TO SOUND CHEERFULLY IN OTHER EARS WHEN WE ARE NO MORE

Edward Slater and the Burnley Part Song UnionSimon Young

Introduction: The SlatersBurnley in the Nineteenth Century being the Burnley Express

Souvenir of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897 was published locally in that year. It is a fascinating volume - one that deserves to be reprinted - covering much of the period when Burnley grew from a small town into a regional textile centre. There are chapters on ‘Religion in Burnley’, ‘Education in Burnley’ and ‘Local Government in Burnley’. There is also a very brief section on music, in which the author states, assuming that his readers will recognise the names, that ‘the memory of the three brothers Edward, Christopher, and Frank Slater is still green'.1 Of course, today, practically no one in Burnley knows who the Slater brothers were. But, in truth, even in 1897, the memory was fading fast. Those who were twenty or older at that time would, though, likely remember: extraordinary concerts and plays put on at the Mechanics; record-breaking crowds filing through doors; and the novelty of listening to the work of a Burnley composer and playwright, Edward Slater, who was not afraid to use Lancashire dialect and Lancashire themes at a date when this was unheard of.

The Slaters produced, in fact, a concentration of talent that is difficult to account for. The father, Edward Slater (d. 1892), was from a Catholic family from Longridge, Lancashire.2 Typically, recusant families came from wealthy lines. However, this was not the case with the Slaters, or at least it was no longer the case by the nineteenth century, for Edward Slater was a tanner. After several years of constant moving around the country the Slaters arrived in the Burnley area in 1842. There was Edward, his wife Mary and six children: Christopher, Jane, Edward, Frank (Francis), Alfred and Albert. A later report claims that the family were ‘inclined to music and literary work'.4 Given what the family were to achieve between 1842 and 1900, this is an almost comic understatement. The family also proved active in the local Catholic church and among Burnley’s

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Conservatives: the Slaters were Tories, indeed, at a date when this was not typical for those from a poor Catholic background.

Of the six Slater children, three - Jane, Albert and Alfred - have left little trace in the historical record. However, Edward, Christopher and Frank were all well-known in their day. The elder son, Christopher, worked for Burnley borough as a ‘nuisance inspector’ and, for many years, was the head of Burnley fire brigade: he died fighting a typhus epidemic after having contracted that awful illness. However, Christopher also taught singing lessons, from 1847, at Towneley Catholic School, then from 1855 at the Burnley Mechanics5 and in 1864, 1865 and 1866 he had brought out, under an assumed name, The Burnley Advertiser Almanack and Kester O’ Cuddy’s Kalendar, with poetry, dialect works and jokes. He was much loved and flags around the town flew at half mast at his untimely death.6 Frank moved to Colne and became one of the major figures in the Catholic community there and a much admired musician, playwright and music teacher. He composed, for example, Colne’s anthem, ‘Bonnie Colne\ He was ultimately honoured in that town with an oil painting that was kept in the local library.7

Edward SlaterHowever, the most interesting of the Slater children was

unquestionably Edward. Edward, bom about 1837, did not apparently receive the honours that were given to Frank and Christopher: there is the suspicion that he may have been a somewhat difficult person., but his achievements in the theatre and on the music scene in nineteenth­century Burnley were striking. We know relatively little about his private life. His wife was named Jane and he had five children: Frances, Edith, Frank, Hannah and Bertha. They lived at Habergham Eaves from at least 1861 and the family worked in the cotton industry. In the 1881 census, in fact, Edward is described as a ‘Cotton Spinning Master’. Not only was Edward bom into the working classes, he remained there all his life. We know that Edward and Frank Slater studied music under their brother Christopher in 1847, but as we shall see, Edward was also an accomplished writer.

