Episode 2

full
Published on:

18th Nov 2024

The Underpasses

Underpass

Verse 1

When I was just a bairn

Barely bar-stool high

I’d nestle in the club

To see what stories might pass by

And every now and then

I’d hear the most alluring lass

Tell a handsome washy chap

She’d show him round her underpass

Chorus

Underpass

Take a tour around my underpass

A three-dimensional, architectural

Oh, so peculiar wonder

It’s my underpass

It could be your underpass

And though it may sound crass

I love you so

Verse 2

I’d cycled through a few

On my evening paper round

I’d never thought to wonder

What enchantments might abound

Within their lustrous concrete walls

Such prefabricated class

No troglodyte could tarnish

Her exemplary underpass

Chorus

Underpass

Take a tour around my underpass

A three-dimensional, architectural

Oh, so peculiar wonder

It’s my underpass

It could be your underpass

And though it may sound crass

I’d ask you, dear, to dash

The romance may not last

I love you… now

'Underpass' was written and performed by David Brewis.

Credits

You’ve been listening to the Washington Community Podcasting group and Dr Ian Cook, Northumbria University, Professor Caroline Mitchell – University of Sunderland, Jude Murphy, Tommy Anderson, Chris Morland, Claire Kingston, Jamie Murray, Ged Parker – Washington History Society, Roger Morris, Jennifer Tindall and Mike Clay.

The Crocodile and the Underpass ballad podcast is produced by Grace Stubbings and the Washington community podcasting group, with songs composed and performed by David Brewis and Paige Temperley. The project was developed by Washington Heritage Partnership, Sunderland City Council’s Washington Area Committee, Sunderland Culture at The Arts Centre Washington, Baseline Shift and We Make Culture, with support from the University of Sunderland. and The National Heritage Lottery Fund. This project has been made possible by the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund with many thanks to National Lottery players.

Executive producers Caroline Mitchell and Jude Murphy

All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for The Ballad of the Crocodile and the Underpass

About the Podcast

The Ballad of the Crocodile and the Underpass
Collecting and Sharing Stories of Washington New Town
‘The Ballad of the Crocodile and the Underpass' - Stories of Washington New Town’, is a podcast ballad partnership between Washington Heritage Partnership, We Make Culture, University of Sunderland, Baseline Shift and Arts Centre Washington. Since April 2024 this partnership, podcaster and musician Grace Stubbings and the Washington community podcasting group have been working with people and organisations in Washington to collect and share experiences of life in a new town.

Musicians Paige Temperley and David Brewis (Field Music) have been working with community members and young people at Arts Centre Washington to turn stories of Washington into songs.
The songs, interviews, sounds and archive recordings have been woven together to create unique ballad podcasts. The group have been influenced by the radio ballad work of Charles Parker, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger who made radio ballads about working class stories in the 1950s and '60s for the BBC.

In the first series, 5 episodes will tell the stories of:
1. The Town of Roundabouts: how the new town was delineated by new roads, roundabouts, concrete crocodiles, and the ever-so-controversial district numbering system.
2. The Underpasses - These features aren't unique to new towns but they are very prevalent. We explore the ideal that no child would ever need to cross a road to attend school and the modern day realities of these 'betwixt and between' spaces.
3. H’way Jimmy - Memories of the 1977 visit of US President Jimmy Carter to Washington Village, the ancestral home of George Washington.
4. Ghost and Witches - Just because you're in a new town doesn't mean that you're free of legends, superstition and the ghosts of earlier settlements. We hear personal stories of the supernatural, as well as the sad tales of women accused of witchcraft.
5. The Curly Wurly Bridge - Did you know that Fatfield is home to a concrete icon? This episode looks at the so-called Curly Wurly Bridge, the design that took Fatfield from pit village to modern development, and busts a myth or two about Mediterranean influences.