Linen Industry Songs

Subject: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,Alan W
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 12:11 PM

Hello

I'm looking for songs about and related to the linen industry.

Thanks

A

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 12:39 PM

https://www.linenhall.com/shop/products/songs-of-the-weavers

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 12:57 PM

From Mainly Norfolk; The Doffing Mistress
[Roud 2133; Ballad Index K220; trad.]

This weaving mill song was sung by Anne Briggs with Ray Fisher joining in on chorus on the theme album The Iron Muse: A Panorama of Industrial Folk Music. A.L. Lloyd wrote in the original album's sleeve notes:

It seems to have originated in the linen-mills of Northern Ireland but has since spread to textile workers elsewhere. The form easily allows for improvised words and many local verses are attached to the tune. A "doffer" is a worker who takes the full bobbins off the spinning machines.

Lintheads; Pride of the Springfield Road/Laurence Common/Goodbye Monday Blues by Patrick Street

"And we'll bring the children up like us to work in the cotton mill."
This is a Belfast song - could it be adapted to linen mills too?

Subject: ADD: You Might Easy Know a Doffer
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 01:20 PM

YOU MIGHT EASY KNOW A DOFFER

You might easy know a doffer
When she comes into town
With her long yellow hair
And her pickers hanging down
With her rubber tied before her
And her scraper in her hand
You will easy know a doffer
For she'll always get a man
    Oh, she'll always get a man
    Oh, she'll always get a man
    You will easy know a doffer
    For she'll always get a man

You might easy know a weaver
When she comes into town
With her old greasy hair
And her scissors hanging down
With a shawl around her shoulders
And a shuttle in her hand
You will easy know a weaver
For she'll never get a man
    No, she'll never get a man
    No, she'll never get a man
    You will easy know a weaver
    For she'll never get a man.

Note: There was a distinct class rivalry between various elements of the weaving trade. From Songs of Belfast, Hammond

http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/northern_ireland/ni_8/audio_2.shtml

In the 1930's we had about fifty to sixty thousand people employed in the linen industry, directly employed in the linen industry, a very important time.

Most of the spinning mills where in North Belfast and in West Belfast. In North Belfast you had Brookfield mill, you had Lindsey Thompsons, you had Edenderry, you had Ewarts and on the Falls you had Greeves, and you had Ross Brothers and Kennedys. In East Belfast we had the Strand mill.

Well you were a dogsbody, you know, gofer, as I say, go for this and go for that and do this and do that. And you had to scrub your spinners stand out and it was half the length of this street and usually dried it with bags, you know sacking and it was really a competition as to who had the best doffer.

Every Monday when you started in the mill you had to have a clean slip, you called it a slip or overall and then you had your rubber tied round you, kind of a rubbery apron affair and you had your pickers on and what you called a bandcord tied round that again. The pickers was for if any of the ends broke and this flyer was flying round, so fine you couldn't find it and you had to pick it out with this picker, get the end to tie it up again and let it fly on. So that's why they say about the doffer and the picker in her hand you see.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Bert
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 01:23 PM

Poverty Knock
The song of the shirt

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 01:28 PM

Hilden Mill/Barbour Mill

It's hoped that a famous Ulster landmark will be given a new lease of life by a song from one of County Antrim's best known folk groups. Bakerloo Junction founder Noel McMaster has penned the nostalgic lyrics about the former Barbour Thread factory at Hilden Mill, the linen thread works established by Scotsman John Barbour in 1874.

They came off the buses they came off the train
They walked and they cycled in the wind and the rain
Two thousand in all through the gates they would go
Answering the call of the Barbour Mill horn
It's five minutes to eight we'd better move on
Got to get there by the eight o'clock horn

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 01:36 PM

From DT Study Thread; THE FACTORY GIRL

Early one morning as the sun was adorning,
The birds on the bushes did warble and sing,
Gay lads and young lasses in couples were sporting
ln yonder green valley, their work to begin.

From Songs of the People, Sam Henry
@courting @work
filename[ FACTGIRL
TUNE FILE: FACTGIRL
CLICK TO PLAY

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: mg
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 02:26 PM

what is the one..same tune as Raglan Road..ends but the razor blade was Japanese made but the rope was belfast linen..

she's still alive and sinnin..

huge numbers of people in ireland made money by growing flax..lots of flax growing records..plus then they span spinned/? at home...

songs in US about linsey woolsey?

