> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > The Weaver and the Factory Maid
> Steeleye Span > Songs > The Weaver and the Factory Maid
> Martin Carthy > Songs > The Handweaver and the Factory Maid
> Bellowhead > Songs > The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid

The (Hand)Weaver and the Factory Maid

[ Roud 17771 ; Ballad Index DTwvfact ; trad.]

A.L. Lloyd sang The Weaver and the Factory Maid on the 1963 Topic LP The Iron Muse: A Panorama of Industrial Folk Music. This track was not included in the same named compilation CD but in 1994 on the Fellside compilation Classic A.L. Lloyd. A.L. Lloyd commented in this CD's sleeve notes:

The earliest weavers' songs are from the time when handloom weavers went from village to village, setting up in farmhouse and cottage kitchens. Amorous chances were plenty. The invention of the powerloom and the establishment of textile factories brought a great change in the handloom weavers' lives. This song, lyrical and wry, curiously illuminates this moment in history when the handworkers were finding themselves obliged to follow the girls into the factories and weave by steam, and when country song was changing to town song.

In 1973, Steeleye Span recorded a version with lyrics nearly identical to A.L. Lloyd's but with three additional verses from a children's rhyme and the singing of Robert Cinnamond. This was released on the LP Parcel of Rogues whose sleeve notes commented:

There was a great bitterness felt between the hand-loom weavers and those who worked on the steam looms introduced during the industrial revolution. This feeling polarised in the Luddites (named after their mythical leader Ned Ludd) who were unemployed hand-loom weavers bent on destroying the steam looms which had put them out of work.

They recorded it a second time for the CD Present to accompany the December 2002 Steeleye Span reunion tour. At least four live recordings of The Weaver and the Factory Maid with several Steeleye Span line-ups are or were available:

Martin Carthy sang this ballad as The Handweaver and the Factory Maid on Brass Monkey's 1986 album See How It Runs, which was re-released in 1993 as half of the CD The Complete Brass Monkey. The LP sleeve notes commented:

Romantics such as I would like to believe that it was The Unknown Genius who took the rather ordinary song The Handweaver and the Chamber Maid and, by altering just one word, generated real movement, moments of real tension, and something of a minor masterpiece. Certainly the present song has not yet been found in printed sources. It was collected from a William Oliver of Widnes and partially refurbished by A.L. Lloyd from the “chambermaid original.” Martin learned it from the actor Roger Allam.

Bellowhead sang The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid in 2010 on their CD Hedonism and Jon Boden sang it as the November 27, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Pilgrims' Way sang The Handweaver and the Factory Maid in 2010 on their eponymous debut EP, Pilgrims' Way, and in 2011 on their CD Wayside Courtesies. Their singer Lucy Wright commented laconically in their sleeve notes:

An intriguing song of changing times and social conflict. It also features breasts.

A related ballad is Ewan MacColl's and the Silly Sisters' Four Loom Weaver.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd (Steeleye Span) sings
The Weaver and the Factory Maid		 Brass Monkey sing
The Handweaver and the Factory Maid

(When I was a tailor I carried my bodkin and shears
When I was a weaver I carried my roods and my gear
My temples also, my small clothes and reed in my hand
And wherever I go, here's the jolly bold weaver again)

I'm a hand weaver to my trade
I fell in love with a factory maid
And if I could but her favour win
I'd stand beside her and weave by steam

I am a handweaver to my trade
I fell in love with a factory maid
And if I could but her favour win
I'd sit beside her and I'd weave by steam

My father to me scornful said
How could you fancy a factory maid
When you could have girls fine and gay
Dressed like unto the Queen of May

My father to me scornful said
'How can you fancy a factory maid,
When you can have lasses fine and gay
And dressed like unto the Queen of May'

As for your fine girls I don't care
If I could but enjoy my dear
I'd stand in the factory all the day
And she and I'd keep our shuttles in play

As for your fine girls I don't care
For if I could but enjoy my dear
I'd go to the factory all the day
And she and I'd keep our shuttles in play

I went to my love's bedroom door
Where often times I had been before
But I could not speak nor yet get in
The pleasant bed that my love laid in

I went to my love's bedroom door
Where I had been many times before
But I could not speak nor yet get in
To the pleasant bed where my love lay in

How can you say it's a pleasant bed
Where naught lies there but a factory maid?
A factory lass although she be
Blessed is the man that enjoys she

How can you say it's a pleasant bed
When none lies there but a factory maid
A factory maid though e'er she be
Blessed is the man that enjoy she

O pleasant thoughts come to my mind
As I turn down the sheets so fine
And I seen her two breasts standing so
Like two white hills all covered with snow

Pleasant thoughts run in my mind
As I fold down the sheet so fine
See her two breasts a-standing so
Like two white hills covered in snow

(The loom goes click and the loom goes clack
The shuttle flies forward and then flies back
The weaver's so bent that he's like to crack
Such a wearisome trade is the weaver's.

The yarn is made into cloth at last
The ends of weft they are made quite fast
The weaver's labour are now all past
Such a wearisome trade is the weaver's.)

Where are the girls I will tell you plain
The girls have gone to weave by steam
And if you'd find them you must rise at dawn
And trudge to the mill in the early morn

O, where are the girls I'll tell you fine
They all have gone for to weave by steam
And if you would catch them you must rise at dawn
And trudge to the factory in the early dawn

(Repeat the first verse)
 
Bellowhead sing
The Hand Weaver and the Factory Maid

I'm a hand weaver to my trade
I fell in love with a factory maid
And if I could her favour gain
I'd sit beside her and weave by steam

My father to me scornful said
How could you fancy a factory maid
When you could have girls both fine and gay
All dressed up like the Queen of May

As for your fine girls I do not care
If I could but enjoy my dear
I'd sit in the factory all the day
And she and I'd keep our shuttles in play

I went to my love's window last night
Just as the moon was shining bright
And such a light came from her clothes
Like the Morning Star when it first arose

I went to my love's bedroom door
Where I had been oft times before
But I could not speak nor yet get in
To the pleasant bed where my love lay in

How can you call it a pleasant bed
Where naught lies there but a factory maid?
A factory maid although she be
Blessed be the man who enjoys she

Pleasant thoughts ran in my mind
As I turn down her sheets so fine
And see her two breasts standing so
Like two white hills all covered in snow

I turned down her milk-white sheet
To view her body so fair and neat
And underneath I did espy
Two pillars of the finest ivory

Beneath those pillars a fountain lay
Which my poor wandering eye betrayed
But of all the fountains e'er to be found
I could have wished myself there drowned

The loom goes click and the loom goes clack
The shuttle flies forward and then flies back
The weaver's so bent that he's like to crack

Where are the girls I'll tell you plain
They all have gone to weave by steam
And if you would find them you must rise at dawn
And trudge to the factory in the early morn