The first reference that we have been able to find to Edward Slater, in the Burnley press, comes in the news of a cricket match

between St Mary’s Catholic School and Albion in 1862. Slater played for St Mary’s with one William Aspinall.8 We mention William Aspinall, a Catholic and later a Burnley Conservative councillor, because the next time that Slater appeared in the newspapers, it would be in association with a play and with this young man. One report explains that they were both teachers at St Mary’s9 and another report gives details of a memorable performance.During three nights of the present week, the members of the B.B.S,

have given a Dramatic Entertainment, in the Boy’s School at St. Mary’s, the title of which is ‘Th ’ Boggart Blacksmith! Or the Return of the Boggart Bridge Ghost. ’ The play, and the music incidental to it, are the production of Mr. Edward Slater, and the whole of the scenery was painted by Mr W[illiam] Apsinall. We give the characters represented from which some estimate will be formed of the piece. Old Domi, Jack o'th Brig, Parson Seldom-preach, Tom Jinker, Pat O’ Leary, Johnny McFlatherty, Mad Bill, Bob Turmutyed, A. Stickfast. Esq., Sam, Jack o’the Brig’s Son, Jack o’Linkers, Mr. Everrich, Lobecouse Jimmy, Locksafe, Betty, Sally, Postman, Blacksmiths, Hermits, Singers, Robbers, &c, The plot is a common one - unjust retention of property, which is at last restored. There are the usual villains to do the evil work required, and the heroes, in this case two Irishmen to frustrate their intentions. With the exception of the Trish songs ’ nearly the whole of the dialogue is in the dialect of this district. The vocal music was excellent, especially the Anvil song, and we never remember to have seen a company of amateurs so well up in their parts, and so natural in their acting. The piece is full of startling incidents, so that the interest was kept up from the beginning to the end. The whole does great credit to all concerned in the production, getting up, and performance of the piece.10

To a modem reader this description might suggest a rather anarchic and bizarre musical work: and a performance which bears all the marks of an improvised amateur production but, back in the nineteenth century, school productions, town productions and even the larger productions in cities like Manchester tended to look to London. Regional theatre of all types was derivative. Yet here, in 1863, Edward Slater had put together a play taking a Burnley theme, the Towneley

Bridge Boggart. He had also created a number of local characters that could have come out of the pantomime tradition - note the dates of performance - and he had employed dialect for most of the play. In fact, some regional pantomimes did use local references but Slater was not satisfied with the occasional nod, for everything was local from speech, to names, to legends. This little report carries a bit of theatre history because it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time that a play was performed in Lancashire dialect: it would not be until 1866 that Manchester would begin to show pantomimes in ‘Lanky’. We might not be able to trust The Advertiser's comments about the quality of the production - when after all are newspapers ever honest about school plays? - but this report should leave us in no doubt as to Slater’s originality.The Part Song Union

Edward Slater was obviously happy with the success of Th ’ Boggart Blacksmith and a year later he was ready for another production. This time he wrote a play entitled The Steward, or Whisslin Tim un his Mais ter, in five acts, for St. Aloysius School,11 William Aspinall again providing the scenery. We read that Slater also composed most of the music for the play and the title suggests that The Steward was written in dialect. If Slater had limited himself to local Catholic schools his fame may never have gone further than the minority Catholic population in Burnley. However, the next year would change everything. In April 1865, we learn that Slater had linked up with an obscure and probably a new musical outfit in the town: the Burnley Part Song Union. 22nd April 1865 a notice appeared in The Advertiser to the effect that ‘The Burnley Part Song Union have much pleasure in announcing that they have made the arrangements with Mr. E. Slater for performing the Original Play, called The Witches in Pendle, in four acts, with all the Incidental Songs, Choruses, Dances, etc., and with new & beautiful scenery’.12

There followed an unusual advertising campaign, which hints at Slater’s genius. All adverts for the play began with the words: ‘Aint yuh baun, er somut’ and this slogan was, at first, painted on placards around the town without any reference to the Witches. This caused great consternation and it was only when it was connected with the

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play in handbills that its meaning became clear: 4 [we] were asked in a phrase current among Lancashire lads if we didn’t plan to be present at the performance of the new play". The freshness of this approach suggests that the alliance between Slater and the Part Song Union was a fertile one from the start and, within just a matter of years, journalists would refer routinely to ‘Slater’s Part Song Union’.14

All this, of course, begs the question of what a part song union is and why there was a part song union in Burnley. In the second half of the nineteenth century, in fact, there were several part song unions spread around Britain and they specialised in singing, of course, in parts. Most part song unions restricted themselves to choral work and musical performances. The Burnley Part Song Union, though, particularly from the date of its alliance with Slater, also put on what we would today call musicals. The very fact that the Burnley Union acted as much as they sang might make us think that it had been founded as a vehicle for Slater. Perhaps, perhaps not but the Union had joined itself to what was clearly, by 1865, a rapidly rising talent. Being a member of the Part Song Union was certainly a very serious affair. The Union had its own cricket team15 and its members were working men who took pride in making time in busy lives for their music and acting. Consider this speech from 1875 by Edward Slater, which is perhaps the closest we come to the experience of being a Part Song Union member in its glory years. Note particularly Slater’s use of ‘outsiders’, the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. j

