The Cropper Lads

Old illustration of men with hammers breaking a machine

Luddites smashing the frames

I first heard this song sung at the Grove Folk Club in 1964. It was performed by the then newly formed group who took their name from the songs title, ‘The Cropper Lads’, who I struck up a close friendship with. The four, Rennie Pickles, Alan Robinson, Bob Spray and Jim Potter with their powerful chorus singing style, and Rennie’s Dancing Dolls, soon became firm favourites with folk audiences, near and far.

Bradford born Rennie, the senior member of the group, was originally part of trio called the Wayfarers that in 1956 at the Dragon and Peacock Restaurant, started Bradford's Topic Folk Club. Alan Robinson also hailed from Bradford, a painter and decorator by trade, a keen climber, with an interest in all things maritime. He spent any spare time he had converting a ships lifeboat into a sailing vessel, so he could sail off into the wide blue yonder.

Bob Spray was also member of the climbing fraternity, a photographer by trade from Leeds, where he lived above his Fathers camera shop on Town Street, Armley.

Jim Potter was a tent maker whose one-man tent design won ‘The Climber’ magazines 1964 best design award. He had a camping shop in Bradford, but lived at Stanbury near Haworth.

The Shears Inn, Hightown, Liversedge.

Shortly after the group's formation, I went with them on a visit to the Shears Inn, High Town, Liversedge, where we viewed the copy of the song displayed on the pubs wall, and then did an impromptu performance of it.

In February 1967 Alan announced he had finished all the work on his boat. The Cropper Lads had a booking on a Sunday night a couple of weeks later in Salford, so it was decided we’d launch the boat about mid-day, and then all go to the gig in the evening afterwards. It was a cold grey February day when we arrived at the Boat Yard on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, just above the Five-Rise Lock at Crossflats, Bingley. We easily got the boat into the water, but as the boats draught was slightly deeper than the water at the end of the slipway, the boat became stuck crossways in the canal. There was nothing to do except get into the freezing water and physically turn the boat through ninety degrees. After we had got the the boat afloat and safely moored, we didn't have enough time to go home and change, so went as we were. We arrived at the Two Brewers in Salford looking like a pack of drowned rats, but the booking went well. Alan set sail for Cornwall a few weeks later, and shortly after in 1967 the group disbanded.

The Cropper Lads

Come gallant lads of high renown
Who love to drink strong ale that’s brown And strike the lofty tyrant down
With hatchet, pike and gun.

Chorus
The Cropper Lads for me
And gallant lads they be
With lusty stroke the shear frames broke
The Cropper lads for me.

And night by night when all is still
And the moon has sunk behind the hill
We forward march to do our will
With hatchet, pike and gun.

And though the specials they advance
And soldiers nightly round us prance
The Cropper Lads do lead the dance
With hatchet, pike and gun.

Great Enoch he shall lead the van
Stop him who dare, stop him who can
Then forward every gallant man
With hatchet, pike and gun.

A Cropper at work dressing cloth

Croppers and Cropping

To create finished cloth, wool had to be scoured, spun, woven, ‘finished’ or ‘dressed’ and dyed. The 'finishing' process created a close, smooth finish on the cloth. To achieve this, the cloth was wetted, the nap raised by rubbing the cloth with teasels, and finally the raised nap had to be cropped. The raised nap was cropped by the cloth dressers or ‘Croppers’ using four feet long hand-held shears weighing between forty and fifty pounds. This was highly skilled, time-consuming, well paid work, and the ‘Croppers’ were held in high esteem by the other textile community. Their labour had been protected by an Elizabethan statute requiring apprenticeships in the woolen trade, and they had always enjoyed more independence and status than other textile workers.

In the years preceding the Uprisings, when the mill owners began to introduce gig mills and later mechanical shearing frames in their mills, the Croppers pursued all the legal channels of peaceful resistance open to them to try and protect their rights. By 1806 the Croppers already had formed a union and had enough resources to provide sickness benefit to their workers, and were well organised. When parliament repealed their statutory rights in 1809 it was the straw that broke the camels back.

Cropping shops were mainly small unpretentious workplaces, but they were pretty numerous and well spread around the Hudderfield and the Spen Valley area. The Huddersfield and Liversedge Croppers agreed to amalgamate and escalate their actions. They convened a secret meeting in an upstairs room of the Shears Inn, High Town, Liversedge, and there “the discontented croppers banded together, to destroy the cursed machinery”. They smashed the machines using large sledge hammers known locally as ‘Enochs’, so named after the blacksmith who made them, Enoch Taylor of Marsden. It was at one of these meetings in February 1812, that John Walker of Longroyd Bridge first sang his song ‘The Cropper Lads’. He performed it just before they marched to Hartshead Moor to successfully attack the wagons transporting the shearing frames to Cartwrights Mill at Rawlfords.

The attacks on shearing frames continued throughout February, and to try and suppress the disturbances the mill owners formed a Committee which offered 100 guineas for any information leading to arrests.
On 20th March 1812 machine breaking was made a capital offence, but the attacks still continued, until 11th April, when two Luddites died of their wounds after an unsuccessful attack on Cartwrights Mill.
On 27th April, William Horsfall of Ottiwels, Marsden, a sworn enemy of the Luddites was assassinated. Subsequently John Walker and fourteen other Luddites, were tried at York Castle on 12th January 1813, found guilty of the attack at Rawlfords, and the others of offences including, rioting, robbery, and murder.

Enoch's Hammer (left) and cropping shears on display at the Tolson Museum.

The Tolson Museum, in Ravensknowle Park, Huddersfield has in its Textile Gallery on permanent display, several objects from the Luddite Rebellion and other textile tools, machinery and cloth samples.

It also features a hand cropping bench and shears, also a display of the machines so despised by the Croppers. Other Luddite artefacts include, one of Enoch's Hammers, a sword belonging to William Horsfall, a hair tidy made in prison by William Thorpe, who was hung for his part in Horsfall's murder.

Resources:
Frank Peel, Spen Valley, Past and Present. Senior and Company 1893
Frank Peel, The Rising of the Luddites. J.Hartley, Brighouse 1895
Writings of the Luddites edited by Kevin Benfield. JHU Press 2015
Websites:
www.historyhome.co.uk - Luddism in Yorkshire: a chronology
www.mirfield-2ndlook.info - The Mirfield History archive. The Yorkshire Luddites

About Mick

Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Mick Haywood's Song Wordbook

Leeds Years

The Cropper Lads

Croppers and Cropping

About Mick

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