Arkwright's Stanley Mill | |||
By
Exil When
Abbie Duff and Kenny Paul, Were
apprentices tae Watty Wilks An’
Hugh Kerr Currie delivered milk, When
chimney sweeps went up on roofs, An'
homosexuals were known as ‘poofs’ When
Stanley Mills manufactured cotton, An’
two World Wars were not forgotten, An
Daddy Hughes made a’ decisions, Aboot
the school bairns’ education, Reading,
writing, art and geography, Religious
Instruction, PE and history Through
music, domestic and rural science, The
rule of the day was, general compliance, We
recited our ‘tables’, memorised crap, Rigidly
enforced wae’ a broad leather strap, Middle
class academics, who teachers became, Lacked
imagination, and must take the blame, Yes,
memorise poetry like Burns ‘Tae a Mouse’, Enjoy
the exploits of Wallace and Bruce, But
what of the importance of our river Tay, Or
why Stanley is where it is to-day, When
we left school, far too many, Were
ignorant of Arkwright’s Spinning Jenny, Academy
boys were taught Latin an’ French, While
Secondary boys were taught skills at a bench, But
nobody told us of Arkwrights plan, Was
it because he was an Englishman? Who
had the foresight and the vision, The
strength an' support to make the decision, To
establish a cotton mill on the Tay And
build a village called ‘Stanley’ Nobody
told us of the old corn mill, Which
George Dempster owned at the bottom of the hill, Then
in 1784 Richard Arkwright came along, And
bought the whole thing for a song, By
1790 his design was complete, With
an underground water tunnel of 800 feet, Innovative,
inventive, revolutionary and grand, The
biggest industrial complex in all of the land, Starting
wae Bell Mill at the bottom o’ Well Brae, Then
East Mill and Mid Mill, the history books say, Scotland’s
Industrial Revolution began at this site, Thanks
to the genius of Sir Richard Arkwright A
grid pattern village which is still there to-day, Was
built on land owned by the fourth Duke of Atholl, Previously
mixed woodland and grazing for cattle, Designed
by James Stobie, the Marquis’s factor, Named
after Lady Stanley, the 1st Dukes benefactor, So
sadness befalls me to think of this plight, Those
middle class teachers who always seemed right, But
lacked imagination, suppressed it in others, Promoted
the dim, with well connected mothers, An’
did they suppose we knew the Mill's history, Revolutionary
genius, successes and misery, Surviving
the hardship of Napoleonic wars, The
cotton famine, industrial laws, The
Mill interned bodies, in atrocious conditions, Child
labour, exploitation, poverty, malnutrition, What
absorbing ingredients went into the pot, What
stories went untold of Arkwright’s great plot, So
to a’ Stanley people, the young and the old, Remember
this great human story, that never was told. |
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