'Whilst I have tried to amuse, I have, at the same time, written to instruct, and to show what education has done in the matter of social progress and good manners.'

Compiled and Edited  by Jim McMahon

Thanks to David Huk, Author of 'Ben Brierley 1825-1896' for his wealth of information.

SIM SCHOFIELD 1852—1929 “A Failsworth Lad.”

Sim Schofield (or to give him his correct name Simeon) was born in Holebottom, Failsworth, on the 25th
August 185~, son of Thomas and Jane Schofield, hand loom weaver and spinner respectively. Sim’s parents, along with the vast majority of other Failsworth hand loom weavers attended the Peterloo Massacre at Manchester on the 16th August 1819 when a meeting agitating for Parliamentary reform took place. The
tales told to him about this meeting, and the run up to it, must have sown the seeds for his Liberal/Radicalism in his later years.

He related tales that as a child his clothes were patched all over, but clean; of the whole family dining off one small herring as a treat, of drinking the “sowe” a flour and water mix used by weavers to stiffen their warp, of going outside to collect hips and haws from the hedges to eat, and many more recollections besides.

By all accounts he was not a robust child, being involved in such work as labouring on a brick croft, weaving and spinning, etc perhaps did not suit his build or constitution. But my goodness, when he turned his attention to writing he was both excellent and prolific. Most of his writing covered Failsworth as he remembered it. His “Lofty Meditations” of 1883, first published in one of Ben Brierley’s Journals, described Failsworth at that time as he sat aloft on top of the newly—completed Ivy Mill chimney. He described in length how and why Failsworth Cemetery was caused to be built, full details of the opening of the Failsworth Liberal Club, plus many articles on “Failsworth re—visited” all this and much more of interest to local historians.

In 1905 he had his “Short Stories About Failsworth Folk^” published, reprinted 1906. This book is essential reading for all interested in Failsworth’s past, ignoring one or two errors, such as calling John Moore, a local radical “Moores" throughout, and getting the year of Ben Brierley’s death wrong. These errors were not corrected in the second edition.

Sim married his first wife, Elizabeth, on October 1879 at Salem Chapel, Strangeways, Manchester, but she sadly died a couple of years later on the 6th April 1881. Sim was not allowed to bury his wife in St John’s, Failsworth, churchyard, on account of her being a Dissenter as Sim was, and the cemetery becoming over full. (They were still burying folk at St John’s some 86 years later). At last it was agreed that Elizabeth could be buried there but in the paupers’ section.
Sim would have none of it and conducted his own civil ceremony with the help of friends and interred her there without entering the church. She was buried in plot 607, and the inscription read :— “The transplanted lily still blooms.” “In memory of Elizabeth, wife of Simeon Schofield.” “In her 25^th year”.

Sim’s sister, Mary Ann, is in the same plot, having passed away on the 2nd of December 1917, aged 58 years. This would have made her a younger sister of Sim’s, having been born on the 9th July 1859~. He had another sister who died on the 18th July 1857 who gloried in the name of Lettice. Elm’s family tree is far from complete as yet, but a mention was made of a brother.

Sim’ s second marriage was to Hannah Laycock, daughter of Sam Laycock, the Lancashire dialect poet/writer, who along with Ben Brierley and Edwin Waugh were known as the “Lancashire Trinity.” All three are commemorated in Failsworth street names of today. Just before Hannah’s birth Sam wrote his famous “Bonny Brid” (Bonny Bird) verses. He was assuming a boy would be born and wrote the words to match, but when Sim‘s wife to be arrived he left the rhymes as they were; perhaps he couldn’t find a coupling for “hoo,” the dialect for “she.^t’

Sam Laycock was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire on the 17th January 1826, and died in Blackpool on the 15th December 1895. It was at the Congregational Chapel at Blackpool that Sim and Hannah tied the knot on the 8th November 1879, and they spent their honeymoon at nearby Grange. There was no offspring from either of the marriages.

