Biddle Moor in the 1890s

I had always assumed that the collecting of folk music and custom at the end of the 19th century was always a male preserve. I think of people like Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughn Williams and Gustav Holst weighed down with heavy sound recording equipment seeking out some ancient in the depths of Somerset to meticulously note down folksong.

 Over the years I have had an interest in folk music and have attended many a concert. I had always assumed that North Staffordshire was not especially rich territory as far as local folk music or lore was concerned. Some areas of the country such as the West Country appear to have a richer tradition although subsequent commentators have suggested that the industrial areas were missed because folklorists felt they were somehow” tainted”.

 I looked recently at the archive of folksong that exists at Cecil Sharp House and the digital archive contains a number of games and dances collected in the Cheadle and Tean areas by Alice Keary and Charlotte Burne in the 1890s. Charlotte Burne who was born on the borders of Staffordshire and Shropshire was something of a pioneer in folk music and rose to pre-eminence within the organisation.  She produced a book on Shropshire folklore and edited the Folklore Society’s magazine. She became the first women president of the Society unusually as the organisation was London based and she remained in Staffordshire. She lived near Eccleshall. Miss Keary was from Oakhill in Stoke on Trent and spent most of her life immersing herself in the myths of North Staffordshire.( Her brother wrote an experimental novel which was admired by James Joyce)  Together the two women spent three years circa 1890-1893 collecting materials  in North Staffordshire. While a number of joint papers were published, Burne moved to Cheltenham in 1894, and their research failed to be realised in book form. It is probably true to say that the role of women in the story of collecting the folk tradition of the country has been neglected by a masculine dominated art form.

In the 1890s they were collecting material on Biddulph and their account of life on the Moor is worth recounting

 “One very curious settlement we have, locally reputed to be a separate race, the "Biddle Muir" men. Biddulph Moor is situated in the north-western extremity of the county, bordering on Cheshire. The people live in houses scattered here and there over the moor, and are said to have been much more peculiar a generation ago than they are now. They wore their hair, which is said to have been generally either red or black, cut short in front and hanging long at the back. Their houses consisted of two apartments, one entered through the other. The outer room was the abode of the cattle and pigs, the inner one that of the family. Tradition, according to the guide-books, says that they are descended from a party of Saracens brought home in the time of the Crusades by the lord of the adjoining manor of Knypersley. Their dialect is said to include many words which are unknown in the surrounding district, and which some have thought they could trace to an Arabic origin”

Do you remember March 1970?

1970 saw the passage of the equal pay act a major step in women's rights . The legislation was the result of the pressure applied to the Labour Government by actions such as the strike at Ford's Motor Company over equal pay- the subject of the film “Made in Dagenham . Job adverts of the time are a good place to start looking at the obstacles that females faced in the workplace. In Leek women with families were encouraged to apply for the “Housewives Shift” , an innovation in employment practices, at Weston Street Mill. Female typists were required for Thomas Boltons at Froghall and at Gush and Dent a “keen young lady” was needed. The evidence that men and women were paid differently was apparent. In March a report of the Association of Manufacturers and Dyers published their minimum pay rates for a 40 hour week, for Men the rate was £14 and for women £11. It should be said that local Trade Unions were not overtly concerned in closing the gap as they tended to be male dominated

An unspoken social problem was domestic violence and the 70s saw it for the first time being debated openly. During March 1970 the local paper reported two cases in Leek and Cheadle. One of the incidents was described as a “domestic tiff” The book “ Scream Quietly or the neighbours would hear” was published in the decade. Erin Pizzey detailed her experiences of establishing a woman’s refuge in West London. (Her belief that the problem of violence against women was widespread is born out of my own experiences in Stoke. As a child I once see a woman attacked in the street.}  As she wrote in the introduction to her book “ as long as the myth of the Princess and the frog continues then young women will believe that a good woman can save any man and the ugly frog will turn into a Prince”.

Language was an important weapon in objectifying women. Young women attending a weekend Duke of Edinburgh course were referred to as “Dollies”. The Dollies in question -28 young women- spent a weekend at Ilam Youth Hostel taking courses on make up, cake decoration and fashion. Even in well meaning examples, the words used can be jarring to the modern ear. The principal of Leek College congratulated Leek woman Catherine Turner who had been selected to visit the USSR and study education methods going on to say that “she was part of a memorable band of housewives who had pioneered day classes for GCE exams”.

