The inspiration for the song is likely to be "Owd Ailse’s Thrift", a poem by William Barron (1865 – 1927), who wrote in Lancashire dialect under the name Bill o’ Jacks. In the poem, an old weaver comes home to tearfully tell his wife that he has been dismissed because he is now unable to keep up with the younger weavers, whereupon his wife informs him that she had saved and bought their house long before. Although the story seems far-fetched, a note to the poem on the allpoetry.com website says,

"The facts of this piece seem unlikely given the conditions existing at the time but it is a matter of fact that, in 1883, it was shown, in the very unpoetical atmosphere of the Blackburn County Court, that a Mrs. Houlgrave, whose husband never earned more than twenty-two shillings a week, had not only brought up a family, but had, unknown to her husband, saved £364 out of his earnings. A sum easily worth a hundred times more today!"