Three yards a penny. Song, song, songs.

Well what a cracking afternoon!  If you weren’t there you missed a treat.

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours being entertained and educated by Peter and Barbara Snape with their presentation about broadside ballads printed by John Harkness of Preston in the nineteenth century.  With words and song this talented duo transported us back in time to hear the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the ordinary working people in the Lancashire cotton industry.  Selling at a penny or a halfpenny per sheet, the broadside ballads provided a ‘window on the world’ and were affordable and popular amongst the working people.

Fortunately for us  a good number of these ballads have been saved for posterity and are stored in the Lancashire Archives in Preston.  During our planned visit there next month  (12th November) I have put in a request to view a selection.