I've heard the old looms goingmany a time. My mum was a mill girl from the age of 14. All my aunts worked in the local mill. One of their cousins married the mill owner and as a child I often went into the mill (until it closed). As a "pop" delivery "wagon lad" in my teens I used to deliver "pop" to most of the local mills that were still going.

It's not the *speed* of the song I was objecting to, but the "bouncy, jolly" way some people (eg Chumbawamba) perform it that give the impression it was all great fun and "weren't we all having a good time?"