Requiem For The Mill
Here's Annie and Fanny and Sarah Jane too.
Hurry up girls it's nearly ten-two.
With shawls pulled up snugly and clogs a clip clopping
Get a move on now lasses, there's no time for stopping
To chat with your mates 'bout the news of the day
Just one minute late and they'll sure dock our pay.
The Master stands scowling in his new billycock
His hand on the gate latch and his eye on the clock
Thank goodness, we made it, not a second to spare
Here's Alice and Nora a right giddy pair
Of Station Road lasses, their dads work here too
They started as yard hands when t'factory were new.
And then th'hooter sounded, the shift had begun
And mile after mile of fine cotton were spun
Full bobbins were shipped to what were called sheds
Where good cloth were woven from finely spun threads
And the clatter of shuttles and rattle of looms
Were all that were heard in the dim weaving rooms.
Aye the factory stood proud for a hundred plus years
The walls they had echoed with both laughter and tears
And husbands and wives, their children as well
Had worked there and no doubt had fine tales to tell
Of good times and sad times, the friends that were made
And nights on the town after rent 'mon' were paid.
But the New Mill has vanished from the town we call 'Brig'
There were some could have saved it but they don't give a fig
For heritage and history when there's cash to be made
So the mill's demolition was the price that was paid
As each brick was torn cruelly from the Wesley Street mill
My heart becomes saddened and my eyes with tears fill.
Bard O' Brig