Episode One: Jennifer Reid Transcript
Jennifer Reid 00:00
*singing* A Lift on the Way ... Life's road’s full o’ ruts, it’s very slutchy and dree
Joe Fenn 00:11
Welcome to the Portico Podcast. This is Rewriting the North, a celebration of place and writing in the North of England.
Jennifer Reid 00:23
My name is Jennifer Reid.
Jennifer Reid 00:25
I sing Lancashire dialect work songs and Victorian broadside ballads. So we are in Broadfield Park in Rochdale, just above Manchester Road. I can see Touchstones, I can see Hopwood Hall College, and this is home to the Lancashire Dialect Writers Memorial.
Jennifer Reid 00:42
So I've used a book by Henry Cunliffe, published in 1886. And it is A Glossary of Rochdale-with-Rossendale: Words and Phrases. I have written an A to Z of Lancashire dialect beginning with
Jennifer Reid 00:57
A - we've got agate which is begun of or doing so you'll hear this quite a lot. “Me mam were agate going t' shops.”
Jennifer Reid 01:04
B is for bair, which is a doormat so a bair at the door.
Jennifer Reid 01:08
Crill is C, so that's a creeping chill.
Jennifer Reid 01:11
*Singing* You gentlemen and tradesmen, as you ride about at will; look down on these poor people, it's enough to make you crill. Look down on these poor people as you ride up and down.
Jennifer Reid 01:26
So I'm from Middleton, which is the middle town between Rochdale in Manchester. I spent a lot of my formative years in Manchester, but I find myself returning to Rochdale. I feel some kind of affinity with it, but I can't really put my finger on it. I think it's ... am I a bit rough around the edges, like Rochdale is? There's a lot to be said for what come out of here and I feel like it needs honouring.
Jennifer Reid 01:47
So my interest in Lancashire... I don't know, you'd say Greater Manchester is where I was from, but it used to be in Lancashire, did Rochdale. I just feel a deep affinity to the place. I feel like I need to represent it. I feel like I can use my singing voice to engage people with Lancashire dialect.
Jennifer Reid 02:07
What I think of when I think of Lancashire is hard working people, working as hard as they can at processes that they probably don't like, but they have learned to like because it is a means to an end. Such great values and morals. Such a funny sense of humour!
Jennifer Reid 02:30
D is for dree, which is continuous that could be ran on a long road or journey.
Jennifer Reid 02:36
E is for een and that's the plural of eyes. So you could say that I've got sparkling green een. And F is for fuzzock, idol woman who maybe it doesn't look her best. G is for gollop. So me mam always used to say that I'd be golloping down food too quick. H is for hoo, which is she. "Where's hoo going," that kind of thing. I is for inkle, "as thick as inkle weavers", is in reference to work people who are closely packed at their employment and therefore usually they're quite thick or friendly with each other, like thick as thieves. J is for jannok, which is something thoroughly done. K is for keck which is to fall over backwards. Also in Rochdale dialect there's kruckle, which is to roll over on your ankle. L is for layrock, which is a Skylark. Edwin Waugh, in his Tickle Times poem, he says "though we livin’ oo’ th’ ground, same as layrocks we’n fly up like layrocks to sing”. M is for makker. That's "maker." So a "beggar makker" shop is any gambling or pub establishments where you could potentially lose some money because it would make you a beggar.
Jennifer Reid 03:54
In the 1700s/1800s, Rochdale was a country place, so rolling hills. There's Waugh's Well, where everyone would go and take walks and things like that, and there's all the moorland that people really identified with. And then with the Industrial Revolution, everything went smoggy, people moved away from the area for work and just lived in slums. And I feel like now we've come, not full circle because obviously Rochdale is still a bit built up, but the greenery is coming back. People feel calm and more settled here, and I enjoy that Rochdale is having a bit of a renaissance moment. From where I'm standing, I can see leaves turning a lovely shade of orange and yellow, rolling green grass, and I can hear the traffic but I'm not near it. And it's just the calming natural environment that a city centre park, you can't really get it anywhere else. I just feel like it's a sanctuary a little bit.
Now we're just gonna walk up to the Dialect Writers’ Memorial. There's four dialect poets commemorated on it. So what we're looking at is like an obelisk type structure. I'm just dying to say phallic, but I won't say phallic, because it's immature. There's five people commemorated on this because they've added Harvey Kershaw to the bottom, "a mon wi’ t’ common touch." That's nice. And someone's crocheted a nice flower garland, which I think has something to do with care system and NHS. It says "In grateful memory of four Rochdale writers of the Lancashire dialect, who have preserved for our children, in verse and prose that will not die, the strength and tenderness, the gravity and humours of the folk of our day in the tongue and talk of the people."
Jennifer Reid 05:45
N... adding N closes off many plural verbs in the dialect. Ben Briley, who is I feel like he's overlooked quite a bit but he's fantastic. "If children meeten him anywhere they scutten away like a lot o’ chickens when there's a dog abeaut”. Scutten instead of like scuttled. O is for 'oud' or 'Oudham.' So 'oud' just means old, like in Oldham.
Jennifer Reid 06:14
Right, so first off, we've got Edwin Waugh, some people say "Waugh," but I am a "Waugh-er." So he was probably the poster boy of Rochdale dialect. He moved to New Brighton to take in the sea air, because he were getting quite ill and he never returned. But he always wrote about how he missed Rochdale. Probably his most famous poem is "Come Whoam to Thy Childer an' Me." So the first four verses are about the wife complaining about having to put the kids to bed and all this kind of thing. And then she goes and find her husband and he's in the pub. But the last two verses are, he's got everything that she needs in the pub, like, he's brought loads of gifts and useful practical items and he's just having a quick nip with his mate before he does come on.
