Coulter's Candy

rdf:langString Coulter's Candy

rdf:langString "Coulter's Candy", also known as "Ally Bally" or "Ally Bally Bee, is a Scots folk song. It was written by a former Galashiels weaver, Robert Coltart (1832–1880). The song was an advertising jingle for the aniseed-flavoured confectionery that he manufactured in Melrose, and sold around the markets of the Border towns. The recipe is no longer known, but the song lived on. In 1958, a letter to The Weekly Scotsman reported that a man remembered hearing it from his grandmother, who in turn had learned the song in around 1845. It was collected in a children's playground in 1964 by James T. R. Ritchie, who published it in a book called The Singing Street. However, Norman Buchan published it earlier in 101 Scottish Songs (1962). He stated there:"This song probably produced more correspondence than any other when I printed it in The Weekly Scotsman a few years ago. Robert Coultart – the 'Coulter' of the song – made and sold his own candy round all the country fairs and markets in the Borders... etc. I first heard it from Scots actor, playwright and folk singer Roddy McMillan." He also added one of the verses. The word bawbee refers to a halfpenny coin. Coltart died of a brain tumour, penniless, and was buried in an unmarked ("pauper's") grave in Eastlands Cemetery, in Galashiels. In 2019, the Scottish Borders Council erected a statue in honour of Coulters Candy in Galashiels as part of a town centre regeneration project in advance of the Great Tapestry of Scotland Visitor Centre opening in 2021.