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 03:30 PM

Maurice Letden (Derry - Armagh - somewhere up there) has done a tremendous amount of work on Northern Irish songs off the industry
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: mg
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 03:41 PM

I believe people immigrated from France and perhaps Belgium and got involved in the flax/linen industry. One of my ancestors was a Devery, most likely from Clanmacnoise...Devery means from the village of Vriex in France I believe.

Also, one of my songs mentions growing flax in Dingle, which they did.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 04:21 PM

The Hackler from Grouse Hall

This song is from Colm O'Lochlainn's "Irish Street Ballads".

I am a roving hackler lad that loves the shamrock shore
My name is Pat McDonnell and me age is eighty-four
Belov'd and well-respected by my neighbours one and all
On St. Patrick's Day I love to stray round Lavey and Grouse Hall

From Wikipedia; The Hackler from Grouse Hall is a song from the Sliabh Guaire area of Cavan, Ireland about an overzealous R.I.C. sergeant who pursued an aging hackler with a fondness for Poitín.

The song was written in the late 1880s by a local man, Peter Smith, from Stravicnabo, Lavey. An aging hackler, Pat McDonald, "Paddy Jack" was pursued and arrested by a sergeant who had come to Grouse Hall. The hackler may have been Pat McDonald who died, aged 83, at his son's farm in Claragh, Cootehill in 1896.[2]

Hackling, of which McDonald was a roving practitioner, was the final process in preparing flax for spinning into linen. Prior to the industry becoming mechanised and moving to East Ulster it was a rural based cottage industry with Cootehill as Ulster's largest market.

The sergeant was James Mullervy, born in Derawaley, Drumlish, Longford who joined the R.I.C. (Royal Irish Constabulary) in 1872 and was appointed sergeant in Grouse Hall in 1887.[3] He retired in 1898 and returned to Derawaley where he married, raised a family and where his descendents live today.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 04:40 PM

Wee Weaver; from Mainly Norfolk
[Roud 3378; Ballad Index RcWeeWea; trad.]

Paddy Tunny sang The Wee Weaver in 1975 on his Topic album The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow and on the 1998 Topic anthology There Is a Man Upon the Farm (The Voice of the People Volume 20). Cathal O'Baóill commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

This is one of many tunes written in Ireland by home weavers. Previous to the home weavers, the main song writers of the people were the hedge-schoolmasters. The song is a simple tale of requited love, and it is this very quality of love story which links it to the pastourelle of the Provencal troubadours who usually 'rode out', where Willie and Mary could only 'roam'.

The scene is set close to Lough Erne but could as well have been set in any part of Ireland where the weaver might have worked. The tune is pentatonic and in the lah mode. It was recorded [in 1952] by [Paddy's mother] Brigid Tunney on BBC No. 18527.

I am a wee weaver confined to my loom,
My lover she's as fair as the red rose in June.
She is loved by all lovers which does anger me
My heart's in the bosom of lovely Mary.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 05:12 PM

The Longford Weaver by Andy Irvine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOfmA7VHjA

As "The Longford Weaver" this song is owed to Andy Irvine, who adapted it from the version "Long Cookstown" in Sam Henry's "Songs of the People" which he consulted in the scrapboooks in Dublin before the collection appeared in book form - published 1990 by University of Georgia Press - edited by Gale Huntington and Lani Herrmann. Available from libraries or on sale in USA from Lani and in Europe from me. John Moulden

These five long quarters I have been weaving
And for my weaving I was paid down.
I bought a shirt in the foremost fashion,
All for to walk up thro' Longford town.
I walked up and thro' Longford city,
Where Nancy's whiskey I chanced to smell.
I thought it fun for to go and taste it,
These five long quarters I've liked it well.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Aug 13 - 05:54 PM

Marie little singing cotton mills great song.

