Northern Voices 14: Summer / Autumn 2013

I discovered Northern Voices last week in a newsagents in Ashton-under-Lyne market: a radical biannual magazine published in Burnley, Lancashire, dealing essentially with northern issues.

The main article is by John Walker, the former editor of the Rochdale Radical Press, the first paper to reveal the scandal about the child abuser and self-advertiser Cyril Smith (1928 – 2010) way back in 1979. This was known about, but ignored, by all the press (apart from Private Eye), by the police (who held a dossier on him), and of course by the Establishment: well, he was a major political public figure, what did truth and justice matter as long as the fact that he was such a monster could be concealed? We really need radical papers because they have the guts to expose corruption, because they're not tied to any political party.

Another article in this issue's Northern Voices is the not-too-serious 'Six o' the Best: Northern Artists' by Christopher Draper, which after reluctantly rejecting Northumberland's Ashington Group member George Blessed, Liverpool-born Walter Crane, Leeds artist George Walker and Chester-based Louise Rayner, lists (in ascending order and in a slight parody of celebrity lists) the final six:

6. Isabella Jobling (née Thompson) 1851–1926, painter associated with the Staithes Group.

5. Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), wood engraver born in Northumberland.

4. David Hockney (b. 1937) from Bradford.

3. Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–93), born in Leeds.

2. William Etty (1787–1849), born in York.

1. L. S. Lowry, from Salford, who ended his days in Mottram.

There's also a long review of a book I wasn't aware of: David Goodway's Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow (Liverpool University Press, 2006; rev. 2012).

Great stuff, but what I can't understand is the apparent self-censorship, as in a cartoon with a balloon saying 'Willy – you're a sexist Anti-Semite, you f**king disgrace!' Yes, 'f**king', just like the red tops: really radical. So why can't an organ of the free press say 'fucking'? What are they frightened of: loss of advertising revenue, loss of readers, loss of sales outlets? Surely not, as they would no longer be 'free'.

John Collier / Tim Bobbin in Rochdale (Greater Manchester)

A self-portrait of John Collier, aka Tim Bobbin (1708–86).

 

 

The grave of Tim Bobbin stands in St Chad's graveyard in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Born John Collier in Church Lane, Urmston, Lancashire (a town where there is now a pub named after him), Bobbin worked as a school teacher in Milnrow. As his family grew he added to his income by writing satirical poetry in the Lancashire dialect. He published a great number of books, often selling them in Rochdale pubs, his most famous being A View of the Lancashire Dialect; or, Tummus and Mary (1746). Other dialect poets recognized their debt to him. He later expanded his talents to painting.

 

Samuel Bamford wrote a poem called 'Tim Bobbin' Grave' which features Bobbin briefly rising from the dead to drink a swift gallon (eight pints) before settling back down in his grave:

 

'I stoode beside Tim Bobbin' grave
'At looks o'er Ratchda' teawn;
An' th' owd lad 'woke within his yerth,
An' sed, "Wheer arto' beawn?"

 

"Awm gooin' into th' Packer-streeet,
As far as th' Gowden Bell,
To taste o' Daniel, Kesmus ale."
TIM.––"I cud like o saup mysel'."

 

"An' by this hont o' my reet arm,
If fro' that hole theaw'll reawk,
Theaw'st have a saup o'th' best breawn ale
'At ever lips did seawk."

 

The greawnd it sturr'd beneath my feet,
An' then I yerd o groan;
He shook the dust fro' off his skull,
An rowlt away the stone.

 

I brought him op o deep breawn jug,
'At o gallon did contain;
An' he took it at one blessed draught,
An laid him deawn again!'

 

Bobbin in 1773, when he was 64.

Below are links to Tim Bobbin's works and to some of my other posts on Lancashire dialect writers.

 

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The Works of Tim Bobbin, ed. by John Corry
Tim Bobbin in Urmston
The Lancashire Dialect Writers' Memorial, Rochdale
Ben Brierley in Failsworth and Harpurhey