When I visited an old weaving shed, now a museum they turned on one of the looms for a few seconds, and the rhythm is exactly that of the tune I know for this song.

The sounds are the slap and hit if a flying shuttle being batted from one side to the other of the shed of the loom and the change of the - thing which holds the warp, can't think if the name, to select the correct threads for the weave.

I have heard it sung 'da de de dah de de dah' which turns it into a dirge - it should be sharp and hard, and unrelenting.

It is odd that all the recordings are by men - it is a woman's song. The Gaffer (manager) and Tuner (engineer) would have been men, and the Overlookers (supervisers) too, but the workers would have been women or girls. There was much disapproval of a man who might be unmarried, having authority over perhaps 20 to 30 young, unmarried women.