TSDL204

‘OWDHAM’ EDGE POPULAR SONG AND VERSE FROM TSDL204

1. Sam Shuttle and Betty Reedhook 8. Sammy Shuttleworth Sung by Harry Boardman (banjo), sung by Mike Harding (concertina), acc. Lesley Boardman (mandolin) acc. Bernard Wrigley (bass concertina) & Bob Diehl (fiddle) & John Tenent (tenor horn) 2. Owdham Edge 9. Bowton’s Yard ‘Owdham’ sung by John Howarth sung by Harry Boardman (banjo), Edge acc. Lesley Boardman (tenor banjo) Popular and The Oldham Tinkers (with banjo, Song And mandolin and guitar) & Bob Diehl (fiddle) Verse From 3. Our Sarah’s Getten’ A Chap 10. Toddlin’ Whoam Lancashire sung by John Howarth sung by Larry Kearns (guitar) 02 and The Oldham Tinkers (with banjo 11. The Bard’s Reformation mandolin and guitar) sung by Harry Boardman (banjo), 4. The Miners’ Lock-Out acc. Lesley Boardman (tenor banjo) sung by Harry Boardman (banjo); & Bob Diehl (fiddle) acc. Lesley Boardman (tenor banjo) 12. Schoolyard Song & Mike Harding (Jews Harp) sung by Harry Ogden (guitar), 5. Street Scene acc. Ian Hope (fiddle) recited by Harvey Kershaw 13. Nobbut a Cockstride Away 6. Pounds, Shillings and Pence sung by Mary Kershaw sung by Tim and Robin Boardman, acc. Harvey Kershaw (piano) leading into Down at our School sung by 14. Billy Suet’s Song The Oldham Tinkers (with banjo, mandolin sung by Harry Boardman (concertina) and guitar) 15. Canute 7. The Little Piecer sung by The Oldham Tinkers (with sung by Dave Brooks (concertina) banjo, tin whistle and guitar) 16. Our Bill sung by Bernard Wrigley (guitar) TSDL204

From the start of the post-war folk song Five years ago, however, Topic released New revival, particular regions of were at Voices, which apart from being the recording the forefront because of their abundance of debut of The Waterson Family and Maureen material and the number of singers who were Craik of Newcastle, included six Lancashire songs determined to revive and popularise their local sung by Harry Boardman of . The ‘Owdham’ songs and stories. Apart from folk songs by the effect of this LP in Lancashire was to encourage Edge many younger singers to hunt for songs in Popular Song And and localised music-hall songs, were all absorbed libraries and perhaps more importantly, to seek Verse From intostrictest the repertoriesdefinition, urban of the andmainly industrial young revivalsong out older dialect poets and singers; sometimes in Lancashire singers. dialect societies, sometimes in pubs. And here it 03 In England, one thinks immediately of the North- must be stressed that in the ‘Lancashire Revival’ East, with its traditional and music-hall songs, there has been the closest contact between mining ballads and, of course, distinctive pipe young and old. tunes. To a lesser degree, the West Country had This period culminated in Topic’s release of Deep established itself very early in the folk revival Lancashire, late in 1968. This record, which was in terms of quality, if not in quantity. But in an immediate success, included some of the best singers from Lancashire and also the Rochdale singers and songs from Scotland and Ireland poet, Harvey Kershaw. The wide appeal of this hasaddition been toimmeasurable English regions, and the it therefore influence seems of very regional LP has led to its ‘follow-up’, the odd, that until the past few years, the industrial present album. Like Deep Lancashire, ‘Owdham’ North-West seemed to be unrepresented. The Edge presents a range of songs, expressing omission seemed particularly strange in view of the fact that there is a strong tradition of dialect humour. Lancashire does not have a monopoly of verse and song in Lancashire going back at least songsdefiance, expressing comradeship, these emotions;sadness and but uproarious perhaps it to the eighteenth century, and in more recent has more than its fair share.