Subject: ADD: The Clayton Aniline Song
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 03:22 AM

RE earlier posting
Sorry - did it in a hurry - the name I suggested was Maurice Leyden, he is originally from Cookstown in County Tyrone and has dedicated a huge amount of time to research on the the songs of the weaving industry.
I was lucky enough a few years ago to attend one of his talks - fascinating stuff.
His edited book of songs 'Belfast, City of Song, gives five titles in the chapter headed 'Cotton and Linen.:
Campbell's Mill, The Cotton Mill Song, Young McCance, You might Easy Know a Doffer and The Doffing Mistress.
These links will give an overview of his work - I think the BBC one is now defunct, but it gives examples of some of that work.
Just Googling his name brings up loads more to follow through.
Hard to know from your posting, but if it's just songs you're looking for - plenty about - particularly in the Sam Henry collection.
If you want to go further, you could do worse than seeking out a copy of 'Picking Up The Linen Threads - A study in industrial folklore' by Betty Messenger.
One of the best contemporary (1960s) songs about the textile industry was written by Pete Smith of Manchester, who was a shop steward at Clayton Aniline, a firm making dyestuffs for The ICI, and was so appalled at the conditions there he wrote this.

THE CLAYTON ANILINE SONG
1 Been working at dyework for nearly five years ,
Been charging the naptha's that give yer the pap*,
They send it from I.C.I.* for us to shove in
This vitrol and chloric as makes us all thin.

2 Well arise up for Clayton at five in the morn,
And for smoke and for fumes, yer can't see the dawn,
I'm releivin' old Albert, he's been here all night,
The poor old bugger looks barely alive.

3 Well, 'is chest is sunk in and his belly's popped out out,
And believe me, my friends, I't's not bacco or stout –
It's the napthas and paras* have rotted his bowels,
While making bright colours for Whitsuntide clothes.

4 I gave him my milk ration* and packed him off home,
I've five tons of this naphtha to charge on me own,
I'm wet through with steam and the sweat of me back
And through wieldin' this shovel, I'm beginning to crack.

5 Well I'm damned if I'll work in this hole any more,
For my belly feels tight and my chest is right sore-
I think of old Albert his face white and drawn,
He'll be back here tonight and just prayin' for dawn.

* Pap Nickname for a liver disease caused by fumes from dyes
* Vitrol and chloric - chemicals used in making dyes
* I.CI. is pronounced " ICKEY' - Industrial Chemical Industry
* Milk ration - ref to custom of giving a daily pint of milk to workers who were constantly in contact with cancerous chemicals.
Jim Carroll   
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ulsterscots/library/maurice-leyden-the-half-cut
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/NI2008/LeydenFlyer08.html

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 03:26 AM

Sorry - should read, "bowel" not "liver disease"
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 04:16 AM

Just to add to what Jim has written; the American Folklife Center site held a series of talks in 2008 on the theme Rediscover Northern Ireland, which included an hour long talk by Maurice Leyden which is still available to view as a webcast via Real Player I am a wee weaver: Weaving and Singing in Northern Ireland.

Appletree Press announced in 2009 the forthcoming publication of a book by Maurice Leyden The Linen Workers, but I haven't seen any copies for sale anywhere yet. I hope this thread will do something to revive interest in the project, so that the book can be published, as I for one would certainly love to read it.

Matthew

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,Winsborough cotton mills blues.
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 09:23 AM

Old man Sargeant sitting at his desk, damn old fool wont give us no rest
He'take the Nicles off a dead man's eyes
to buy coca cola and Eskimo pies

I got the blues,I got he blues,I got the Winsborough cotton mill blues.
Lordy, lordy, spooling hard, you know and I know you don't have to tell.
You work for doctor Watson your gonna work like hell.
I got the Winsborough cottonmill blues.

When I die don't you bury me at all, just hang me up on the factory wall
Place a bobbin in my hand and I'll go on a spooling in the promised land.

Chorus.

In the folk revival of the late 1950's this was a song doing the rounds. If you can find an old recording of The Countrymen it may be on there.
Evan Johnson

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 09:59 AM

The Belfast spinners, for their part, sang (to the tune of The Girl I Left Behind Me) the Snuff Box Song, of which one version runs:

I give me curse to any girl
Who learns to be a spinner,
That has a discontented mind
From breakfast time to dinner.

When the mill it goes on
The belts is all a-crakin'.
The frames go like the railway train
And the ends is always breakin'.

When the gaffer he goes by
His tongue goes clitter clatter;
He rares and tears and he curses and swears
And says, What is the matter?

My frames are workin' very bad
And I can't take no dinner.
I take out my box and take a pinch,
And perhaps I'll spin the better.

