27th of November is Lancashire Day and was first held in 1996. It commemorates the day in 1295 when Lancashire first sent representatives to the English Parliament of King Edward I.
Son of a shoemaker, Edwin Waugh (1817–1890) was born in Rochdale, Lancashire and in his younger working life travelled widely. He eventually was able to work full time as a writer. He wrote prose: Factory Folk, Besom Ben Stories, and The Chimney Corner. His Lancashire dialect songs, collected as Poems and Songs (1859), brought him local fame. He has been called “the Lancashire Burns.” His most famous poem is “Come whoam to thi childer an’ me”, 1856.
Come whoam to thi childer an’ me
Aw’ve just mended th’ fire wi’ a cob;
Owd Swaddle has brought thi new shoon;
There’s some nice bacon-collops o’ th’ hob,
An’ a quart o’ ale posset i’ th’ oon;
Aw’ve brought thi top-cwot, doesta know,
For th’ rain’s comin’ deawn very dree;
An’ th’ har-stone’s as white as new snow; –
Come whoam to thi childer an’ me.
by Edwin Waugh
