Hi Chris

I did send you these words some time ago when you sent me an email requesting them. Presumably you never got it.

Here they are anyway:


A Weaver's Song by John Trafford Clegg

Down in t' shed on a summer's day
Th' owd sun shining through whitewashed tops
Brids on t' slates are chirping away
And I whistle a tune to every cop
Clattering loom and whirling wheel
Flying shuttle and steady reel
This is wark to make a mon feel
There's wur jobs than weaving in time o need

Straight drawn alley and clean white walls
Picking pegs nodding their yeads all round
Warps bending down like waterfalls
Cog wheels rattling a merry sound
Tidy skips running ower wi weft
Snowy cloth winding on the beam
Tek a good sniff o t' flying drift
It's clay and dust and we're nobbut same

Lads and lasses standing in rows
Wortching away fro morn til neet
Tenters – Bobs Sals Bettys and Joes
Running around on their nimble feet
Keeping time to a steady tune
Played bi th' engine from leet til dark
Feed him Watter and coal – bout spoon
And he's olez reet for another day's wark

Weaving cotton all sizes and makes
Table cloths handkerchiefs owts and nowts
Shirts for whites and Merica blacks
Towels for Chinamen India clouts
Dhootie's Jackonets Sheetings Twills
Yard wide Narrow width Heavy and Leet
Brats and Petticwots Fancies Drills
We can weave owt and weave it reet

Down in t' shed on a Winter's day
Sun asleep in his cloudy bed
Scores of gasleets blazing away
On shining pulley and snowy thread
Clattering loom and whirling wheel
Flying shuttle and steady reel
This is wark to make a mon feel
There's wur jobs than weaving in time o need


Interestingly the line that starts "Shirts for whites..." was originally "Shirts for niggers..." Presumably Harry bowdlerised this for public consumption although Sid Calderbank sings the original.

Cheers

Mark