times, a multitude of fine music-hall entertainers. TSDL204

NOTES ON PERFORMERS Dave Brooks has also lived in Bolton all his life and sang in local folk clubs with Bernard Wrigley Most of the performers on this record appeared for several years. He began his working life as on Deep Lancashire (Topic 12T188) and need no a buyer but gave this up in order to work in the further introduction. theatrical productions with Bolton Octagon ‘Owdham’ Mary Kershaw is a native of Rochdale. A small Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre. Edge lass with a big voice, she delights northern Popular Harry Ogden was born in Rochdale and now audiences with her renderings of many old Song And lives in Whitworth, a small town on the edge Verse From favourites. Her repertoire also incudes songs of the moors which surround Rochdale. A Lancashire specially written for her by her husband Harvey television aerial erecter by trade, Harry has for 04 and as in Nobbut a Cockstride, he accompanies many years been writing songs about local places her on the piano. Mary is also renowned for and events, but although he has written songs her ready wit and ability as an impromptu with a Lancashire setting, he is enthusiastic storyteller. about many kinds of music. Bernard Wrigley is from Bolton and has for several years been associated with the Bolton Octagon Theatre, where his distinctive voice will long be remembered in such productions as Crompton’s Mule, a documentary on the life on Samuel Crompton. More recently, he has been on tour with Ken Campbell’s Road Show and written some of the songs for this group, whose unconventional productions have attracted considerable attention in northern towns. TSDL204

Sam Shuttle and Betty Reedhook If asked ‘Where are you going for your holidays?’, This sly ballad was taken from an undated it is not uncommon to be told ‘Owdham Edge’, broadsheet and supplied by Paul Graney of this is of course being another example of the Manchester. Wigan Pier, Royton Sands idea of holidays at There are several equally interesting strands home. It is, need one say, a rather facetious ‘Owdham’ to the piece. Firstly, it paints a rapid picture of reply. Speaking of facetiousness, it will be Edge a situation in an early cotton mill, in which the gathered from the song that on the other side Popular Song And all important characters of the overlooker and of the Pennines from Oldham, lies the county of Verse From cutlooker (cloth examiner) vie for the attention Yorkshire. Lancashire of the young woman weaver. The dispute is to Our Sarah’s Getten’ a Chap 05 Close observation of the most minute details of family life and its comic aspect has long been a sportbe settled by all by accounts clog fighting and one (known for which variously burning as strong point with Lancashire poets, song writers in‘purring’ the hand or and‘up-and-down’ transportation fighting), were aoften bloody and comedians. Sam Fitton, the author of this meted out by the magistrates. A crude form of song, took a situation known to many, where Queensberry rules applied, whereby apart from the whole family is disrupted when big sister kicking on every part of the body, throttling to starts courting. It would have been bad enough the verge of death was also allowed. if Sarah had been pursued by a local lad from Not the least interesting feature of this ballad is down the street, but a slickly dressed young man that the names of the actores fabulae are taken from the weaving implements. Owdham Edge ofwho the worked family couldin an office be expected and was to therefore, co-operate, by Oldham Edge is a well known vantage point from butdefinition little brothers ‘posh’ was can too take much. on an Most evil aspectmembers in which can be seen, on the one hand, a great vista situations of this kind and have probably ruined of industry and endless rows of terraced houses, many a beautiful relationship. and on the other, the wild moors of the Pennines. Sam Fitton, of Rochdale, described as a TSDL204

humourist, dialect writer, author, artist, Federation, which was to play an historic role in playwright, reciter, singer and musician, was a the General Strike. cartoonist in Cotton Factory Times for a number In June 1893, owners demanded a 25% wage of years and much of his work appeared in the reduction following a 35% fall in the price of Manchester Weekly Times and Liverpool Weekly coal. ‘Owdham’ Post. In 1912, he began publishing the Crompton Following the M.F.G.B. Conference in July the Edge Chanticleer, a monthly magazine of humorous miners refused to accept the wage cut. The lock- Popular Song And prose and verse, which was re-named Sam out began in the last week of July affecting more Verse From Fitton’s Humorous Monthly. Sam Fitton died at than a quarter of a million workers in the area Lancashire Rochdale in 1923. covered by the M.F.G.B. 06 The Miners’ Lock-Out In the course of disturbances two men were Ballads of this type were popular in the Midlands killed and sixteen wounded by troops at and North for most of the nineteenth century. Featherstone, Yorks. The lock-out lasted sixteen They usually served the dual purpose of winning weeks; settlement was signed on November moral support for the struggle in hand and as 7th. The miners were victorious. Samuel Woods appeals for the raising of money. The ballad, being printed as a broadsheet, was often sold to of M.F.G.B., elected in 1889. A Baptist, total (1846-1915) of Wigan was first Vice-President raise funds for the family of the strikers or the abstainer, ‘a dapper gentle kind of man’ unemployed. Street Scene The Miners’ Lock-Out was written by the Wigan poet Burnett O’Brian and appeared on a not only among art critics, but also among broadsheet bearing an illustration of a pit shaft. workingL.S. Lowry folk has in long Lancashire. been a controversial Some claim thatfigure, he We are indebted to Keith Roberts of Wigan for depicts a far too dreary picture of Lancashire supplying a photographic copy of the original cotton towns and that he has provided us with broadsheet. a poor image (in more senses than one), yet it is The Federation was, of course, the Miners’ hard to exaggerate the total sense of dreariness TSDL204

