Not the OP, but it was written in 1962, but very loosely based on the testimony of Patience Kershaw to the Children’s Employment Commission in 1842. (You can read it here: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/ashley.html ) The song's somewhat sentimentalised - she doesn't complain that the men don't see her as desirable, but that the 'take liberties', which implies either sexual harassment or actual abuse.
No information as to where she worked, but her dialect is clearly from the North of England, and her surname is very strongly associated with East Lancashire or the extreme west of Yorkshire - that sort of trans-Pennine area.
(OT: is it just me, or are the captchas getting more and more illegible?)
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Date: 2012-04-25 02:14 pm (UTC)No information as to where she worked, but her dialect is clearly from the North of England, and her surname is very strongly associated with East Lancashire or the extreme west of Yorkshire - that sort of trans-Pennine area.
(OT: is it just me, or are the captchas getting more and more illegible?)