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The Wayver of Wellbrook by Ben Brierley
This poem comes from the book entitled 'The Chronicles of Waverlow' by Ben Brierley in his series 'Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life'. My edition was published in Manchester by Abel Heywood & Son, 56 & 58 Oldham Street and in London by Simpkin, Marshall & Co., Stationers' Hall Court, in 1884.
Ben Brierley was born in Failsworth, Lancashire, UK, in 1825. He was a self-taught poet, author, journalist, and town councillor. The son of a hand-loom weaver, he left school when only five years old and thereafter his education continued wherever he could find it - at the local Mechanic’s Institute, in evening and Sunday classes. By the time he was seven years old he had read the bible three times.
On leaving school he became a bobbin winder for his father, then a handloom weaver (weaving silk) and was later employed as a piecer and a silk warper in Manchester for nine years. While there he began publishing articles in Lancashire dialect and when trade was failing he accepted the sub-editorship of the Oldham Times. In 1862 he was a founder member of the Manchester Literary Club. Later he published many books (in standard English and in dialect) and started his own publication ‘Ben Brierley’s Journal’ which ran for 22 years and made him famous. In 1875 he was elected to Manchester City Council and served for six years. He visited America twice in the 1880s, where he was feted by expatriate Lancastrians, nostalgic to hear once again their native tongue. He died in 1896 and is buried in the cemetery at Moston, Manchester.
The poem reflects the sentiment of the 'little people' with respect to the large landowners, who had often accumulated their estates by enclosing the common land at the expense of smallholders. Rather like 'Some Fooak' by Joseph Barron, 'The Weaver of Wellbrook' is an assertion of the dignity and value of a life of hard work and personal morality, themes as relevant today as when Ben was writing.
I love ‘The Wayver of Wellbrook' (a fictitious place) for it’s rhythm of the handloom, which Ben Brierley knew so well, and for its exposition of Lancashire home-spun philosophy. I do not know the precise meanings of all the words, particularly some of those in the chorus (although they are obviously all parts of the loom), but I offer, at the end, some guidance for anyone residing, in, for example, California, or other places where they have not been properly brought up! Or you can link to the explanatory Glossary.
The Wayver of Wellbrook
Yo’ gentlemen o with yo’r heaunds an’ yo’r parks, –
Yo’ may gamble an’ sport till yo’ dee;
Bo a quiet heause nook, a good wife, an’ a book,
Is mooar to the likins o’ me–e.
Wi’ mi pickers an’ pins,
An’ my wellers to th’ shins;
Mi linderins, shuttle, and yealdhook; –
Mi treddles an’ sticks;
Mi weight-ropes an’ bricks; –
What a life!–said the wayver o’ Wellbrook.
Aw care no’ for titles, nor heauses, nor lond;
Owd Jone’s a name fittin’ for me;
An’ gi’ me a thatch wi’ a wooden dur-latch,
An’ six feet o’ greaund when aw de–e.
Wi’ mi pickers, etc.
Some folk liken t’stuff their owd wallets wi’ mayte,
Till they’re as reaunt an’ as brawsen as frogs;
But for me–aw’m content, when aw’ve paid deawn mi rent,
Wi’ enoof t’keep me up i’ mi clogs-ogs.
Wi’ mi pickers, etc.
An’ ther some are too idle to use their own feet,
An’ mun keawer an’ stroddle i’ th’lone;
But when aw’m wheel’t or carried–it’ll be to get berried,
An’ then – Dicky-up wi owd Jone-one.
Wi’ mi pickers, etc.
Yo’ may turn up yo’r noses at me an’ th’owd dame,
An’ thrutch us like dogs agen th’ wo;
Bo as long’s aw can naygur, aw’ll ne’er be a beggar,
So aw care no’ a cuss for yo’ o-o.
Wi’ mi pickers, etc.
Then Margit, turn reaund that owd hum-a-drum wheel,
An’ mi shuttle shall fly like a brid;
An’ when aw no longer con use hont or finger,
They’n say–while aw could do aw did-id.
Wi’ mi pickers, etc.
Clearly this is a song, not a poem. In the original publication a weaver sings it while finishing a 'piece' in his loom, his wife working alongside him on the spinning wheel to provide him with weft. The whole song contrasts the position of the landed gentry with 'Jone', the subject of the song.
Explanations (Just in case!)
Chorus:
Picker – "A small instrument in the shuttle box of a loom which drives the shuttle to and from through the warp" (Smaller Oxford Dictionary).
Pins – seems they are to retain the selvedges of the cloth as it moves forward in the loom.
Linderins - weavers lengthening strings (source - Ben Brierley's writings).
Wellers – I’m still trying to find this out, probably something worked with the legs.
Yealdhook – seems to have been a small tool to help thread the warps into the loom prior to starting weaving.
Sticks – part of loom, probably the horizontal laths of wood used to control the stability of the warp (heddle sticks, lease sticks).
Weight rope and bricks – I have seen illustrations of weights hanging from the warp-beam end of the loom, clearly designed to maintain tension in the warps. Wayver – well, you knew that was Weaver didn’t you?
Verse 1:
O - all
Heaunds – easy, hounds
Parks – literally parks, figuratively estates
Gamble and sport – chase about hunting
Dee – die
Bo - but
Heause – house
Nook – corner (of course)
Mooar – more (obvious)
Brierely is contrasting the gentry's possessions and pastimes with Jone's.
Verse 2:
Lond – land
Owd Jone’s – ‘old Jone (his name) is’
Dur – door
Again there is a contrast between the gentry's titles, possessions and land with those of Jone. 'Owd Jone' is his title, a thatched cottage with a wooden door latch is his property, and enough land to bury him in is the limit of his ambitions.
Verse 3:
First two lines, ‘Some people like to stuff their old wallets with meat (stuff their stomachs with food - 'get fat'), until they’re as round and as swollen as (fat) frogs’, but he really means that the gentry like to accumulate money until they’re over prosperous. This fits with the next two lines. ‘I’m content when I’ve paid my rent and I’ve enough to keep me on my feet.
Verse 4:
An’ mun keawer … literally cower, but here 'sit' (i.e. travel by carriage). 'Stroddle' comes from 'straddle', probably as in straddle a horse, i.e. go on horseback. One version of the poem that I have says 'gallop' instead of 'stroddle', which I think makes the meaning clear. Again, he's referring to the gentry who go by carriage or on horseback. He’ll walk; the only time he’ll be wheeled or carried is when he goes to be buried! Then it’ll be all-up with Jones. My second version of the poem says 'buried' (not 'berried'), confirming my understanding.
Lone - lane
Verse 5:
Thrutch – push or squash
Th’ owd dame – the old lady i.e. the wife!
Wo’ – wall
Nayger – tough one this. Aulnager was a cloth inspector, and nayger may mean weave. Alternatively it may mean ‘gnaw’ (from German/Saxon/Old English). In either case, it means as long as he can work.
Once again Ben has the gentry in his sights. As they come by in their carriages or on horseback the common folk are obliged to squash themselves up against the wall or hedge to allow the larger, and faster, traffic by. But since he's not planning to be asking them for favours any time soon, he couldn't care less about them.
Verse 6:
Hum-a-drum wheel – spinning wheel
Brid – bird
Hont – hand
They’n – they’ll
Jone finally asserts his self-reliance once more.
Written by: Philip Dunkerley
This version: 10 April 2006
Filename: Weaver of Wellbrook |
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