which one feels when confronted with much of homes before the invention of the power-looms, the North’s industrial landscape. but they were at least watched over by their Here, written and recited by Harvey Kershaw, parents, whereas in the early cotton mills, hours is a picture in words of a ‘Lowry’ street scene, were long and the treatment harsh. The Little Piecer, like so many dialect songs and ‘Owdham’ than one might expect from L.S. Lowry. The fact poems, is simple and straight to the point: it has Edge thatwhere we the hear figures a description become moreof a picture realistic seems perhaps to pathos without being a mere ‘tear-jerker’ Popular emphasise that the picture itself was very much a Song And Sammy Shuttleworth Verse From representation of a reality which in many ways is Lancashire still with us. The music-hall tended to produce caricature rather than character, but oddly enough, the 07 The Little Piecer stereotype, gormless buffoons conveyed by stage comedians, were almost invariably popular in the than been included in the sense that its author, region concerned. GordonThis song Allen has North,infiltrated was thein fact record a Yorkshire rather man. The song is of the same ilk as Mick McGilligan’s However, in spite of the traditional antipathy Ball (where they had to tear the paper off the between the red and white rose counties, they wall), a rip-roaring night out – and who cares if have, of course, much in common, especially in it’s back to work in t’mornin’. their history of working conditions and child Sammy Shuttleworth is obviously a ‘legitimate’ labour, where the position was much the same on music-hall song which has had an extended both sides of the Pennines. life in pubs on both sides of the Pennines. It is Northerners have never forgotten, or forgiven, interesting that it has cropped up with various the fact of child labour and the tragedy was that titles, such as Sammy Butterworth, etc. and women and children could be employed for with slightly varying lyrics. Obviously the oral lower rates of pay than the men and were often transmission of songs applies to urban pubs as given work while their menfolk were forced into idleness. Children did, of course, work in their well as the rural fireside. TSDL204

Bowton’s Yard Bowton’s Yard (Bolton’s Yard) is a classic work the deep attachment to home and family, amongst dialect verse and song in Lancashire whichMost Lancashire seemed particularly poets have strong reflected in times in their of and has appeared many times in representative unemployment and poverty among working anthologies and also as a broadsheet. people in the nineteenth century. ‘Owdham’ Sam Laycock (1826-93) became renowned for Edwin Waugh was undoubtedly the greatest Edge his accounts in rhyme of the period of the cotton Lancashire poet of all time and although Toddlin’ Popular famine (sometimes called the cotton panic) and Song And Whoam may not be one of his best pieces it Verse From was dubbed the ‘laureate of the cotton panic’. seems to convey an easy-going simplicity which Lancashire The yard mentioned in the song was a square captures the sentiment, without sentimentality. 08 of houses which took its name from the owner, Birds in t’nest, by the way, means children at Bolton, who of course lives in t’best house home. in t’row. The people described formed what one might call a street community, with every The Bard’s Reformation member playing a fairly distinctive role. Sam Bamford was better known as a radical Laycock managed to steer a careful course leader and chronicler of the early nineteenth between humour and compassion for although century, than as a poet or song writer. He the song is basically light-hearted, Laycock’s is particularly remembered for the part he awareness of the hardships which existed among played in the great meeting at St. Peter’s the poor is ever present. Fields, Manchester, in 1819 (Peterloo) and for The version here is taken from a printed song his account of this event. He was also deeply sheet and is shorter than Laycock’s original interested in local traditions such as pace-egg recitation. mumming, morris dancing etc. and conscious of the speed with much many of these customs Toddlin’ Whoam were dying out. Toddlin’ Whoam literally means walking home, Just how seriously Bamford expected us to take but there is often far more implicit in a single Bard’s Reformation is open to conjecture,