Roy Palmer/The Sound of History, Betty Messenger/Picking up the Linen Threads

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 11:30 AM

The Lint Pullin'

When I was young and pulled at lint, I was handsome, spry and trig.
I always kept in temper wi' the lass was on my rig.
And if the pullers chanced to kemp, no matter wha was late,
I ay took special caution that my lass was never beat.

Sam Henry's Songs of the People
Edited by Gale Huntington; Revised by Lani Herrman
Geographical index prepared with the help of John Moulden

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 12:24 PM

You might also be interested in John Hewitt's anthology of poetry written by Ulster weavers which has recently been republished by the Blackstaff Press Rhyming Weavers. Well worth reading and enjoying the richness of the language.

Matthew

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: mayomick
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 12:56 PM

Men of Sweet Liberties Hall By "Zozimus" Michael Moran
Oh ye men of sweet Liberties Hall,
And ye women all round the Coombe
On ye weavers we must call
To sustain ev'ry shuttle and loom
Bring your silks and your satins and tweeds
And your tabinets all in their prime
Oh bring them forth perfect with speed
As you did in our parliament's time.

Let us sing of the Coombe and each street
Long before the vile Union was known.
When the lords and the nobles did meet
And around us a glory had thrown.
Then high were Newmarket and Court
The Chambers, The Poddle, The Manor
Where thousands each day did resort
Placing trade on the Liberties banner.

Sing Brown Street and Sweet Warrenmount
Faddle Alley and then me oul Blackpits
Which hear from me their full account
And where I have made my best hits.
There is Cork Street and Mill Street and John Street
With their various alleys and lanes
With Marrowbone Lane ever sweet
Where strong water got ever more reigns.

Sing the streets of Ardee, Meath and Dean,
Thomas, Francis and dear Ashe of old
With her chapels and schools which retain
Oh a spirit unbroken and bold.
Then up with the fringes once more
And let Erin have justice and joys
Free trade and home rule restore
And the rights of the Liberty boys

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 02:50 PM

I seem to remember hearing and by impressed by Peggy Seeger sing this.
It was distributed as a songsheet in the early days of The Singers Club in London - still got is somewhere
Jim Carroll

THE LOWELL FACTORY GIRL.

When I set out for Lowell, a factory for to find,
I left my native counteree, and all my friends behind.

Refrain:
SING, HIT RE I RE O
SING, HIT RE I RE AY.

But now I am in Lowell and summoned by the bell,
I think less of the factory than of my native dell.
Refrain:

For the factory bell begins to ring and we must all obey,
And to our old employment go or else be turned away.
Refrain:

Come all you weary factory girls, I'll have you understand,
I mean to leave the factory and go back to my native land.
Refrain:

No more I'll put my bonnet on, and hasten to the mill,
While all you girls are working hard, here I'll be sitting still.
Refrain:

No more I'll lay bobbins up, no more I'll take them down,
No more I'll clean my dirty work, for I'll going out to town.
Refrain:

No more I'll oil my picker rods, no more I'll brush my loom,
No more I'll sweep the dirty floor all in the weaving room.
Refrain:

No more I'll take my piece of soap, no more I'll go to wash,
No more my overseer will say, your frames are stopped to doff.
Refrain:

No more I'll draw the threads all through the harness eye,
No more I'll say to my overseer, oh dear me, I shall die.
Refrain:

No more I'll get my overseer to come and fix my loom,
No more I'll say to my overseer, can't I stay out till noon.
Refrain:

Then since they cut my wages down to nine shillings week,
If I cannot better wages make, some of the place I'll seek.
Refrain:

Come on you little doffer-girls that work in the spinning room,
Go wash your face and comb your hair, prepare to leave the room.
Refrain:

The dress-room girls, they needn't think because they higher go,
That they are better than the girls who work in the room below.
Refrain:

The overseers needn't think because they higher stand,
That they are better than the girls who work at their command.
Refrain:

I do not like the factory, I'd do not mean to stay,
I mean to hire a depot-boy to carry me away.
Refrain:

It's soon you'll see me married to a handsome little man,
It's then I'll say to you factory girls, come see me when you can.
Refrain:

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 04:58 PM

Lowell is a former textile town on the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, USA. The Boott Mills are an early American cotton mill - the most intact in Lowell.

