Factory Workers’ Song – Anonymous
From The Faber Book of Vernacular Verse, ed. Paulin T., 1990, Faber & Faber Ltd., ISBN 0 571 170609.
It's not entirely clear to me when this protest song was written. It could have been as early as 1812, when there were riots at Westhougton and Middleton, or during the difficult times following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. Or it might have been as late as the ‘Plug Riots’ of 1842 when Chartist sympathisers were able to mobilise disaffected cotton workers at a time of bad trade and short-time work. The name ‘Plug Riots’ derived from the successful ploy of stealing the plugs from the boilers at some of the cotton mills, effectively paralysing them; Ben Brierley was involved in the plug riots. The reference to 'jennies' suggests an earlier date, and I think the references to lathes swinging indicates hand looms rather than power looms.
The poem is entitled a ‘Song’ and it reads to me as though it were a broad sheet, to be pasted up in public and learnt by the common people. The writer would hardly want to advertise himself so it is hardly surprising that it is anonymous.
Rachda is Rochdale, Owdham is of course Oldham, Shay is Shaw (now a district of Oldham), Stalybridge is a neighbouring town and Ash’n is Ashton under Lyne. The dialect is typical of this part of east Lancashire. The tune is my own.