Of course the Part Song Union - we know, and many other people know, but most outsiders do not know - has had a struggle as a union of a lot of working men. People generally never think - they cannot think, in fact — of the amount of work, self-denial, and labour of all sorts that has to be gone through a lot of you men in a place like Burnley, called a Part Song Union... In fact, Burnley I may say - and I say this without hesitation - is not a musical town; and I am certain you all know this, that if a classical concert be given in Burnley, the poor fellow who gives it will be debtor to cash. We, as a Part Song Union, do not profess to do these things. We simply strike at the root of the tree where all the dirt is. Of course, we cannot help being begrimed with the dirt; we cannot get out of it, and if we intend doing

anything we must still keep where the mire is, and that unfortunately we have to do; and the reason why we keep among the mire is that we do not find that persons are willing and ready to appreciate music. People might appreciate it in other towns, but do not in our own town. In Burnley I do not believe that persons of musical taste are sufficiently numerous to make what we call a high class musical entertainment pay. Hence what we do must pay because as working men we cannot afford to lose, and I do not think there would be any sense in us trying to reach to a higher point than we can keep to, and then have to tumble down to break our own necks.Barcroft Hall

To show the extraordinary success of the Union we need to take one production and follow it, from conception to triumphal reviews. At random we pick Barcroft Hall or the Hermits of Deerplay Wood, which was put on in October 1874: Slater stuck to local themes and stories throughout his career. On 8th March 1873 there was, on the front page of The Burnley Gazette, an account about Barcroft Hall and the legend of a resident ‘idiot’, who cursed his family. It is very possible that this proved the seed for the story as the ‘idiot’ was the central character in Slater’s play. Preparations must have begun in the summer. On 26th September 1874 a preliminary announcement appeared on the first page of The Burnley Gazette announcing that the Union was preparing a new Slater Play and that the play would appear at the Mechanics early in October. On 3rd October 1874 a full advert was printed, again on the front page of The Gazette. (See next page)

The advert gives a very good idea of the wit of Union productions, particularly the dialect passage at the end and this play, like most of Slater’s works, was popular. At the last rehearsal, which was open to the press, Slater came on stage and introduced the characters and an ecstatic report appeared in The Advertiser,11 where we learn that some of the music was by Frank Slater, Edward’s brother. Then, finally, we have the opening night reviews.All who embraced the opportunity of being present at the representation of any of the author’s other dramas will be satisfied... they will be prepared for genuine fun and most pleasureable excitement. But they found something higher than this. Instruction was

-widely blended -with entertainment. They were made merry and wise.18 Barcroft ran for several nights at the Mechanics’, then, even after closing, it was not forgotten. The Union often brought out Slater plays for retrospectives and this particular work was put on again at the Mechanics’ in 1879 ‘to a large and enthusiastic audience’}9

We know a good number of titles written and produced by Edward Slater, though note that this is, unfortunately, an incomplete chronological list:20Th’ Boggart Blacksmith! Or the return of the Boggart Bridge Ghost; The Steward, or Whisslin Tim un his Maister; The Pendle Witches; Hurstwood Hall or the Fairies of Brownside; The Death of Paslew or the last days of Whalley Abbey; Cromwell in Lancashire; Barcroft Hall or the Hermits of Deerplay Wood; The Blacksmith; Doal time in 1826; Royalists and Roundheads; Hard Times; and Be Gradely.

Most of these works were, on the evidence of the Burnley, Blackbum and Colne press, loved by locals with thousands coming to listen to Slater’s music and stories. It was a remarkable achievement for a working man and it is a tragedy that these works have been lost: though good summaries exist in nineteenth-century newspapers, not a single script seems to have survived in the Burnley area. Edward Slater’s desire, expressed in an advert for Hurstwood Hall, that his music would: 'sound cheerily in other ears when we are no more" was not then fulfilled. However, there is still hope. Licensed plays were kept in the Lord Chamberlain’s play collection, now at the British Library until 1968. It is possible that some of Slater’s plays are there. Unfortunately, the cataloguing for the Victorian period is execrable and they will be difficult to turn up: though the possibility of reproducing a Slater play, in the Mechanics’ today would surely make all the effort worthwhile.The Last Years