In the late 1970s, they became a key component of the Lowell National Historical Park. A single row of housing, built for the early mill girls under the Lowell System, still stands.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: rosma
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 05:14 PM

The Handweaver and the Factory Maid (Scotch Measure version) -

"I wove fine linen and silk sae fair"

Simon

Subject: ADD: William Bloat (Raymond Calvert)
From: greg stephens
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 06:46 PM

William Bloat (Raymond Calvert)
Tune Raglan Road?
WILLIAM BLOAT
(Raymond Calvert)

In a mean abode on the Shankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat
And he had a wife, the bane of his life
Who always got his goat
And one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He slit her bloody throat

Now, he was glad he had done what he had
As she lay there stiff and still
'Til suddenly awe of the angry law
Filled his soul with an awful chill
And to finish the fun so well begun
He decided himself to kill

Then he took the sheet from his wife's cold feet
And he twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf
'Twas an easy end, let's hope
With his dying breath and he facing death
He solemnly cursed the Pope

But the strangest turn of the whole concern
Is only just beginning
He went to hell, but his wife got well
And she's still alive and sinning
For the razor blade was German-made
But the rope was Belfast linen

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: greg stephens
Date: 22 Aug 13 - 06:46 PM

William Bloat (Raymond Calvert)



In a mean abode on the Shankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat
And he had a wife, the bane of his life
Who always got his goat
And one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He slit her bloody throat

Now, he was glad he had done what he had
As she lay there stiff and still
'Til suddenly awe of the angry law
Filled his soul with an awful chill
And to finish the fun so well begun
He decided himself to kill

Then he took the sheet from his wifes cold feet
And he twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf
'Twas an easy end, let's hope
With his dying breath and he facing death
He solemnly cursed the Pope

But the strangest turn of the whole concern
Is only just beginning
He went to hell, but his wife got well
And she's still alive and sinning
For the razor blade was German-made
But the rope was Belfast linen

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Aug 13 - 04:02 AM

Bert Lloyd used to sing the bawdy song, 'The Weaver', which uses trade techniques as sexual symbols
Jim Carroll

THE WEAVER
As I went out very late one night
The stars were shining and all things bright
I spied a maid by the light of the moon
And under her apron she was working at her loom

(chorus)
To me right whack fol the diddle di do day
To me right whack fol the diddle di do day

I spied a maid by the light of the moon
And under her apron she was working at her loom

She says,"Young man, what trade do you bear,"
Says I, "I'm a weaaver I do declare."
"If you're a weaver then,"said she
"Would you like to come and work upon me loom for me."

"Oh no dear maid that may not he
Last night I wove for two or three
Two or three young girls so bright
And They' d like to have kept me at it all the night"

"There was Nancy Fairclough of this town
I wove for her the Rose And Crown
And for Elvira fairer still
I wove her the pattern called the diamond twill"

"Oh a very fine pattern is the diamond twill
And the Rose And Crown is finer still
But here's five pound I will lay down
If you'll weave me something "better than the Rose And Crown"

I set this young girl in the grass
And I braced her loom-both tight and fast
My shuttle in her web I flung
And, oh good god how her loom was sprung

The heels of her loom they being well greased
This girl she begun for to hug and squeeze
And there and then by the light of the moon
I wove her the patterns called The Bride And Groom

"Well, that's fine weaving then," said she
"Pray won't you weave another piece for me"
So as me shuttle went to and fro
I wove another pattern called the Touch and Go

Me shuttle to her loom I bent
And I wove her along to a lively end
And as a finish to the joke
I topped off the pattern with a double stroke

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Alan Woods
Date: 25 Aug 13 - 07:32 PM

Great stuff,
Thanks to everyone for their responses so far.


A W

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Aug 13 - 08:25 PM

Scottish ones:

Merry hae I been teethin a heckle
The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvin Haugh

There are quite a few Csango Hungarian ones. I've seen some of them done as a re-enactment by women hand-spinners in Moldavia who had earlier in life done flax processing as a real part of the village economy. Their songs were about as bawdy as the ones Burns found. Shredding flax is a pretty dull activity and needs all the livening up you can bring to it. If you're interested, let me know and I can dig out my CDs of this.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 26 Aug 13 - 05:28 AM

Roger O'Hehir

At the Eight Mile Bridge in the County Down
I had honest parents of fame and renown
Oh had I been obedient and kept the command
I never would have broken the laws of the land.

