Becket Whitehead, Delph, Saddleworth, UK

Subject: RE: Becket Whitehead, Delph, Saddleworth, UK
From: Brian Peters
Date: 29 Oct 20 - 03:02 PM

Steve, I have a downloaded copy of Harland, thanks. As you say he prints several different 'Jone' ballads and a (disputed) account regarding the origins of the primary text ('Battle wi' French'). The original tune was 'The Chapter of Kings' (as given with the Poor Cotton Weaver text in Bert's FSE), and I understand this was the tune to which all the offshoot Jone ballads were intended to be sung - Sid Calderbank is he expert on that question. That's one of the reasons I think the Four Loom Weaver tune is MacColl's.

John Stafford specified 'Jone' as the tune for a set of words he wrote about his family's experience of the Peterloo: his two brothers and sister were at the meeting, but he and his father set ou late and turned back on hearing of the carnage. He published this in a self-produced booklet together with other radical pieces.

Richard / jag, I'm sure Professor Goldman's grasp of industrial history is perfectly sound, but it didn't sound to me as though he'd had much experience of the street literature of the period in question. I might leave a comment on the BBC website if it's possible. I was disappointed that the programme made no mention of Beckett Whitehead, even if his association with the song may not be everything that Ewan claimed.

Subject: RE: Becket Whitehead, Delph, Saddleworth, UK
From: MartinNail
Date: 01 Nov 20 - 05:37 AM

Yes, Sid Calderbank is definitely your man for Jone o' Grinfilt. His 2006 CD Includes the following:

1. c1805 The original Jone O' Grinfilt or Jone's ramble or Jone's ramble from Grenfelt to Owdham or Jone O' Grinfield or Jone O' Grinfilt
...
5. c1819 Joan O' Grinfilt junior or The handloom weaver's lament or The poor cotton weaver or Joan O' Greenfield & bailiffs or Joan O' Grinfield
...

So he dates the original Poor cotton weaver to c.1819.

Subject: RE: Becket Whitehead, Delph, Saddleworth, UK
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Nov 20 - 07:35 PM

I absolutely shouldn't be relating this, and it's out of kilter with the thread, but I'm going to tell you anyway of things that occurred in Delph/Greenfield fifty years ago. One rainy autumn night, in my dad's steamed-up Vauxhall Viva (back seat), parked in a lay-by in one of said locations (can't remember exactly which, but why would I care), I provided my then girlfriend and future fiancée with the first o****m she'd ever had and the first one of those I'd ever provided for any lady. Strange how you never forget these moments. Perhaps one of you guys who is far more inventive than me would write a folk song about it. I married someone different in the end, by the way, so go carefully with your allusions, as I've been happily married now for 43 years...