Jennifer Reid 07:01
P is for a pair o’ looms, which of course means just one loom. Nothing misleading about that. And then there's pobs and pobbies, which is child's porridge. Q is for 'quick-sticks,' and instant or a very short time. R is for Ratchda or Rochdale and that's exactly where I am now. The birthplace of the Co-op, the home of the tubular bandage, if you go past that specific bridge, the town hall which is amazing, Hitler wanted the clock tower from the town hall. And then you've got Edwin Waugh you've got Harvey Kershaw, you've got all these amazing people that come out of Rochdale. I also found this... I don't know how true this is… It's called 'ringing the pan.' So I'll quote from the book, "a ceremony performed by lads to expose young persons who are seen courting on a Friday night. Pans are rung violently and the names of the unwary couples with their personal peculiarities, are sung out in coarse doggerel. Sometimes the consequences are more swift than welcome to the pan-ringers."
Jennifer Reid 08:08
We've got John Trafford Clegg, there's a really good etching of him, picture of him, and he is stunning. It's kind of lucky that he died young because he was alright looking were John Trafford Clegg. He's written a song called Weaver's Song. And he's written loads of different really specific weaving shed songs that are really fantastic. Right... I can definitely say Margaret Rebecca, but I don't know whether it's LA-hee or La-HEE. I've heard both. Nice to have a woman commemorated on here you know, and the commemoration that she's got underneath is one of her poems. So "When we lay down life's shuttle and ston before great judge, he'll wants to know what sort of a piece we've woven and how many floats there's in it. He wouldn't care about our sounding names and worldly possessions. He'll ask us how we gate 'em and what we did wi' 'em." The weaving terminology is linked to existential concepts. A piece of cloth is being linked to someone's whole life. This is really like spiritual.
Jennifer Reid 09:19
And then Oliver Ormerod... Edwin Waugh and John Trafford Clegg, because their poems are so easy to make into songs, I do find myself leaning more towards them in that the humour's really present and you've just got everything. But Oliver Ormerod, he did a bit more of internal things, more kind of inward looking. So we've got a poem of his here. So "I said I'm a Rachde felly. Mon and we're meetily fusst there I'll warranty. Alles let a mon do that that is right. And he started sure for to come out at best and last of all." So, how everyone writes the dialect is different. So he spelt Rochdale, "RACHDE." So "I said I'm a Ratchda felly." You find your own little way within the material and then you find your your comfortable spots, but keep pushing on with these words that are a bit harder because you might learn a bit more about yourself and your own accent through other work.
Jennifer Reid 10:22
I just like to look into their eyes on the reliefs of them and just think like, I'm doing this for you fella and I hope, I hope that I'm doing you justice.
Jennifer Reid 10:34
S is for 'scran' which really means mixed bits of refuse food, but you hear it everywhere now that word 'scran.' S, I've also put shive, which I think is a perfect word for a slice cut off, as in bread or cheese, like a shive of bread or a shive of cheese. T is for tackler which is a loom overlooker. And Sam Fitton wrote a song, well a poem, called Shuttle Kissin', "Matilda Curley Toppin were a weaver and a lass," and her tackler was basically trying to crack on wi' her and she wasn't really interested. It ends up with her saying I'd rather kiss shuttles than kiss you. And kissing the shuttle is when the weaver puts their mouth to the shuttle and just sucks the thread through to rethread it.
So... U is a bit of a swizz really, it's 'uzzah'. That's the Rossendale one, or 'shuzzah' is the Rochdale version. And it just means "as how". The last verse of Shuttle Kissin’ by Sam Fitton, she says "I'm very much obliged for all the promises shuzzah." It's really weird one that because you might be listening to this thinking 'What's she on about 'uzzah'?" But it's 'as how.'
Jennifer Reid 11:49
V is for Vast which means very. W is for Wiz which means to throw with violence, 'wiz it out o’ winda'... Another W is "wick" so that means "alive and very healthy." Edwin Waugh, he says in the poem To Me Owd Fiddle, "I sometimes think it's gradely wick, there’s singin’ brids inside on’t." He thinks there's singing birds inside his fiddle because it comes out with such beautiful music. And Y is for yezzy, which means easy. It's yezzy work, it's really right easy work.
Jennifer Reid 12:28
So I lied. I said I'd done an A to Z, but there is no Z. So instead I'll just have to give you a song and hope that you're happy with that. So this is A Lift On the Way by Edwin Waugh. *Singing* "Come, what's the use of fratchin' lads, this life's none so long. So if you'd gather around I'll try me on that song. It may shew a guiding glimmer to some wanderer astray or happily give some poor owd soul a lift on the way, a lift on the way, a lift on the way or happily give some poor owd soul a lift on the way. Life's road's full of ruts, it's very slutchy and dree. And many a worn out limper lies him down there today. Then floundering low in gutter. He looks around with dismay. To see if owt in world can give a lift on the way, a lift on the way, a lift on the way, to see if owt in world can give, lift on the way. Jog on me noble comrades and then saw more it'd be that on and on we're traveled till the day that we mun dee. and now to end me ditty lads, let's heartily pray. That Him may give us everyone a lift on the way, a lift on the way... "
Joe Fenn 14:28
That was a new commission from Jennifer Reed in Broadfield Park Rochdale. And I'm Joe Fenn, speaking to you from the historic Portico Library in Manchester, home of Northern England's biggest literary award, the Portico Prize, a celebration of place and writing in the North of England. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes and tell your family and friends about it. The Portico Library is a registered charity. You can find out more about our work at www.theportico.org.uk. The Portico podcast is funded by Arts Council England. The producer is Nija Dalal-Small. Concept and programming by Sarah Hill, with special thanks to Dr. David Cooper. Join us next time.