My parents endeavoured to give me honest bread
They bound me apprentice unto the linen trade
All to an honest weaver that lived hard by
My heart was for rambling I could not comply.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jun 20 - 11:33 PM

Needs sorting and editing

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: r.padgett
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 10:11 AM

Yes few specifically Linen songs have as far I know been collected ~ important to distinguish between linen, cotton and wool industries

Belfast, Northern Ireland was certainly an area know for linen ~ my town of Barnsley, Sth Yorks had linen as cottage industry with distinctive houses with long front steps up to the front door and a window at floor level to facilitate cellar working (in damp conditions)

Piece working in the cellar was taken over by power looms before the difficulties of getting the flax and I believe the source of flax ~ India? I think

Songs not collected anything to be honest

Ray

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 12:22 PM

A bit of history

https://www.ruralretro.co.uk/blog/read_183728/old-bleach-linen-company.html
(my stepfather was a Webb whose connection with Old Bleach was terminated during   WW2,   although    he was   heavily involved in UK textiles all his life)

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: rich-joy
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 07:11 PM

"The Factory Girl"
from Nthn Ireland, is here at 23:29 (direct link in description):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tvQryfsf0w&t=830s

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: cnd
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 09:24 AM

I'm surprised to see no one's mentioned "Cotton Mill Colic." Dave McCarn and Pete Seeger both recorded versions of the song, as well as the Blue Sky Boys. Lyrics can be found easily online.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 09:42 AM

I know this is about the Linen industry, but I thought I'd mention 'The Lowell Factory Girls' song - near the top of my list - a workforce with a tremandous history for fighting wior workers rights
Mary Brooksbank's songs are up with the angels, as well
Jim

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 12:45 PM

[From Wikipedia] The Lowell girls' organizing efforts were notable not only for the "unfeminine" participation of women, but also for the political framework used to appeal to the public. During the 1834 "turn-out" or strike, they warned that "the oppressing hand of avarice would enslave us." In the 1836 strike, this theme returned in a protest song:

Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
But I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty, I cannot be a slave.

(The most celebrated native son of Lowell is Jack Kerouac.)

The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 took place in the neighbouring town of Lawrence;

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

James Oppenheim

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 04:22 PM

The Kells Water river was widely used to power linen and other mills in the past. The water is still used in some industrial processes, such as in a dye works near Connor.

Bonnie Kellswater

Here's a health unto you bonnie Kellswater, it's there you'll get the pleasures of life,
It's there you'll get fishing and fowling, and a bonnie wee lassie for your wife.

The hills and the dales and low valleys, are all covered with linen so fine,
And the trees are a drooping sweet honey, and the rocks are all grown over with thyme.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 05:17 PM

https://localvoices.co.uk/finding-our-voices-arbroath/ The Brothock is the name of the river running through Arbroath, the old name for the town being Aberbrothock, and all the children recognised the Brothock Mill being spoken about. Having such a kenspeckle building was a great asset to aid the pupils’ understanding. Not only could we examine the working and social history of the former flax mill, but – crucially – we were able to go a step further than local history projects might otherwise go: we heard and learned a song sung by people who worked there. Hear Inverbrothock P5P sing their version:

Awa Wi Ma Laddie

Now the stoory mill’s for poverty but the Brothock Mill’s for pey
The Brothock Mill’s a bonnie wee mill, doon by the burnside

Chorus:
And awa wi ma laddie, it’s awa wi him I’ll gang
Yes awa wi ma laddie, for he’s a nice young man

I took him doon tae the Brothock Mill tae see them aa gaein in
Rosy cheeks and curly hair, that’s the wey they rin

(Chorus)

Maybe I’ll get mairried yet, maybe no ava
Maybe I’ll get mairried yet, tae ma laddie far awa

(Chorus twice)

A roll of linen was used to consider the kind of product the mill would have made. In this case, the linen was stamped with the imprint of Francis Webster’s Alma Works nearby to the Brothock Mill; Webster is a name familiar to the children through the town’s Webster Memorial Theatre funded by donation from the same weaving family.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 03:46 AM

