Wednesday afternoon, 3rd December, sitting with anticipation in the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh to watch the debut performance of Aldeburgh Primary School’s ‘The Codbangers’ wondering what it would entail? Well, the pupils and their teachers excelled themselves.
The audience was treated to a dozen songs and no less than eight dramatised scenes which included a mixture of sea shanties, all local to East Anglia, and familiar nativity carols. The children yo-heave-ho’d to the Candlelight Fisherman, Faithful Sailor Boy, Windy Old Weather and Codbanging. They performed their own shanty band and the youngest members of the school did their own interpretation of Under the Sea with colourful fishes and octopus which they’d coloured in and decorated for the show.
The theme of the production was the codbanger fishermen of Slaughden, the washed away village next to Aldeburgh. Elements of Slaughden history were interwoven into the production and included the Mariners Inn which was finally washed away by 1920. The fishermen would embark on trips from Slaughden to Iceland where the best cod were caught then return to Harwich harbour where they would sell them after banging them on the head with special sticks,
And now we draw near Harwich pier
The young and old they both draw near
To see us get our fish on deck
And crack their skulls with a little short stick
Rehearsing sea songs with Jimi Lawrence:
great review. look fwd to more. you can see more about the creative dept at http://www.aldeburghprimaryschool.org.uk/