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The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid
The (Hand)Weaver and the Factory Maid
[
Roud 17771
, 3085
; Ballad Index DTwvfact
; VWML CJS1/10/1/34/1
; Bodleian
Roud 17771
; EBBA 21142
; Mudcat 24012
, 139263
; trad.]
Robert Cinnamond sang one verse titled The Weaver (Roud 3085) to Sean O'Boyle, probably in Co. Antrim, in August 1955 (BBC recording 24835). This recording was included in 1975 on Cinnamond's posthumous Topic album You Rambling Boys of Pleasure. Proinsias Ó Conluain commented laconically in the sleeve notes:
Although Robert Cinnamond spent some time as a weaver himself, and although he was reared among weavers, this fragment represents almost his total repertoire of songs connected with the craft.
A broadside of unknown origin with the title The Weaver in Love (Roud 17771) is in the Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection [VWML CJS1/10/1/34/1] . And John Holloway and Joan Black's 1975 book Later English Broadside Ballads has The Weaver and his Sweetheart from the Madden Collection. In both versions the weaver still fell in love with a servant maid, while in the following versions from A.L. Lloyd on she was changed to a factory maid.
A.L. Lloyd claimed that he collected The Weaver and the Factory Maid from William Oliver of Widnes, Lancashire, in September 1951; he sang it on the 1963 Topic theme LP The Iron Muse: A Panorama of Industrial Folk Music. This track was not included in the same-named 1993 compilation CD, but it appeared in 1994 on his posthumous Fellside compilation Classic A.L. Lloyd. Lloyd commented in this CD's notes:
The earliest weavers' songs are from the time when handloom weavers went from village to village, setting up in farmhouse and cottage kitchens. Amorous chances were plenty. The invention of the powerloom and the establishment of textile factories brought a great change in the handloom weavers' lives. This song, lyrical and wry, curiously illuminates this moment in history when the handworkers were finding themselves obliged to follow the girls into the factories and weave by steam, and when country song was changing to town song.
In 1973, Steeleye Span recorded a version with lyrics nearly identical to A.L. Lloyd's, but they added Robert Cinnamond's fragment in front and end, and two more verses from a children's rhyme. This was released on the LP Parcel of Rogues whose sleeve notes commented:
There was a great bitterness felt between the hand-loom weavers and those who worked on the steam looms introduced during the industrial revolution. This feeling polarised in the Luddites (named after their mythical leader Ned Ludd) who were unemployed hand-loom weavers bent on destroying the steam looms which had put them out of work.
Steeleye Span recorded this song for a second time for their CD Present to accompany the December 2002 Steeleye Span reunion tour. And at least four live recordings of The Weaver and the Factory Maid with several Steeleye Span line-ups are or were available:
- from 1986 on the CD Steeleye Span in Concert,
- of unknown origin on the 1986 charity sampler Where Would You Rather Be Tonight?,
- from the Beck Theatre on 16 September 1989 on the video A 20th Anniversary Celebration,
- and from Steeleye's 1991 tour on the CD Tonight's the Night... Live.
Mike Harding sang The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid in 1972 on his Trailer album A Lancashire Lad, giving A.L. Lloyd as his source.
Isla St Clair sang The Weaver and the Factory Maid in 1981 in the BBC television series The Song and the Story.
Richard Grainger sang Weaver and the Factory Maid in 1984 on his Fellside album Herbs of the Heart.
Scotch Measure sang The Handweaver and the Factory Maid with somewhat different verses—three already known to us and two new ones—in 1985 on their eponymous Topic album Scotch Measure. They commented in their album's notes:
A simple love song set in the Anderston area of Glasgow against the backdrop of the decline of the traditional craft of the hand weaver in the face of the Industrial Revolution.
Martin Carthy sang this ballad as The Handweaver and the Factory Maid on Brass Monkey's 1986 album See How It Runs, which was re-released in 1993 as half of the CD The Complete Brass Monkey. The LP sleeve notes commented:
Romantics such as I would like to believe that it was The Unknown Genius who took the rather ordinary song The Handweaver and the Chamber Maid and, by altering just one word, generated real movement, moments of real tension, and something of a minor masterpiece. Certainly the present song has not yet been found in printed sources. It was collected from a William Oliver of Widnes and partially refurbished by A.L. Lloyd from the “chambermaid original.” Martin [Carthy] learned it from the actor Roger Allam.