That one is on Tobar an Dualchais. Steve Byrne has been teaching it to local kids.

http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/84676

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 06:52 AM

From Tobar an Dualchais on FB:

**Clàr na Seachdain/Recording of the Week**

Steve Byrne is a folklorist, singer, broadcaster and community activist, best known for his work with Scots folksong band Malinky. A graduate of the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, in 2011 he founded a project to safeguard the papers of folklorist Hamish Henderson which are now housed at Edinburgh University Library. With "Local Voices" he runs folklore workshops in schools, he appears regularly on Scots Radio with Frieda Morrison, and worked as singing coach for Netflix's Robert the Bruce epic, "Outlaw King". In 2019, he was named 'Scots Singer of the Year' at the Scots Trad Music Awards. This is what he said about his favourite track from the website:

I worked as a Scots Song cataloguer for Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches for several years and in that time heard hundreds of amazing tracks - so choosing a favourite is quite a task!

That said, the one I have come back to most often is from my hometown, Arbroath. Mabel Skelton sang her own song, "Awa Wi Ma Laddie", about the Brothock Mill, an old flax mill whose imposing red sandstone outline is very much a kenspeckle building in the town.

I have since taken that song back to numerous schools in the Arbroath area, teaching it to several hundred kids in the process. The idea of taking songs from the archives back to the places they were collected is something that fellow cataloguer Chris Wright and I have developed in various projects over the past few years.

I knew a bit about Mabel already from Dr Sheila Douglas's book, 'The Sang's the Thing', but until Tobar digitised the tapes, I had never heard her sing, nor seen a photograph of her. I recently made contact with Mabel's daughter who has since sent me photographs of her mum and sent me a tape she made for the BBC in the 1960s.
http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/84676

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Jun 23 - 03:09 PM

A Facebook post from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress yesterday has this:

"Being on the twenty-third of June
As I sat weaving all at me loom
I heard a thrush singing in yon bush
And the song he sang was the jug of punch..."

In AFC's 2008 Rediscover Northern Ireland Series, Maurice Leyden sang and discussed the above song. See a video at the link (and read the transcript!):
https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-4505/?loclr=fbafchttps://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-4505/?loclr=fbafc

As Leyden points out in his lecture, June 23 should have been a holiday for the weaver:

"The 23rd and 24th of June for us actually is the feast day of St. John the Baptist, so it would have been a holiday, so the weaver should have been out celebrating, but he's not, he's on his loom.

The feast itself was known because even around 1750, as Kevin Donaher writes, bonfires and drinking were the two features of the day, 'Round the fire young and old, there was much fun and music. A dance started, and games were played.' Or, another man [later] recorded, he said, 'I often heard songs sung there and concertina music, or more rarely the local fiddler would be coaxed out to the fire.'"

The picture is a detail from a larger hand-colored engraving showing Irish weavers at work in the 1790s. See the full image at the second link:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3g11221/?loclr=fbafc

---

The video of the lecture/performance from Maurice Leyden has this title & description:

Rediscover Northern Ireland 2008: I Am a Wee Weaver: Weaving and Singing in Northern Ireland

Handloom weaving was dominated by men in 19th century Ireland. The Industrial Revolution changed that, enabling women to take the dominant role in the factory production of linen. In this talk, Maurice Leyden discusses the reasons for this historical shift, and the impact of this change on the traditions of singing and songwriting among weavers. To illustrate his lecture, Leyden sings songs composed by linen weavers between the 18th and 20th centuries, setting the songs in their historical context and discussing folklore and customs associated with the weavers.

~ Becky in Oregon

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Jun 23 - 01:53 PM

These are the words to a poem which Lancashire Folk put a tune to. About the lad who ties broken threads together and does odd jobs in the Weaving Mill.

THE LITTLE PIERCER

Buzzer’s blowing Willie lad
Lights are blazing down below,
Come on, best get ready, lad,
It's almost time to go.

See thee, Old Wilson's shut his gate,
Henry Cartright's crossing t' fold,
Come on lad, best not be late
Though t' morning's black and cold.

Kettle's boiled and your cocoa's brewed,
Thee'll find a bun on cellar head,
Daylight's breaking overt' th' hill (?)
Come on lad, it's time for t' mill.

Buzzer's blowing, Willie lad,
Lights are blazing down below,
Come on, best get ready, lad,
It's almost time to go.

