Bob Roberts

Alfred William (“Bob”) Roberts (1907-1982) was a fine traditional singer from a bygone world. Bob Roberts was Dorset-born but grew up in Suffolk. He spent most of his working life on sailing barges carrying cargo round Britain or across the Channel to Europe. His repertoire was a treasury of bargemen’s songs, which he sang with a mellow grace to his own melodeon accompaniment. Roberts was active on the folk scene during the 1950s and 60s, but was seldom heard before being recorded in 1977 which returned him to clubs and festivals.

In 1981 he published a book, Breeze for a Bargeman.  “An exciting sailing narrative evoking a vivid picture of Bob Robert’s time in the Thames sailing barge Cambria. In this book he introduces some of the colourful characters that he met over the years in those trading days.” — Google Books.  He released, on Solent Records, an accompanying vinyl album of the same name.  He also wrote Last of the Sailormen, Coasting Bargemaster, Rough and Tumble and A Slice of Suffolk.

” … while working at East Anglian Times that F.T. Everard and Sons offered Roberts the captaincy of the Cambria, the Thames sailing barge he was to make famous.

“Working as a bargeman allowed Roberts to collect songs from bargemen and others he met along the East Anglian coast, which he added to his repertoire of his own songs. Working on barges also affected Roberts literary output, because even as a skipper his wages didn’t support his family, which included two daughters. So, he supplemented his income by writing books and articles, often while waiting for good seagoing conditions.” — Wikipedia

“As the new year of 1981 was already underway I agreed to record these songs before I got too old. I was born in 1907 in the Dorset village of Hampreston, of a Suffolk mother and a West Country father who could sing and play anything from a squeeze box to the church organ. He often played at the village fetes and fairs and was a step dancer of no mean ability.”  — From the liner notes of Breeze for a Bargeman.

Roberts had several songs included on the anthology album, Sea Songs & Shanties.

Mainly Norfolk has a thorough list of recordings that included music by Roberts.

The booklet from his album, Songs from the Sailing Barges can be downloaded here.