What happened to Edward Slater? The last years of his life provide a number of mysteries. The first question is when his association with the Union came to an end. There is a suspicion that Slater left the Union in 1880. The last reference to Slater in connection with the Union is apparently from October 1880. The Express ran a story on its seventh page, on 20th November 1880, stating that Slater had asked

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13 ‘Aint yuh baun, er somut’, The Burnley Advertiser, 22 April 1865, p4.14 ‘The Pendle Witches’, The Burnley Advertiser, 28 October 1871, p2.15 ‘Burnley Part Song Union v. Colne Victoria’, Burnley Gazette,

September 1867, p3.16 ‘Annual Dinner of the Burnley Part Song Union’, The Burnley Advertiser,

25 December 1875, p3.17 ‘The New Drama’, 17 October 1874, p2.is ‘Barcroft Hall’, The Burnley Advertiser, 24 October 1874, p2.19 ‘Edward Slater’s Part Song Union’, Burnley Express, 1 February 1879,

p8.20 ‘Questions & Their Answers’ The Burnley Advertiser, 6 October 1877,

where we read about Slater’s ‘twelfth play’, p2.21 ‘Mechanics Institution’, The Burnley Gazette, 28 September 1872, p4.22 ‘Be Gradely’ Burnley Express, 9 October 1880, p5.23 Ibid p%.24 ‘Altham’s Cocoa Rooms’, Burnley Express, 24 September 1881, p4.25 Edward Slater, ‘A Stupendous Blunder’, Burnley Express, 8 June 1878,

p7.

The Mechanics’ Institution where the Part Song Union often performed

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for a theatrical licence for one month. Then on 11th December of the same year, the Express recorded a new musical comedy Gradely, at the Literary Institute, though audiences were reportedly small. There is no reference in either to the Union. Then, in 1881 we have a reference not to Slater’s but to Booth and Grindrod’s Part Song Union.24 Slater’s association, with the Union then, which dated back to 1865, seems to have concluded at the end of 1880.We do not know whether the ‘divorce’ was amicable or bitter. All

that is worth noting is that Edward Slater’s interests had been broadening in the previous years. In 1879 he had written an angry letter against a strike in Burnley, showing proud conservative colours. He had also become increasingly involved with Fulledge Conservative Club in the years that followed. Were political disagreements at the back of arguments in the Union?

It should also be noted that, in 1880, Slater had published a novel, The Love of Ennie Gold: A Satirical Tale of Love and Election in parts in The Advertiser. This was his second serialized work of fiction, as, back in 1865, he had published Towneley Boggart Bridge in The Gazette but between 1880 and 1884, the year of Edward’s death there is silence. His death certificate records his final illness, pneumonia: and confirms that Edward Slater, one of Burnley’s most talented sons, was aged just forty-six when he passed away on 19th July 1884. It goes without saying that the present author would be grateful for any further information about Edward or, indeed, about any of the other Slaters.

1 p. 124

2 ‘Death of Mr Christopher Slater’s Father and Son’ Burnley Express, 31 August 1892, p2.

3 Census return, 1851, Whalley, 6h 23. ■4 ‘Death of Mr Christopher Slater’, Burnley Express, 10 June 1893, 5.5 ‘Mr. Slater’s Concerts’, The Burnley Gazette, 1 April 1871, 5. p6 ‘Death of Mr Christopher Slater’, Burnley Express, 10 June 1893, p5.7 ‘Lancashire Dramatist Honoured’, Manchester Evening News, 15

December 1917, p3.8 ‘Cricket’, The Burnley Advertiser, 5 July 1862, p3.9 ‘St Mary’s Schools’, The Burnley Gazette, 3 January 1863, p4.io ‘Dramatic Entertainment’, The Burnley Advertiser, 3 January 1863, p2. n ‘St. Aloysius’ School’, The Burnley Gazette, 2 January 1864, p5.12 ‘The Witches in Pendle’, The Burnley Advertiser, 22 April 1865, p4.

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RETROSPECTThe Journal of

Burnley and District Historical SocietyVolume 32 2014

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To Sound Cheerfully in Other Ears When We Are No More Edward Slater and the Burnley Part Song Union

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