Martin Carthy also recorded this song with the Imagined Village, with Chris Wood singing, for their 2010 CD Empire and Love. They performed it life at the Cambridge Folk Festival 2010:
Bellowhead sang The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid in 2010 on their CD Hedonism, with three new verses compared to A.L. Lloyd and Steeleye Span, and Jon Boden sang it as the 27 November 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Barry Lister sang The Handloom Weaver and the Factory Maid as part of his Factory Set in 2010 on his WildGoose CD Ghosts & Greasepaint.
Megson sang The Handloom Weaver and the Factory Maid on their 2010 CD The Longshot.
Pilgrims' Way sang The Handweaver and the Factory Maid in 2010 on their eponymous debut EP, Pilgrims' Way, and in 2011 on their CD Wayside Courtesies. Their singer Lucy Wright commented laconically in the EP's sleeve notes:
An intriguing song of changing times and social conflict. It also features breasts.
And their CD notes commented:
In the decades before the invention of automatic looms, machine spun thread was sent to professional handweavers like the one in this song, but when the textile mills also began to weave my machine, these craftsmen lost their profession to lower paid factory workers. In this song, the handweaver has fallen in love with his replacement, the lowly factory girl—despite all advice, he can't resist her charms! Lucy has been singing this song since childhood, learned from her uncle, Michael Wright.
Pete Wood sang The Factory Maid on his 2014 CD Young Edwin. He noted:
Another song commenting on the industrial revolution, as the weavers' cottages on the Pennine slopes gave rise first to water power, and then to steam, with the tyranny of factory conditions. If you want to know more about this subject, read Roy Palmer's book Working Songs.
A related ballad is Ewan MacColl's and the Silly Sisters' Four Loom Weaver.
Lyrics
Robert Cinnamond sings The Weaver | |
---|---|
When I was a tailor, I carried my bodkin and shears; | |
The Weaver and His Sweetheart | The Weaver in Love |
I am a Weaver by my Trade, |
I am a Waver by my Trade, |
His father to him scornfully said, |
My Father Scornfully to me said, |
As for your ladies I don't care, |
As for what he says I do not care, |
I went unto my love's chamber-door |
I went unto my Love's Chamger Door |
How can you tell what a pleasant bed, |
How can [you say?] that a pleasent Bed, |
A pleasant thought came in my mind, |
A merry thought came in my mind, |
My love she lives in the country of North, |
My love lives in the Co[…] |
My love is sick and like to die, | |
A.L. Lloyd sings The Weaver and the Factory Maid |
Brass Monkey sing The Handweaver and the Factory Maid |
I'm a hand weaver to my trade |
I am a hand weaver to my trade |
My father to me scornful said |
My father to me scornful said |
As for your fine girls I don't care |
As for your fine girls I don't care |
I went to my love's bedroom door |
I went to my love's bedroom door |
How can you say it's a pleasant bed |
How can you say it's a pleasant bed |
O pleasant thoughts come to my mind |
Pleasant thoughts run in my mind |
Where are the girls I'll tell you plain |
O, where are the girls I'll tell you fine |
Steeleye Span sing The Weaver and the Factory Maid |
Bellowhead sing The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid |
When I was a tailor I carried my bodkin and shears; | |
I'm a hand weaver to my trade |
I'm a hand weaver to my trade |
My father to me scornful said |
My father to me scornful said |
As for your fine girls I don't care |
As for your fine girls I do not care |
I went to my love's window last night | |
I went to my love's bedroom door |
I went to my love's bedroom door |
How can you say it's a pleasant bed |
How can you call it a pleasant bed |
O pleasant thoughts come to my mind |
Pleasant thoughts ran in my mind |
I turned down her milk-white sheet | |
Beneath those pillars a fountain lay | |
The loom goes click and the loom goes clack |
The loom goes click and the loom goes clack |
The yarn is made into cloth at last | |
Where are the girls I will tell you plain |
Where are the girls I'll tell you plain |
(Repeat the first verse) | |
Scotch Measure sing The Handweaver and the Factory Maid |
|
I am a hand weaver tae my trade. It's many's the year now I've plied my skill, My father's often unto me said, But the weaver's fortune of my father's age Where are the lassies now, I'll tell you plain: |