Spen Valley Magazine Spen Valley Magazine (draft) | Page 13

The Croppers’ Song
Come cropper lads of high renown,
Who love to drink good ale that's brown
And strike each haughty tyrant down
With hatchet, pike and gun!
Oh, the cropper lads for me,
The gallant lads for me,
Who with lusty stroke
The shear frames broke,
The cropper lads for me!
Whiff of Revolution
The whiff of revolution in Spen Valley was in the air
twice in the 19th century; first with the luddites and
then the chartists.
Luddites
England had been in conflict with France on and off since the French
revolution of 1789. War with America brought a collapse in trade in 1811.
Unemployment could mean starvation and even death. Tension mounted.
Certain textile manufacturers had installed mechanical shearing frames,
used in finishing woollen fabrics. These threatened the livelihoods of
croppers, skilled men who hand-sheared the cloth. The frames became a
rallying point for protest.
Who though the specials still advance
And soldiers nightly round us prance,
The cropper lads still lead the dance
With hatchet, pike and gun!
Oh....
And night be night when all is still
And the moon is hid behind the hill,
We forward march to do our will
With hatchet, pike and gun!
Oh....
Great Enoch* still shall lead the van,
Stop him who dare, stop him who can.
Press forward every gallant man
With hatchet, pike and gun!
*The huge hammers made by Taylors of
Marsden and used for smashing machinery
William Cartwright introduced frames at Rawfolds mill, Littletown. Croppers
and others angered by the poverty around them plotted upstairs at the
Shears Inn, Hightown. It was illegal to belong to any sort of combination
(union), and breaking machinery was a hanging offence. So they swore an
oath of secrecy. Luddites met upstairs at the
In February 1812, on a snowy Hartshead Moor, four men attacked two
wagons carrying more frames to Rawfolds. The wagoners were tied up and
the frames smashed to smithereens. the business of the meeting
George Mellor of Huddersfield, leader of the local Luddites, took the decision
to attack Cartwright’s mill. A throng of 300 to 400 men marched from the
Dumb Steeple monument near the Three Nuns on the night of April 11th
to 12th, armed with huge hammers and axes. As the mill was attacked,
soldiers on guard fired shots, and men fell, bleeding. The assault was
repulsed and the attackers fled.
Two mortally wounded men were taken to the Star Inn at Roberttown where,
legend has it, they were tortured using aqua fortis (nitric acid) to reveal the
names of their co-conspirators. In his death throes John Booth (19) asked his
interrogator “Can thi’ keep a secret?”Roberson, the local vicar, leaned forward
and said he could, whereupon Booth replied “So can I” and promptly died.
Two weeks later a mill owner, William Horsfall, was shot and killed by Mellor
and his accomplices. This marked the beginning of the end for Luddism.
Arrests followed. After a mass trial in January in York, 13 men including
Mellor were hanged, and others transported to Australia.
Shears Inn. As the beer took
hold John Walker announced
he would sing a ditty before
got underway. Well before
the song ended everyone
had joined in with enthusiasm
and much banging of the tables.
(Walker was one of those hanged at York
in January 1813)