I have a vague memory of there being a thread about this song, some years back.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 06:09 AM

Little Piecer is a poem by Gordon Allen North, set to a tune by Dave Brooks. Dave and June Brooks performed in Lancashire folk clubs.

Included on Dave & Bernard: Early Recordings 1966?–?1969 by Dave Brooks & Bernard Wrigley; Available as a download from Bernard Wrigley.

"The recordings here are 45 years old at least. They all show how two very keen teenagers developed musically over the four or five year period they performed together. The music we made in this short time is indelibly ingrained in our brains…"

However, I suspect it refers to the cotton industry.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 08:18 AM

The bleacher boy

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 05:56 AM

Ulster Folk Song Posted on: April 2, 2022 by: Jane Cassidy ‘Linen Songs’ by Maurice Leyden and Jane Cassidy

Maurice and Jane release a new album entitled ‘Linen Songs’ featuring seventeen songs from Maurice’s extensive collection of local folk-songs associated with the Ulster linen industry. Half the songs are accompanied and half unaccompanied.

The album was produced by Rod McVey who plays piano, keyboard and accordion. Maurice and Jane are also accompanied by Frank Cassidy on bouzouki, Paddy Finney on guitar, Joe McHugh on pipes and whistle and Conor Caldwell on fiddle.

The album can be purchased via the Shop function on this website where you can also find the lyrics and in-depth information on all the tracks. Thanks to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their support in the making of this album.

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: Daniel Kelly
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 07:27 AM

When my uncle, Bruce Clark, sent me a copy of his book covering the 300 year family history of Linen making in Maghera, I was disappointed to find not a single song in it.

In an attempt to remedy the situation, I did write this .

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 04:22 PM

Ramelton Flax Market

The following is an extract from a much longer poem about the rivalry between the flax markets of Letterkenny and Ramelton. Although obviously penned by a local composer, neither author nor date can be attributed.

"Come all you honest farmers, I won't detain you long,
And give an ear to what I say, and be it right or wrong,
Concerning the flax market of brave Ramelton town
A place of truth and honesty, of fame and high renown.

On the first day of November it was established there,
And it has been conducted since with order and due care.
A committee, as you may see, composed of members ten
To regulate this market by those right-hearted men.

Each market day, without delay, the crane they do attend
To see that justice is observed and for to superintend.
Besides, our brave town magistrate does often cast his eye
Out of his office window the market o'er to spy

To see it be conducted well, close by his office door,
Where equal justice he does give alike to rich and poor.
Come, Letterkenny, answer this: did Ramelton interfere
When you got your weekly market or yet your stated Fair?"

The full edition of this poem can be read in "Linen on the Green: an account of Ramelton's Linen Industry" compiled by Ramelton Community Heritage Project 1987

Subject: RE: Linen Industry Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 05:50 PM

Fincairn Flax (Hasson-Collins)

Flax is the raw material that goes into the making of Irish linen. It lies fermenting in the sun for a while and gives off an awful stench. Young men then have to handle it and they employ all sorts of extreme methods to get rid of the smell. Fincairn is a lovely area of South County Derry.

It's like a thousand years ago I first left out me pen
With brogan boots and wrinkled coat I went to join the men
For one and six a day we worked and broke our backs
Pulling fields of lint to make the Fincairn flax

We wash our hands and faces and we disinfect our clothes
We scrub behind our kneecaps and we clean between our toes
We douse our hair with hair oil and run it down our backs
But sure as hell you still can smell the Fincairn flax

We steeped it and we spread it and we dried it in the sun
And we lifted it and tied it and the work was never done
We only wanted rest, for we were dropping in our tracks
But the ladies wanted hankies made of Fincairn flax

Well our hands were cut and blistered our knees were all in red
And the achin' in our muscles ah you might as well be dead
But the farmer stood and glowered as we built the linten stacks
And he thought about the money from the Fincairn flax

And when we meet Saint Peter he'll say, Come right through
For it's pointless giving penance to a man who worked liked you
To ask you to do penance is to ask you to relax
For Hell is fun compared with working Fincairn flax

Written by Co Derry singer Gemma Hasson, and released on her first LP Introducing Ireland's Gemma Hasson, Dolphin Records DOLM 5009 IRL 1974