Edwin Waugh,
printer poet

 

 

The Turn Village Residents' Association presents
THE
WAUGH’S WELLf
FELL RACE



Faster!

Sponsored by
Boggart Hole Clough Brewery
- quality Real Ale delivered to your home


Race Results by Graham Fecitt, use
'Sportsoft'
for your own race
Results 2003 2004 2005 2006
2007 2007 Report

The Race - Tuesday 13th June 2006
AS. 7.15pm. 4mls./100' from the Quarry Road, two thirds of a mile out of Edenfield on the A680 Rochdale Road (GR 808186). £3 on night only. Teams (4) free. PM/NS. Over 15. Registration, toilets, prize-giving, all parking at Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary, half a mile from start. No parking near start or on Quarry Road please. A counter for Rossendale evening series.
The course is well flagged, it's straight into the climbing on the quarry road past Cote Farm (GR807187), then across to the steep old Tramtrack (pic) Climb to the hut where the engine used to stand, pulling the mine trucks up the incline. You'll wish it was still operating. Head upwards to the shelter ahead on Scout Moor (822188) It's flat but often boggy across the rough moor, the aim is the wooden cross, memorial to a crashed airman, on Whittle Pike. This is the highest point in the area at 1500 feet. Tread softly - there are all kinds of old mines under your feet. And very soon - windmills.


The Old Tramtrack


Fellgate

Pass to the right of the cross and across the moor again, westwards, to meet the Rossendale Way at Fellgate, (left) and go hard left down the rough stony track, sadly ravaged by illegal motor-bike riding, to Waugh's Well. Ned Waugh's head is pictured in a bronze relief above the spring water, and there is also a dialect plaque commemorating Harry Craven of Rossendale.

Waughs Well

Edwin Waugh ~ Lancashire's Finest Poet?
"Edwin Waugh, born in Rochdale in 1817 is widely regarded as Lancashire's finest poet and prose writer, not only in dialect, but in wonderful flowing English. He started his working life apprenticed to a printer and only in 1852 did he begin to write in earnest. His songs of Lancashire's hills and high places have a wildness about them that beautifully express Waugh's love of the moorlands. He died in 1890 and, fittingly, was laid to rest at St Paul's Church on the edge of
Kersal Moor."


The Memorial Cross

From his well, Ned Waugh has a superb view of typical Lancashire Moorland scenery, with Holcombe Tower across Ramsbottom facing, and Whittle Pike Cross high on the left (south). Racers face the very stiff 300 foot climb to revisit the wooden cross after a short drop to the reservoir (827196) The final section retraces the outward route across to the shelter on Scout Moor and back down the Tramtrack to finish at the start point. This is a hard and rough little race, 4 miles with 1200 feet of ascent

Click for story of the race and results


The Descent
- looking
across Ramsbottom

THE LITTLE DOFFER by EDWIN WAUGH

1. A merry little doffer lad
Coom down to Shapper's mill,
To see if he could get a shop;
He said his name wur "Bill".

2. "Bill what, my lad?" th' o'erlooker said;
"Arto co'de nought beside?"
"Oh, yigh," said th' lad; "they co'n me things-
Sometimes , -at's bad to bide!"

3. "But what's thi faither's name, my lad?
Thou'll surely tell me that!"
Said th' lad, "Some co'n him 'Apple Dad',-
His gradely name's 'Owd Hat'."

4. "My uncle Joe's co'de 'Flopper Chop'!
An' sometimes 'Owd Betide' !
They co'n him thoose at th' weighvin'-shops;
An' I know nought beside."

5. Said th' o'erlooker, "I know owd Joe,-
He weighvs for Billy Grime;
But, what dun they co' thee, my lad,
When they co'n at dinner-time?
"

6. Th' lad grinned an' said, "They never han
To co' me then, - no fear!"
Said th' o'erlooker, "How's that, my lad?"
Said th' lad, "I'm al'ays theer!"

7. "My lad, thou looks a lively cowt;
Keen as a cross-cut saw;
Short yure, sharp teeth, a twinklin' e'e
An' a little hungry maw!

8. "But wheer hasto bin wortchin' at?
What's brought tho down our way?"
Said th' lad, "I wortched for Tommy Platt;
He's gan me th' bag, today."

9. "Thou's brought thi character, I guess?"
Says th' lad, "Yo're wrang, I doubt;"
Says th' o'erlooker to th' lad, "How's this?"
Says th' lad, "I'm better bowt!"

10. Said th' o'erlooker, "I never see
Sich a whelp sin I wur born!
But, I'll try what I can make o' thee:
Come to thi wark tomorn!"