Arry an Polly got goin

Back up the lane te the yard

She pulled past the owse an the stables an such 

An roun be the shippon an inter the barn 

An we followed on wi the pitchers te watch 

John Jem an Willie an Winne 

Aggie an Mary an me

An as wi got older wi worked fur the men

Wi carried the ale te the fields an the barn

An John Jem an Willie got big an joined in

An Winnie an Mary got married

Leavin just Aggie an me 

But that wuz the golden time when we wur warm

Before the boys left fur the Marne an the Somme

An only the memories still linger on

Of John Jem an Willie an Winnie

Aggie an Mary an me (+rpt this verse)

© 2000 Charlotte Peters Rock

***

Mametz Wood

“Let our memories live on..”

The regiment was mostly gone

All pals together joined the war

The Fusiliers now gone before

were good brave men - who served and fell

at Mametz Wood through gas and shell

“Let our memories live on..”

The regiment was mostly gone

The fields are dressed in vivid green

Tall stones are ranked in greyish sheen

where all those men - who served us well

at Mametz Wood collapsed and fell

“Let our memories live on..”

The regiment was mostly gone

Now birdsong warbles in the trees

Where summer flowers aswarm with bees

remark the gentle drifting spell

of Mametz Wood whose poppies tell (

no ch)

a tale of Royal Welch Fusiliers

whose brave young men these many years

have lain below the place they fell

by war which put boys into hell

“Let our memories live on..”
The regiment was mostly gone

Now young men still so bright and brave

Remember comrades - each who gave

his life to serve through shot and shell

You serve us now - You serve us well

“Let our memories live on”

The Regiment was mostly gone

“Let our memories live on..” 

part of the inscription to those who fell at Mametz Wood, on the Somme.

© 2002 Charlotte Peters Rock

***

The Tara from Holyhead

Oh Megan fach don’t play that seranade

The one my lovely darling used to know

He laughed and joked whenever it was played

Oh Megan fach please no Megan no

Hibernia was such a safe old ship

From Holyhead across the Irish Sea

Dun Laoghaire back to Holyhead each trip

Megan fach why did it have to be

They sent her out to Egypt for the war

Renamed her Tara not to get confused

What do you think they needed my boy for

And all those lovely men they took and used

A u-boat in the Gulf of Sollum aimed

She sank just one month after she had gone

And some men died but some of them were maimed

The rest were starved beneath the desert sun

 

And now its 1916 and they’re back

Four months they starved til some of them were dead

But my boy’s not amongst them - that is clear

Was he blown to bits or starved instead

Lovely men from war to Holyhead

Back to start the fighting once again

How..how can I face them now he’s dead

I’m so glad they’re back - those lovely men

Oh Megan fach don’t play that seranade

The one my lovely darling used to know

He laughed and joked whenever it was played

Oh Megan fach please no Megan no

© 2002 Charlotte Peters Rock

***

Middlewich World War 1

 Marchin off ter war mi lads

A fine upstanding bunch yer are

Marchin off to war – now get

Them shoulders up an back

The call as cum to serve yer King an country

An all the farms an works are in a quand’ry

Dunt leave that lorry body on the gantry

ch

Yer big an brave – dunt lissen ter yer Muther

Yer used ter workin ard in any weather

Cum on mi lads – jus sign up all together

ch

Eres yer docket fur the train that’s leavin

Kiss yer girl – cum on an old the shovin

Practicin yer marchin not yer lovin

ch

Overseas before yer know – mi sailors

Old yer sickness – eat yer grease yer foulers

Worse than this ull soon be yours – yer wailers

ch

Weeks away an silences an worry

Ow ahr lads were marched off in a flurry

Nah thur comin omeward – thurs no urry

ch

John’s gon blind an Little Eddie’s wailin

Tom an Rob an Arry’s all ome limpin

Most of ahr lads brought back in a coffin

ch

See the empty fields an read the roll call

Widders - orphans - family by the church wall

Never loved these lads to see thur youth fall.

Marchin off ter war mi lads

A fine upstanding bunch yer are

Marchin off to war – now get

Them shoulders up an back

© 2014 Charlotte Peters Rock

***

Weeds an War

Brave weeds are growin taller now

The tow path carries flower eads

Ahr lads were taken off to war

What were they workin for?

Wi childer sproutin up like weeds

Their clothes are falling from their backs

Their Dads were taken off to war

What were we livin for?

We wash and bake and do wi out

No money comes to keep us fed

Last night we heard more died in war

What are they dyin for?

Wi babbies due and nowt to do

We work or rest our feet a bit

An soon we’ll see the back of war

That’s what we’re waitin for.

Old on to what we ave as ope

Tend men an babbies all the same

There’s only one sad end to war

What are we grieving for?

Ahr tender boys grow starved an chill

Let this war end when they are young

Or else they’ll send them off to war

We need an end to war.

© 2014 Charlotte Peters Rock

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