They were slaves weren’t they!
The folk that lived in Tyldesley
Coal mines and cotton mills
And factory Ward and Goldstone
Nowt else for it
But grim and grinding work
Digging in the dark
Standing at a loom
Bending over a bench
All day long
Industrial revolution
I believe
Grim and grimy streets
No sunshine
Narrow houses
Lanes and ginnels meet
Chimneys tall pithead gear
Smoke and soot
Rheumy chests and phlegm
King Coal King Cotton
Mighty powered the land
And some folk got the benefit
Posh houses very grand
But the labour force
Had nothing
Nothing to sing about
A pint of beer
The comfortable gill
A Saturday night
Just grist to someone’s mill
Stout folk goodly folk
Rose above the times
Proud folk honest folk
Reason had and rhymes
Kept allotments whippets too
Pigeons in the air
They made a life worth living
In that foggy smoggy air
Brian Fahy
2 November 2021
Erris Poetry 