"Two Cocks on the Dunghill "
Thanks for that Henry - will look it out
Bamford was, of course, a poet hose verses recorded some of the events of the time
SAMUEL BAMFORD'S POEMS
For me the dialect sometimes jars, but they are I believe an import additions to our social history

This is IMO a remarkable commentary on the effect the American Civil War was having on the lives of the Lancashire cotton weavers - it says more about the subject in a few verses as a whole chapter could
Another example of a working man as a song-maker
'Shurat' was the rough, inferior cotton imported from Surat, in India, that tore the weaver's fingers to shreds as they handled it.
Jim Carroll


TH’ SHURAT WEAVER’S SONG. Tune Rory O'More.
BY SAMUEL LAYCOCK,

Confound it! aw ne’er wur woven afore;
Mi back's wolny bracken. mi fingers are sore;
Aw’vo bin starin' an' rootin. among this Shurat,
Till awm very near gotten as hloint as a bat.

Every toimo aw go in wi' mi cuts to owd Joe,
He gi’es me a cursin', an' bates mo an' o’;
Aw've ft warp I’ one loom wi' boath selvedges marr'd,
An't' other's as bad, for he's dressed it to’ hard.

Aw wish aw wur for enough oft', eawl o’ th’ road.
For o' weavrin’ this rubbitch awm getten reet stowd ;
Aw've nowt i' this world to lie deawn on but straw,
For aw've only eight shillin' this fortni't to draw.

Neaw aw Imven't mi family under mi hat,
Aw've a woife au' six ehilder to keep eawt o’ that;
So awm rayther among it, at present, yo see,
If over a fellow wur puzzlcd, it's me !

lv one turns eawt to steal, folk' ’II co' me a thief.
An' aw conno' put th' cheek on to ax for relief;
As aw said i’ owar heawse t’ othor neot to mi woife,
Aw never did nowt o' this soart f mi loifo.

One doe’n’t loike everyone t'know heaw they are,
But we'n suffered so long thro’ this 'Merica war,
'At there’s lots o' factory folk gotten t' fur end,
An* they'll soon be knocked o’er iv these toimes doesn't mendf

Oh dear! iv yond Yankees could only just see
Hoaw they're clammitt’ au' starvin' poor weavers, loike me,
Aw think they'd soon settle their bother, an’ strive
To send us some cotton, to keep us alive.

There’s theawsands o' folk just i' th’ best o' their days,
Wi' traces o' want plainly wen i‘ their face ;
An’ a future afore 'em as dreary an’ dark.
For when th' cotton gets done we shall o' be beawt wark.

We'n bin patient an' quiet as long as we con,
Th' bits o' thiings we had by us are welly o' gone ;
Aw'vo bin trampin' so long mi owd shoon are worn eawt,
Au' mi halliday clooas aro o' on 'em " up th’ spoawt.”

It wur nobbut th' last Monday aw sowd a good bed,—
Nay very near gan it.—to gel us some bread ;
Afore thaw boil toimes cum aw used to be fat,
But neaw, bless yo're life. awm as thin as a lat !

Mony a toime i’ mi loife aw’vo seen things lookin' feaw,
But never as awkard as what they are neaw ;
Iv there isn't some help for us factory folk soon,
Awm sure we shall all be knock'd reet eawt o’ tune.

Come, give us a lift, yo' ’at han owt to give.
An' help yo're poor brothers on’ sisters to live;
Be kind, an* be tender to th' needy an poor.
An’ we'll promise when the toimes ineud we'll ax yo' no moor.

The Shurat Weaver’s Song beautifully, if tragically, describes the infamous Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860’s, and its impact on workers and their families. A cry for support in hard times, it speaks of poverty and solidarity within the wider context of a globalised textile trade, war and the cotton industry’s relationship with slavery.

The poem was written in the depths of the American Civil War (1861-1865). At that time Lancashire’s cotton mills were reliant on cotton from the plantations in the American South. The war, and in particular a blockade of the export of cotton by the Union in the North of America - “The Yankees” led by Abraham Lincoln, badly affected the supplies of raw cotton into Lancashire. Many mills attempted to maintain production by importing a replacement cotton from Surat in India. This “shorter” cotton proved unsuitable for the existing machines and conditions in Lancashire Mills. “ It was a nightmare - well nigh impossible to weave as it kept breaking”.

Although in this poem the protagonist asks for the Yankees to end the blockade, in reality despite the mass unemployment endured by communities during the “famine”, many of the Lancashire mill workers came out in solidarity to the Union in the North of America. The Confederates in the south believed that international pressure from countries reliant on their cotton would break the blockade - that economics would prevail and “Cotton is King”. However, this strategy backfired. In 1862 citizens of Manchester famously wrote a letter of support to Abraham Lincoln, “to fight the Confederates, abolish slavery and continue the blockade.”

Samuel Laycock (1826-1893), originally from Marsden, Yorkshire moved to Stalybridge where he worked as a cotton weaver and cloth looker and following the famine as a librarian. His piece maybe inspired by William Billington’s earlier poem “Th’ Surat Weaver’s Song”. Lancastrian Billington also worked in the cotton industry as a doffer and weaver.