Thomas Lough

  General Notes:

An article about Thomas and his older brother John Graham:

A Tale of Two Brothers

The Bard of Derwent

Thomas was a poet/artists/musician, although he was a blacksmith by trade. His best known poem was The Ramshaw Flood about a disastrous flood that happened when he was seven years old. Another local poet, George Carr (1850-1916), wrote a long narrative poem called Bonnie Blanchland, from which the following four verses are taken:

There is a dam upon the fell,
Far off from field and wood,
Which burst, and rushing down the dell
Was called "The Ramshaw Flood."

An incident which Thomas Lough
Made famous in a poem,
Though he, poor soul, so badly off,
Had neither house nor home.

And yet he was a genius great,
Still many live that know it,
An artist, clever to create,
A fiddler and a poet.

But, O! erratic was his course, -
He loved to much the drink,
He trod his course from bad to worse,
And never seemed to think.

This page contains some Thomas Lough poems.

More on Thomas Lough, including the text of Ramshaw Flood, can be found here

  Noted events in his life were:

• 1851 census, 30 Mar 1851, Blanchland, Shotley High Quarter. Blacksmith, age 50, unmarried