Lancashire Cotton Famine CD

Subject: Lancashire Cotton Famine CD
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 03:16 AM

At Four Fools folk festival this June, Sid Calderbank, myself, and a few others performed a show called "The Lancashire Cotton Famine. This was one of the darkest periods in the history of the Lancashire cotton industry and was brought about during the American Civil war by the Yankees blockading the southern ports of America thus preventing cotton being shipped to Lancashire. For four years between 1861 and 1865 Lancashire nearly starved to death.
The story of how the cotton famine started and how Lancashire coped with it was told over 100 minutes at Four Fools. The performance was recorded by Chris Harvey of Cock Robin Music and is now available on a double CD for £11 inc p+p from me. See this page on my website for more details of the CD and other shows that we have performed over the years at Four Fools

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lancashire Cotton Famine CD
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 07:04 AM

G'day Mark,

I guess I have a distant ancestral link to that time and part of the world ... and I wonder if your material included any version of a song that has haunted me for the thirty-odd years since I heard it - and which seems to belong to that era and particular event.

This is the song I first heard sung by Mike Harding: The July Wakes ... and it has been the subject of a couple of threads over the years (but hasn't yet made it into the DT ...! I understand it is based on a poem from that American Civil War period (possibly by a Mrs Belasis ... ?). I did not get much definite information last time I enquired ... and it seems this might be right up your Lancashire laneway!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lancashire Cotton Famine CD
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 08:32 AM

Hi Bob

I presume the song you refer to goes:

Looms are swept and brass is drawn
And me and Jack'll be up at dawn
And we're off to beg or steal or pawn
For t' July wakes.

We've sweat for one and fifty weeks
And human limbs like looms'll creak
So we'll go and climb up Pendle cheek
And rest us limbs

We'll roam in t'woods and we'll sprawl in th' hay
And watch grey clouds swing up at play
Aye and if they burst we'll turn that way
And taste clean rain

We'll follow rivers up to't sky
And we'll watch great fishes swimming by
And we'll sup from brooks if we get dry
And we'll stand up men

We'll have days care free till Jack, downcast
from watching larks and linnets racing past
Hear's the hooter's moan through the linnet's blast
To hell wi t' looms

Cause Monday'll see us back in t' sheds
Watching shuttles spewing out miles and miles of thread
And we'll be weaving fifty one weeks of bread
And just one of life

I wouldn't say that it was from the period of the cotton famine but really a general song from the time when the whole town closed down for the mill to have maintenance done to the machines and the boilers. Each town had a different 'wakes' week where the population would go to Blackpool or Morecambe or wherever for a week's holiday. In the case of 'me and Jack' it was a case of not having the money to go away and so they scraped together what money they could and went into the hills away from the town to have one week of freedom away from the fifty one weeks of labour.

I can't think who actually wrote it although I think Stan Ellison put the tune to it. No doubt someone will let us know before I get home and have a look through my records.

The songs that we perform on the CD are from the period of the cotton famine - Shurat Weaver's song, Hard Times in Dixie, Alabama, Sewing Class Song, Marching Through Georgia, Humanity is Calling, and other poems and readings of the period.

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lancashire Cotton Famine CD
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Sep 05 - 08:46 AM

G'day Mark,

That is, indeed, the song to which I refered. I think it was Stan Ellison who set a tune to the poem.

I think the question of the period, if not the specific content, being from the general time of your "Cotton Famine" related to some suggestion in threads discussing the song that it was the work of the same "Mrs Belasis" who had sold poetry sheets to help raise money for the disadvantaged workers ... but nobody was sure - and I'm a long way from the time and place!

Regards,

Bob