Recording of the Croppers songs
The Cropper Lads (1min 50secs) sung by Jim Potter and Three Score and Ten
Foster’s Mill (1min 19secs) sung by Jim Potter
There is a story to these songs set in Yorkshire industrial history.
Trouble at mill
This is the sledgehammer used to wreck the machinery , named after ... find out more!
Enoch, the sledgehammer
Songs sung at Folk at the Grove
The Croppers Song
by Diane Taylor
The song dates from 1811-12, a rousing song reflecting the social unrest and violence in West Yorkshire textile towns in response to the introduction of mechanised shearing frames in woollen mills.
There were many lively broadsides and ballads along these lines collected by Frank Peel in the 1870s, The Risings of the Luddites and by DFE Sykes of Huddersfield.
Sykes records in his book ‘Ben O’Bill, The Luddite’ one Jack Walker singing this song lustily in the Shears Inn, Hightown (now a Tetleys and CAMRA pub) with his men banging their pewter mugs and sticks on the tables as a rousing end to a day practising drilling on the Hartshead moors, M62/A649. From this pub and others secret meetings were held, oaths taken and plots hatched to destroy local mills which had introduced shearing machines.
Night Attack on Rawfold’s Mill
The croppers from Hightown planned to meet up with those from the Crispin Inn, Halifax and make a night attack on Rawfold’s mill at Roberttown. Locals remembered the tramp of feet as they passed in the dead of night. They were to meet up with the group from Leeds who were to have walked from Roundhay but did not make it in time - too many pubs on the way ? - and who retreated at the sound of cannon.
spiked rollers .. tubs of vitriol ... and hangings
Rumours had resulted in Cartwright, the owner, having the militia sleeping in the mill for the previous six weeks. They placed spiked rollers on the stairs and tubs of Vitriol to be poured on the attackers.
The croppers hammered on the doors with their Enochs and broke in. Windows were smashed and the mill damaged. The militia opened fire ... continued!
Articles on Songs and Customs, including historical background, Instruments and Tunes, Art and Crafts, Dance, Folk Events and Initiatives, and a spice of controversy.
Contributors include: Annie Dearman, Doreen Henderson (nee Elliott), Nick Caffrey, Sean Breadin, Bob Berry, Graeme Miles, Jim Bassett and many others
- Sounds of Birtley Mining Village Part 2
- Oakey Strike Evictions
- The Female Highwaymen
- Yorkshire Tunes
- Family Broom Makers
- The Green Man
- Guy Fawkes and Gunpowder Plot
- Play the Melodeon
- Kelham Island Museum
- Veils and Face Makeup
- Licence Regulations and Potterne Mummers
- Tam Lin
64 pages, full, cost only £2.50: order by email ed.sam.music@virgin.net, or telephone 01977 685122
More details, see the Folk Leads website
folkleads.org.uk‘Forgotten Songs Remembered’
New Book of Songs by Graeme Miles
Published for the first time, a new collection of songs by Graeme Miles.
There are 67 songs in the volume liberally illustrated with Graeme's drawings throughout, together with extracts from his diaries.
Published April 2007 and available from:
Folk Leads Publishing Sam Dodds ed.sam.music@virgin.net telephone: 01977 685122
Folk Leads Publications 2007