School assembly in the good old days and singing hymns! Anyone remember the 'Come and Praise' books!

[ErlingHaalandsManBun]

I was thinking earlier about being a kid in the 70's/80's and how we would have school assembly. All lined up and then would have to walk in and sit on the floor cross legged in rows.

Then we would sing hymns from the book 'Come and Praise'.

I was trying to remember some of them. One was called Autumn Days and it went something like this:

Autumn Days when the grass is jewelled
And the silk inside a chestnut shell
Jetplanes meeting in the air to be refuelled
All these things I love so well

No I mustn't forget
To say a great big thank you
I mustn't forget.

Anyone else remember this book and the hymns within it.

I bloody loved singing these in school assembly!! 😂

Oh my god, so many that I had totally forgotten. Who put the colours in the rainbow 🙂When I needed a neighbour were you there, were you there? Love it! Cross over the road my friend, ask the lord his strength to lend.

Bangers!!!!

Its made me feel all goosebumpy!

I absolutely loved assembly and singing my heart out. But then we all did. I just remember all the kids proper belting out all the hymns.

We all had favourites and would love it when we got to sing the ones we loved singing. 😊

Cucumber my lord, cucumber

And

On the dance setee

It was a source of great hilarity to my friends and me in the older years of primary school to hear the "infant" children singing an extra "of kings" at the end of every chorus... without fail!

How much?! I have a copy of this in my school music pile!

I used to think the line went
’I am the lord of the dance settee…!’

The school I worked in closed in the summer so everything had to cleared out. Decades of stuff stashed away, including the old blue Come and Praise song books I remember singing from in the 80s. I was far too happy and excited to see them (and may have rehomed the least damp and falling apart copy I could find!)

We also had the occasional Lord of the Dance settee!

Our resident pianist (who had probably been recycling the same hymns when my mother was at the school) was a fan of When A Knight Won His Spurs and one about Michaelmas daisies, purple in the border, and big fat leeks all standing up in order. Nobody else from any other school seems to remember that one! She also used to get a bit cross when everyone would belt out the one about Babushka, Babushka, we're following a star. When a new teacher decided to do some of the piano playing, she had to walk out because the newbie regularly played the wrong notes...

Having since retired, she continues to star in the local amateur dramatics society, so all is not lost!

I was so sad that DD's secondary didn't even do hymns or assembly! I remember it being the best bit of the day. She did sing in Primary though and they did a lot of the same songs. We had the blue Come and Praise and the green one and I think we learned every song! You can find them on Youtube if you want to relive your youth! Sad they probably will be forgotten in 50 odd years.

I remember the leeks one - I always thought it was about the village fete and the veg competitions, wasn't there a rosette mentioned? Feels like a different time.

Go and see James B Partridge. He’s absolutely brilliant. He sings all of these. I felt a bit left out as we had a different hymbook at school!

@ErlingHaalandsManBun I had the chorus of Cross over the road my friend stuck in my head for years, until I found it on YouTube.

We had “Their Words, My Thoughts” in my Leicestershire primary. I used to love belting out the songs and could probably still remember most of the tunes now. Favourites were Morning Has Broken, Lord of the Dance and probably quite a few others that I can’t remember any more.

A friend went to Methodist school and church and she has quite different songs/arrangements to those I know.

Forgot the photo 🙄

not sure we had that book but i loved When A Knight Won His Spurs.

We also used to sing one that started "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world"

I went to a very old fashioned junior school, we had to sing one Psalm and one Hymn.

Having Googled the rest of the lyrics, there was a bit about a marrow winning a prize...

Michaelmas daisies purple in the border,
Big fat leeks all standing up in order,
Whiskered barley talking to the breeze,
Low hung boughs of laden apple trees,
Chugging engines ready for the reaping,
Pounds of chutney labelled for the keeping,
Giant marrows winning every prize,
Bubbling jars of elderberry wine.

Chorus:
It's harvest time, harvest time again.
Harvest time, give thanks for sun and rain.
A time to take and a time to give
Harvest time, it's a joy to live
At harvest time,
Mellow, fruitful harvest time.

2 Stocky-built trawlers landing with their catches,
Berries gathered, never mind the scratches,
Warm and hazy Indian summer days,
Swallows leaving for another place,
Fruits are bottled, others in the deep-freeze,
Silken poppies blushing in the cornfields.
DON'T BRING MUDDY BOOTS INTO THE HALL,
Golden onions hanging on a wall.

I'd forgotten most of it, but "never mind the scratches" always bothered me. Didn't the writer know how much blackberry thorns hurt when they get you? (Years of being the smallest, and sent to the most awkward places to forage for them...)

Loved Come and Praise!

Cross over the road my friend
Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning

were my 2 favourites

I especially loved it when I got old enough to stand up and play the recorder whilst everyone sang. It was all very uplifting

Me too. In Cardiff. Can’t wait. Should be a good laugh.

Ahh, the memories (primary school 1979-83). I was a hymn book monitor- and spent many play times sellotaping the old books back together (the choir and teachers got the 'new' books) .

I wasn't a great fan of 'Autumn leaves' (number 4, iirc).

I liked the more boring ones .

On Wednesdays, we used a more 'traditional' hymn book , I seem to remember. With the school pianist, and a tape recorder that we sang along to . (Come and Praise seemed to come 'pre-recorded') .

I was at school late 60s/70s and we had assembly every morning with hymn singing so remember lots of the hymns already mentioned. We also sang Onward Christian Soldiers, He's Got the Whole World In His Hands and This Little Light of Mine and Morning Has Broken.

I don’t remember singing Onward Christian Soldiers but I loved the others you mentioned! Though I could never hit the high notes in Morning has broken.
I’m not religious in the slightest and never have been but bloody hell I loved singing my heart out every morning

We had a lot of lively churches near my school and we used Mission Praise. I loved singing.

I remember one called Water of Life that started 'Have you heard the raindrops drumming on the rooftops?'. My granny used to give me lime cordial as a treat and I was convinced the words were 'Water of lime'.

same, i loved Morning Has Broken and Onward Christian Soldiers.

(we also got told to pray for the Viet Lamb war, and i used to worry so much about the poor lambs)

Oh wow! I need to check this out. Awesome!!!

I remember this.

Water, water of life
Jesus gives us the water of life
There's water, water of life
Jesus gives us the water of life