From Voice to Print: Lancashire Dialect Verse, 1800-70

Abstract

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, as the industrial revolution began to make its impact upon the printing and distribution trades, vernacular verse became more readily available in written form. Yet, unsurprisingly, this verse rarely appeared in dialectal form. Although most originators, hearers, and readers must have been speakers of a regional dialect, standard orthography was itself a relatively recent phenomenon, and there was no recognized means of portraying dialect pronunciation in print. So the broadsheets and handbills that became increasingly common, featuring the bonny mining lads or the crimes, hangings, and disasters of the time, were predominantly printed in standard forms of language. (1) In Lancashire, where a remarkable outpouring of dialect verse arose in the first half of the Victorian age, there had already been one pioneering piece of dialect innovation in the publication of Tummus and Meary by John Collier (better known as Bobbin), a dialogue between two Lancashire clowns published in pamphlet form as early as 1746. (2) Besides its dialogue, this had provided a glossary of the dialect, very doubtful in its provenance and orthography, yet a genuine attempt to record the voice of Rochdale and its district. Nevertheless Colliers written work subsequently had been largely in Standard English. Though the Victorian dialect poets looked back on Tim Bobbin as a father figure, and though he can be considered a significant influence in the development of the regional novel, there was a space of some sixty years before we see the dialect commonly represented in written form. (3) Two dialect poems which appeared in broadsheet form early in the nineteenth century might be better considered as the true progenitors of the written dialect verse that became such a feature of common Lancashire culture in later years. These were commonly entitled in broadsheets as Ned's a Rare Strong Chap and Jone o'Grinfilt. Ned is something of a chameleon in its provenance, dating, and subject matter. Often regarded as quintessentially Lancastrian and based on Manchester, it is also found in broadsheet material based on Leeds, and one web reference suggests it was actually composed in Birmingham. (4) In G. R. Axon's collection of broadsides and ballads it is claimed that the verse had been constantly published since 1797, yet the same web article points out some versions make reference to the Manchester Infirmary clock, which was not installed till 1825. (5) Most disconcerting of all, though Owd Ned, a local nickname for the steam engine, raises hopes that its subject matter will be the mighty new factories and mills that were transforming the cotton industry, most of the ballad is involved with the various traditional sights and temptations of Manchester: its pickpockets, infirmary, church (in some versions this is the main subject of attention), and theater. Just one verse reflects the new industrial age: To a factory aw went, aw war ne'er in one afore, They were twisting thrums, and wheels and straps. I'm sure there wur many a score, They said owd Ned turn'd a long wheel, and long wheel a strap, By gum thinks I to myself owd Ned's a rare strong chap. This brief sample may also suggest, quite rightly, that its literary merit as a piece of vernacular poetry is open to question, although one must always remember that the piece was most commonly sung rather than recited. Most broadsheets indicate the tune as The Fine Old English Gentleman. Nevertheless in its form, in which a Lancashire clown goes to the big city and is overawed, almost fleeced, but eventually emerges triumphant, Ned does provide the template for a host of later dialect writing in both prose and verse. Jone o'Grinfilt is certainly a weightier piece and was regarded by later nineteenth-century enthusiasts as the really significant originator of the dialect verse tradition in Lancashire. …