They're all the rage on TikTok - but Sunderland's sea shanty links go back hundreds of years

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But sea shanties are not just a modern hit. They have been a phenomenon for centuries with strong links to Wearside.

Singing their praises is Sunderland historian Keith Gregson whose research on historical work has regularly featured in the Echo.

He explained why Wearside is a big player in the maritime musical trend.

Keith Gregson who shared Sunderland's sea shanty history.

He told the Echo: “My ancestors captained packets and clipper ships out of the Tyne and Wear in the 19th Century and would have been familiar with these work songs.”

Keith has also sung shanties throughout his career in the folk world.

But the links to Wearside go even further and were officially put on record in the 1900s when an American came to Sunderland.

Keith explained: "Thanks to TikTok the world seems to have gone mad on sea shanties recently and this makes it a good time to reflect on our local links with the collection of these ever popular work songs.

A sailing ship berthed in Sunderland in 1938.

‘From the early days of sail, Sunderland looked after its retired mariners and during the early twentieth century a number of them lived in our own Trafalgar Square near the Town Moor.

"Between the wars of the last century an American collector of songs visited the Square and recorded some of the old salts singing ballads and work songs’.

“The result of this visit was the James Madison Carpenter Collection which originated in the United States but, thanks to work carried out at the Universities of Sheffield and Aberdeen, is now accessible online.

“At least sixteen of the songs collected in Sunderland were sea shanties,” Keith said, “and can be found in the wonderful index put together by song expert Steve Roud. Many readers will recognise the likes of Blow the Man Down and Fire down below.’

Sunderland Echo followers may also find members of their own family among the Trafalgar Square singers, said Keith.

He added: “John Gregory, for example, the ancestor of Wearside song collector and expert Eileen Richardson, provided the researcher with the words

of a ballad.

"The main contributors of shanties belonged to the well-known local Robinson family – Edward Robinson senior and Edward Robinson junior.

“Edward senior wrote a book about Wearside hero Jack Crawford in the 1860s and lived to the age of 97. Edward junior worked on steamships in later life and

died in 1949 at the age of 85,

"Mark Page had an early career under sail in the mid-Victorian period and died in 1931 at the age of 95.”

Keith also has his own collection of work and added: ‘I have also in my own collection a remarkable version of Blow the Man Down under the title The Meeting of the First to Take Charge of a Ship.

"It has nineteen verses and a chorus which is slightly different from the one many of us know. It was sent to me over forty years ago by song collector

and writer Roy Palmer. The text is hand written and has a note in the corner ‘version from S/land 1863’.