River life

I Am The Lighterman The crowded river, It all changed, The lonely river, It became. Only a few stayed, Many left, I witnessed it all, No one stayed. People always leave, No big deal, This time it’s different, It’s London’s mistake. Lightermen matter, I am one, The cargo I bring, Helps us all. I am the lighter man. The strikes we go on, Will not help, No work left for us, We are left. We are forgotten, We’re alone, No one can help us, We’re alone I am the lighterman… THE LIGHTERMEN STAY Slowly I realise, The river is changing, I know the secrets, And the secrets know me. I know the river, The river understands, The river knows me, I am the lighterman. My heart breaks in two, As I watch the river, I start to shed tears, My feelings overwhelmed. Memories come back, It’s hard to hide the tears, Hard to hide the sadness, My emotions run free. I worked hard for this life, My life my job my home, Everybody cares, Everybody leaves. The lighterman stay… In 1715 Tomas Doggett founded the Doggett’s coat and badge race.Thomas Doggett was an actor who stared in plays until 1713 when he retired. Thomas was a famous actor who died in 1721. He was born in Dublin in 1660 he moved to London in 1690 so he could start his acting career. The Doggett’s coat and badge race has taken place every year on the river Thames since 1715; however this race used to be called. “The Brunswick coat and badge race”When Thomas Doggett died he passed race instructions onto Mr Burt in his will, but Mr Burt wasn’t willing to continue this tradition and passed it on to “the fishmongers company” who has arranged the event ever since.Whoever wins the race gets a place rowing on the royal barge. This event is annual and still happens even to this day, every year on the 15th July. Wednesday 17th June 2015 Today year 6 wrote questions which we would later ask the lighter men coming in the next day, while interviewing them. Firstly, we had to think of themes, all together the class thought of about 21 different themes. For example: thieving, family and WWII. We then put these themes into questions. The questions had to be open with multiple answers possible and that could also tell us a lot about life as a lighterman. For example: Describe how it felt when you started your apprentiship? Over all this was an interesting day as we thought about things lightermen would have experienced during different times in history. Rebecca