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Poet's Page.
Harry Buckley Whitehead was a well known and respected Greenfield poet who wrote a wide array of poems about Saddleworth, and Greenfield in particular. He often wrote in diallect and so it is more than appropriate to preserve his good work.
From his perhaps most well known poem "Unofficial Guide to Saddleworth" he said of Greenfield men;
The Greenfield men are more than good,
They fetch the coal and chop the wood;
And ev'ry morn 'tis good to see,
They make their wives a cup of tea;
Then off to work to earn their bread,
Each with a halo round his head;
They're all house trained and live to please,
They are the Lord's annointed these.
There has always been a certain "tension" between Greenfield and Delph whether it be on the cricket field or not. So it is interesting to read his view of Delph.
As "Little Russia" Delph is known,With an iron curtain of its own;
Behind it there the tribes all meet,
Whilst joss-sticks burn and tom-toms beat,
And by the Camp fire's lurid light,
Strange things are done in the dead of night,
What they are, they do not tell,
The curtain keeps its secrets well.
He is kinder to Dobcross and as you can see his verse here sums up the rich Brass Band heritage of the area.
Docrossers think their village grand,
Where all are members of the band.
And every child aged over 3
Is taught to play the Double B;
And bandsmen practice for Belle Vue,
By playing up the " Nichor Broo'"
While Delphers laugh and shout " What-o",
This is the land of puff and blow.
These extracts are taken from "Rhymes of a village poet" a signed copy of which he gave to my mother in 1963. H B died in 1966 aged 76 but he left an entertaining and more than worthy legacy.
Did you know.....? The first Saddleworth School to be built in the 19th century was Boarshurst, completed in 1814. The school had a high reputation, but with the building of more central schools, attendance fell off except for the scattered hillside population. By 1894 average attendance was 48 out of 294 places.
The Factory Inspector's Report for 1839 states that there were in Saddleworth:
57 Woollen Mills and 39 Cotton Mills employing 3489 adults and 285 children!
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