Mary: A new song from old Barrhead
I was brought up in the small town of Barrhead, a few miles from Paisley, and not so far from Glasgow. In my childhood, Barrhead wasn’t known for much other than the two factories that it hosted – one making Shanks’ toilets and the other Spillers’ cat-food. Even before these factories closed (in 1992 and 2004 respectively), de-industrialisation was turning Barrhead into a commuter-belt town on the fringes of Greater Glasgow. The prospect of a relatively affordable new-build 3-bedroom home for their growing family was what took my parents there in the mid-60s, a year or two before I was born.
Last month, when doing some digging into local history (all part of the preliminary research for a recording project I hope to develop) with the help of East Renfrewshire Council’s Local Studies Unit, I spent a few hours at Giffnock Library pouring over old maps and photos of Barrhead, and leafing through local history books.
In one of those books, I came across this poem, simply entitled ‘Mary’:
When fragrant winds at eve blew saft
And nature cheered each rural scene
My lowly cot with joy I left
To meet my Mary on the green
The Linnet sang upon the bush
His farewell to the setting sun
Far down the glen the speckled thrush
Took up the strain ere he had done
The Zephyrs shed their balmy breath
And kissed the flowerets on their way
While Levern’s limpid stream beneath
Was gleaming in the sunny ray
My heart rejoiced as ‘neath the shade
With Mary, nature’s charms I viewed
The night with silent footsteps sped
And every fragrant flower bedew’d
The book named the poet as James Scadlock. I had never heard of him, nor of any poet from Barrhead for that matter. But a little more searching turned up this brief biography of him, published in chapter XVII of ‘A History the Parish of Neilston’; a chapter dedicated to ‘Persons of Eminence’...
‘JAMES SCADLOCK, POET.
James Scadlock was born in Paisley, 7th October, 1775, where his father was a hand-loom weaver. But as he came to our parish in very early life, and remained in it until his death, he may be looked upon as all but a native. After spending only a few months, when a mere boy, with his father at the loom, and a short time as a lad in a stationer’s shop in his native town, he came to Barrhead and took up residence with a relation. Here he began an apprenticeship of seven years as a copperplate engraver… Towards the close of his apprenticeship, having already begun to court the Muse, he made the acquaintance of Tannahill, Paisley’s sweet singer, with whom, being kindred spirits, a friendship was developed which continued during the whole of the latter’s lifetime… [I]n April, 1808, [he] was married to Mary Ewing. Taking up house in Grahamston, he and his wife continued to reside there until his death, which took place from typhus fever, 4th July, 1818. He was of an amiable disposition, and was a fond admirer of nature in all its aspects, loving to linger among the hills and glens that surrounded his home. His pure and gentle muse frequently found subjects of song among the beauties of our local scenery, in Killoch Glen and by Levernside. He will always take a place among the minor poets of our country.’
(source: https://electricscotland.com/history/neilston/chapter17.htm, accessed 11/12/2021).
Learning a little about James Scadlock’s short life, the poem took on a new poignancy for me. It felt like a gift from the past to come across a poem that describes and celebrates a Barrhead so different from the post-industrial town in which I grew up two centuries later. And yet, despite those differences, there’s also something deeply affecting about how the poem reveals that, across the centuries, James Scadlock and I shared similar experiences of wandering the local hills and glens, and of falling in love.
So, I decided to try to come up with a tune for his words; a simple, innocent folk-tune that might express the same joy that the words of ‘Mary’ capture so eloquently. I hope James and Mary would have liked it. Here’s to them and to our home-town.
You can download the song via Bandcamp here (and if you follow me on Bandcamp you’ll hear about subsequent releases):
https://fergusmcneill.bandcamp.com
There’s a lyric video on YouTube here (where you can also subscribe):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT2vWYRHDTM
Thanks for listening!
Fx