Hard Times by Harry Buckley Whitehead

Yoh munnut come agen hard times;
We thowt those days were done,
When th’ dust lay thick i’ th’ jinny-gate¹,
Where the wheels no longer run;
When th’ yed-stocks² stood like silent ghosts,
And th’ straps and ropes were still;
Where o abeawt ‘em seemed to say,
“There’s nowt to do i’ th’ mill.”

Yoh munnut come agen hard times,
For Owdham’s had its share.
When th’ purse were thin, and times were bad,
And ther’ weren’t mich to spare;
When nob’dy axed, or seemed to care,
Heaw were its troubles met?
Thoose wounds lie deep, the scars remain,
The folk remember yet.

Yoh munnut come to haunt these streets,
Where once yoh left your mark;
Where care and want together walked,
Wi’ thousands eawt o’ wark;
Where daycent men, fro’ daycent whoms,
Wi’ brocken heart and soul,
Went trudgein’ deawn that hopeless road,
To th’ means test and the dole.

¹Jinny-gate – part of the cotton-spinning machinery.
² Yed-stocks – head-stocks, also part of the machinery.

From: http://www.dunkerley-tuson.co.uk/Pages/LDPoemsHardTimes.aspx

Date: 1963

By: Harry Buckley Whitehead (1890-1966)