The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #80283   Message #3357296
Posted By: Charley Noble
30-May-12 - 12:59 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Barnsley Anthem
Subject: RE: Origins: Barnsley Anthem
I've also collected this one for my housing songbook. Here's the lyrics I found and my notes:

The Barnsley Anthem

The housing conditions experienced by most of the working class tenants in the new industrial cities were severe, especially so for those who sublet space in attics and cellars. In Manchester, England, it was reported in 1833 that some twelve percent of the workers, 21,000, were living in cellars:

Often more than one family lived in a single damp cellar, in whose pestilent atmosphere twelve to sixteen persons were crowded together. To these and other sources of disease must be added that pigs were kept, and disgusting things of the most revolting kind were found.

In this biting song, which is still current in the Barnsley and Lancashire areas, the tenants sing of what difficulties the rent collectors and court officers will have finding their lodgings, let alone collecting the rent.

Anonymous – Circa 1850's
In A Touch on the Times

The Barnsley Anthem

We're all dahn in't cellar 'oil
Wheer t' muck slaghts on t' winders;
We've used all t' coil up
An' we're reight dahn to t' cinders;
If bum bailiffs come
They nivver will find us;
'Cos we're all dahn in t' cellar 'oil
Wheer muck slaght on t' winders.

We're all dahn in t' cellar 'oil
Wheer t' muck slaghts on t' winders;
Dooer 'oil's wide oppen as it's oft bin afooer;
Fire 'oil it's nearly reight chock full o' cinders,
An' t' waaf she's art callin' wi' t' neerbur next door,
'Cos we're all dahn in t' cellar 'oil
Wheer t' muck slaghts on t' winders.

We're all dahn t' cellar 'oil
Wheer t' muck slaghts on t' winders;
T' dooer 'oil's blocked up wi' ashes and cinders;
When t' chap comes for t' rent
Will 'e be able to find us?
Ma comes wi' t' rollin' pin,
Pa wi' t' belinders,
When we're all dahn in t' cellar 'oil
Wheer muck slaghts on t' winders.

Translation: dahn = down; 'oil = hole; dooer = door; slaghts = splashes; coil = coal; bum bailiffs = court officers; belinders = bellows; callin' = gossiping

Cheerily,
Charley Noble