dialect expression than appears at first sight. TSDL204

but there is no doubt that the notion of self- and even the good Lord is nobbut a cockstride improvement by study and diligence was popular away. in Lancashire during the nineteenth century. For those of you unfortunate enough never to In this song however, the characters sound too have visited Rochdale – Mary Kershaw’s voice is attractive to be completely forsaken the closest you’ve been yet. ‘Owdham’ Schoolyard Song Edge Billy Suet’s Song Popular Harry Ogden, author and singer of this song, is In the days before power looms, there was an Song And equally at home in the atmosphere of dialect established custom whereby a young woman, on Verse From verse or contemporary song. He is not easy to Lancashire getting married, would take with her the loom categorise as a song-writer because he seems to which she had worked upon at home (often 09 respond directly to a situation or mood without referred to as a pair of looms). This is said to be worrying too much about how he ‘ought’ to the origin of the term heirloom. approach the subject in mind. In the song, four sisters are being offered in In Schoolyard Song, the nostalgic imagery will marriage to any suitable young men and the girls’ appeal directly to northerners who recognise the father lets it be known that they will, as tradition situation and, no doubt, to others, for this kind dictates, ‘ha’ their looms’. Four young men, memory has many parallels. bearing typical nicknames of the time, go to court Nobbut A Cockstride Away them. Billy Suet, who relates the story, being Many a traveller in the North, when asking for how ever hopeful, winds up wi’ t’foust (foulest – directions to his destination, has been told that ugliest) lass, wi’ t’worst pair o’looms. ‘It’s nobbut a cockstride away’. It was almost as The song was written by David Halstead, who common as ‘You can’t miss it’. was in many ways untypical of most dialect In this song, Harvey Kershaw takes a common poets. He was well educated and was, for a time, expression and weaves a series of philosophical a major in the army. He had, nevertheless, a statements around it. At the end of a hard day’s deep interest in local history and the speech of work, the beauty of the moors is close at hand, ordinary folk. A Haslingden man, Halstead was TSDL204

elected Mayor in 1917, whereupon he presented gaining in the process. Bernard Wrigley came to his collection of books on local history and poets, ‘translate’ one of these stories into song because etc. to the free library. The collection comprised of his association with the theatre group, Ken over 600 volumes Campbell’s Road Show, which is dramatising Canute stories always claimed as true by the teller (‘As ‘Owdham’ ‘Translating’ moralising stories from history I live and breathe’). These stories are acted out Edge by the group in pubs, clubs and any place where Popular or the bible, etc. into dialect, has long been a Song And popular pastime in several regions of Britain, people gather to drink, sing, or swop a joke. Verse From particularly in the North-East and in Lancashire Lancashire and Yorkshire. These tales and verses create 10 such images as Moses putting out his tab before First Issued by Topic 1970 talking to God, or Sam talking ‘matey-like’ to the Recorded by Sean Davies 1970 Duke of Wellington. Notes by Harry and Lesley Boardman Here we have an example, written by Harvey Cover Illustration: Owdham Edge, lithograph Kershaw, of dialect being used quite consciously by E H Buckler, published by J Coops c1860 reproduced by permission of Local History story. Section, Oldham Public Libraries. to give a localised, homely effect to an ‘official’ Our Bill The oral tradition as related to folk song, is obviously on the wane. Songs handed down within a family for generations are growing

dying with them. This is not the case however, withdimmer the inspoken the memories word. Stories of the and old jokesand finally told at

transmitted by word of mouth and often bars, or in factories and offices, are still being TSDL204

‘Owdham’ Edge Popular Song And Verse From Lancashire

11

© 2015 Ltd. TheDigital copyright remaster in ℗this 2015 sound Topic recording Records and Ltd. digital artwork is owned by Topic Records Ltd. All rights reserved.

Harry Boardman

TOPIC TSDL204 www. topicrecords.co.uk