Domesticity was a quality prized and it was a attribute nurtured across the area by Women's Institutes- at the height of their popularity- where there was a perceived need to pass on housewifery skills across the generations. The WI had branches in most communities. In Rushton they had a talk on the new decimal coverage starting up the following February. Greenaway Moor were shown a film of Max Bygraves promoting Dutch Cheese, Tean a session on cake making. Mothers Union added to the sense as they pledged to perform their duties “they owe their husband, their children and their God”. At schools girls were taught domestic science concentrating on home making reinforcing the traditional role of women

Leek Ladies Hockey team were going from strength to strength in the early spring of 1970. After defeating Newcastle they had become the undisputed champions of the county. In this victory they had relied on three goals from Patsy Allen centre forward, The reporter was of the opinion that they had won because, “they had greater fire power up front and they commanded the centre of the field with the authority of an all conquering army”

Ali Barba's Club in Milton were running regular strip shows on a Tuesday alternating with a stag comedian. One can presume it was not a very sophisticated night out and little prospect of the “Second Sex” or “Female Eunuch” being discussed

October 1962- Cuban Missile Crisis recalled

We are coming up to the 50^th anniversary of a time, which was nearly the end for humanity in October 1962. It was the occasion that the Soviet Union and the United States almost went to war over the siting of Soviet missiles on Cuba the Caribbean island off the coast of Florida. President Kennedy issued a series of ultimatums to Soviet President Kruschev demanding that the missiles, which could easily reach cities on the eastern seaboard of the United States, be removed. The US Navy began a naval blockade of the island with the tacit threat of firing on any Soviet ships. October 24^th was the peak of the crisis. The Soviets relented and the possibility of a nuclear war passed. It was a close thing

I was 7 at the time. I can dimly recall the tense atmosphere of the time when the threat of nuclear war was a real possibility. A physical reminder of those nervous times was evident just across the road from where I lived. Somebody had painted on a war close to Stoke Railway station in large letters the slogan NO WAR OVER CUBA. The graffiti was so discernible that it stayed there for many years.

However reading the newspapers of the time there is no evidence that fear gripped the populace although it is likely that fears were deliberately surpressed by a Government keen not to panic the general public. The burning question for example that animated the parish councillors of Tean as the real prospect of atomic Armageddon approached was the fear that local couples were making out in a local telephone box. A Horton farmer Mr Bailey had photographed an odd shaped vegetable- a potato that looked like a rabbit. A letter from Rushton WI warned of the dangers of fireworks

However after the event passed realisation dawned that we had a narrow escape did dawn on some

The possibility of a nuclear holocaust remained a real one during the period of the Cold War- we again claim close in November 1973 when President Nixon put US forces on a high state of alert. And with the appalling availability of fissionable material possible falling into the hands of terrorists arguably the terrible prospect continues to haunt humanity.

Edward Lear and Limericks

Apart from the widely known example of Charles Dickens this year also marked the 200^th anniversary of another literary giant

Also born in 1812 was Edward Lear the developer of the limerick, he was in addition an outstandingly good artist and a travel writer with a particular love of the Mediterranean. The limerick is of course a witty poem especially one in five-line meter with a strict rhythm. It is quite an exercise to produce work to this scrupulous metre. Although he did not invent the form Lear certainly did a great deal to popularise limericks. Lear had a troubled life. From childhood he endured ill health, including epilepsy, of which he was ashamed, and was effected by depressive illness. He never managed to marry, but he had good friends and doted on his cat Foss.

 He was a wandering artist, travelling, despite his paranoia, to wild parts of Europe to make exquisite watercolours. Some of these journeys were risky. Corsica, for instance, was infested with brigands who made a habit of kidnapping solitary travellers. He wrote accounts of these journeys, sketching wherever he went, grumbling  about miserable accommodation, boring encounters with German travellers, and also about the monks he found everywhere and detested.

Lear did have North Staffordshire connections. He did the rounds of the aristocratic homes of the area such as Trentham where he was appalled by the smoky atmosphere from nearby Stoke.

Simon Daniel a fellow scribbler in Leek and I believe we should not allow this anniversary to pass unnoticed in the Moorlands. Earlier this year we produced a few local examples.

A farmer who lived outside Leek

Had a prize Dexter bull that could speak

He taught it good diction

And fed it pulp fiction,

The classics, pig Latin and Greek

A vicious young thug from Brown Edge
Tipped young birds out before they could fledge
But one day they fought back, with a vicious attack
And pecked him to death on a ledge

A Teutonic zealot from Flash

In the First War sprouted a ‘tasche

He looked like the Kaiser

He should have been wiser

And he wouldn’t have been run out of Flash.

We did write a limerick regarding a wayward young woman from Tean, but judged it too lewd for the readership of the Post and Times.