David Huk: Ben Brierley 1825–1896 (1995)

David Huk's biography of Ben Brierley, one of the many local history publications by the late Neil Richardson, is very useful in that it is the only book I'm aware of (with the exception of Brierley's autobiography) that deals with Brierley in such depth: there are 48 A4 pages here, and Huk has obviously studied his subject in some detail and a great deal of enthusiasm.

Brierley was born in Failsworth between Manchester and Oldham to a handloom weaver, and the book traces his intellectual progress and vision as a writer – from meeting the poet and bookseller Elijah Ridings (also born in Failsworth and buried in Manchester General Cemetery) in his lunch break in the 1840s, having his poems published in John Bolton Rogerson's Oddfellow's Magazine, his relationship with Samuel Bamford, Samuel Laycock and Edwin Waugh, the publication of the highly successful Ben Brierley's Journal, his visits to the USA (the first one being with Sam Gradwell, and much more.

This is the story of a man's rise from very modest circumstances to a relatively comfortable position and then back again towards the end of his life. His alter ego, Ab o'th'Yate, achieved considerable success, and his short story 'A Day Out' (1855) led to the great popularity of an area (imaginary to begin with) being called Daisy Nook and associated by the artist Charles Potter with Waterhouses: Huk says the area was 'transformed almost overnight into a mini-Blackpool'. Today, the name Daisy Nook survives in a country park named after it.

The principal faults of the book are its many completely unnecessary exclamation marks, which frequently follow Huk's equally unnecessary chatty asides: for instance, I really didn't need to know that Huk fortified himself for his visit to Harpurhey Cemetery with drink from a large hip flask, or that his mother went to James Middleton's funeral, and so on – I suspect that he often forgot that he was writing a book and instead imagined himself gossiping in the local pub.

Link to my other Ben Brierley post:
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Ben Brierley in Failsworth and Harpurhey

Ben Brierley in Failsworth and Harpurhey

466 Oldham Road, Failsworth.

'BEN BRIERLEY

1825–1896

Lancashire Author & Poet

Was born in this house

26th June 1825'

Ben Brierley was the son of a hand-loom weaver who became a weaver too.

This remarkable monument to Brierley is at the side of the public library just a few hundred yards from his birthplace.

Erected in 2006, it is in bronze and by Denise Dutton after an earlier stone sculpture by John Cassidy (see below).

Brierley is represented giving a public reading, holding the notes to be read in his left hand and resting his right hand on the finished notes.

Written on the left of the steps:

'IN MY EARLY DAYS THERE WERE FEW SCHOOLS TO HELP US IN THE PURSUIT OF LEARNING. IF WE WANTED TO CLIMB WE HAD FIRST TO MAKE OUR OWN LADDERS.'

Written on the right of the steps:

'IN PROSE AND VERSE, AND IN THE DIALECT SPOKEN BY THEMSELVES HE SET FORTH WITH GREAT FAITHFULNESS AND POWER THE LIFE OF THE WORKING-FOLK OF LANCASHIRE'.

'Come carder an' spinners
an' wavvers as weel,
Stop yo'r frames an' yo'r jenies,
strip roller an' creel,
Let yo'r lathes cease to swing,
an' you'r shuttles to fly,
For there's gone through
owd England a battle-cry,

I'm neaw payin ninepence
a week for my cote,
Moore than what I paid last year:
an' yet I've no vote:
an' he says if I grumble
this extra to pay,
He'll clap on th' whul shillin - that's
tuppence a day,

'They'n turned eaut at Ratchda',
an' Owdham an' Shay,
An' th' Staybridge lads
are at Ash'n to-day:
"fair wage for a fair days work"
is the motto they'n chose,
An' what'll be th' upshot
no mortal mon knows,

'So neaw to conclude,
let us shake a loce leg,
An' this system break deawn,
if we're driven to beg,
What's a mon if he can not
stand up in his shoon,
An' say, "I'm as free as
owt else under th' moon?'

Ben Brierley's grave is in Manchester General Cemetery, aka Harpurhey Cemetery, Rochdale Road.

'In
Loving Memory
of
BEN BRIERLEY
WHO DIED JAN 1ST 1896
IN HIS 71ST YEAR.
ALSO ESTHER
BELOVED WIFE OF THE ABOVE
BEN BRIERLEY
WHO DIED ON HER 80TH
BIRTHDAY MAY 25TH 1914.'

'IT CAME UP LATE IN THE
SPRING, AND BLOOMED
AT HARVEST TIME. THE
REAPER WEPT AS HE
GATHERED THE SHORN
FLOWER AND BOUND IT,
WITH THE RIPENED GRAIN,
IN THE SHEAF OF THE
ETERNAL.  B.B.'

Ben and Esther's only child, Annie, died at the age of eighteen.

'BEN BRIERLEY'

At the side of the cemetery, still on Rochdale Road, is Queen's Park, where John Cassidy's statue of Brierley was erected in 1898, facing the former museum and art gallery. It was knocked down and broken in the 1980s and the remains were destroyed by accident following a fire in a boathouse where they had been stored.

From this pedestal, we can see that the words on two faces of the original monument were borrowed for the inscriptions on the steps of the more recent monument in Failsworth:

'IN MY EARLY DAYS THERE WERE

FEW SCHOOLS TO HELP US IN THE

PURSUIT OF LEARNING. IF WE

WANTED TO CLIMB WE HAD FIRST

TO MAKE OUR OWN LADDERS.'

'IN PROSE AND VERSE, AND IN

THE DIALECT SPOKEN BY THEMSELVES

HE SET FORTH WITH GREAT

FAITHFULNESS AND POWER

THE LIFE OF THE WORKING-FOLK

OF LANCASHIRE'.

'ERECTED
BY
PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION
APRIL 1898'

Below are links to my other posts on Lancashire dialect writers:

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John Collier / Tim Bobbin in Rochdale
The Lancashire Dialect Writers' Memorial, Rochdale

David Huk: Ben Brierley 1825–1896 (1995)