It was about 1888 that Elm and Hannah moved to “Auburn Bank,” New Moston, Manchester, and it was here that he wrote his “Short Stories About Failsworth Folk.” For those who don’t know, Failsworth (Oldham) and New Moston (Manchester) have long been associated as they abut each other, and though totally different in outlook and people, they made good companions. Failsworth, though possessing plenty of farms and countryside during this period, was essentially “industrial” on the New Moston side, whose houses were described as currants in a bad tea cake — few and far between. Sim was an Oldham Council meter reader for nine years, so it is obvious that he had moved on to lighter work. Perhaps it was his meter reading that gave him an insight into the living conditions of the roundabout folk, as he was for ever pressing for reform on many social subjects, and although never standing for any Parliamentary or Local Government elections, he was second chairman of the Lancashire and. Cheshire Association of Liberal agents, and Liberal party agent for Fred Cawley when he scooped the Prestwich division seat which included Failsworth at the time. Mr Cawley went on to become Sir Cawley.

It was after the incident of his first wife’s death in 1879 concerning St John’s that Sim agitated for a cemetery in Failsworth to be owned wholly by the ratepayers of the district. In August 1882 a petition was handed to the Local Board (no District Council then) urging for a new cemetery, as, using the old chestnut that St John’s was becoming full, or as Elm told a meeting “We must have a new cemetery or a resurrection.” The new cemetery finally opened on the 25th June 1887 with a large gathering of representatives coming from all the local denominations. The Congregationalists, Wesleyans, Swedenborgians, Secularists, and a deputation from the Mission Hall were present, the Roman Catholics having their own burial yard in Failsworth, and the Jewish cemetery next door not opening until 1919, though the presence of the Jewish faith was, and. is, virtually zero in the township.

Elm attended the burial of John Moore in May 1889, in “the cemetery that would last for a hundred years,” and he noted the presence of large numbers of the Funeral Reform Association. He noted that they did not think it essential in order to show sympathy and respect to wear “black.” The hearse too, was of a “modern” kind, without plumes. Elm was in attendance of course at the opening of the Failsworth Liberal club on the last day of June, 1888, along with such other local worthies as Lot Hilton, who laid one of the foundation stones, and Ben Brierley.

Hannah Laycock died on the 13th July 1939 ten years after Sim. She had removed to Torquay for various
reasons by this time, and is buried there. Previous to that the Schofield's had resided in a cottage called “The Nook” at Thornton—le—Fylde in Lancashire. It must have been quite an adventurous journey returning from Failsworth from there in those days as he recalled that “we were conveyed by relatives in motor cars, one taking us half the journey, where another met us and took us the other half.” At Thornton he led a leisurely life, keeping poultry, and growing flowers. He had been president of the New Moston Horticultural Society, and when photographed, was always seen to be sporting a “buttonhole.” A far cry from the days of the Cotton Famine when his mother received a three shilling and sixpence inheritance (l7jp) at their home in Failsworth, thus enabling them to have a good baking day. He always dreamed in those hard times that one day he would be “weel off” and spend his time eating currant bread and Eccles cakes in a cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden. His dream came true.

He died in “The Nook” on the 19th February 1929, and is buried in Thornton churchyard under a stone reading:— “In loving memory of Simeon Schofield of Thornton and Failsworth aged 76 years.” Tributes to him flowed in after his death including:— “He was a man of restless energy, who gave himself unstintingly to any cause that he espoused.” “On the platform he could hit hard, but always did it in such a way as not to cause bitter feelings.”  “One of the few remaining of its (Lancashire’s) dialect writers who achieved any note outside the immediate locality in which they lived.” Up to a few years before his death he had been a frequent contributor in both prose and verse to the Oldham Standard, a Liberal newspaper.

On a personal note, I remember my mother saying that as a child living at Chain Bar, Moston, Elm was a frequent visitor, and he persuaded my grandfather to stand as Liberal candidate for Moston ward, but the days of old Liberalism were drawing to a close, and Labour took the seat. Sim Schofield suffered from the same lack of formal education as did his fellow Failsworthian Ben Brierley. Elm recalled that in his younger days there were few schools where we could learn — “so before I could climb I had to make my own ladder.” Words to this effect are carved on the plinth of Ben Brierley’s statue, Queen’s Park, Harpurhey, also Sim attended the unveiling of the statue in 1898, and contributed to the fund for its erection. (Records show that it was a remarkably small amount, for reasons best known to himself). No lasting memorial to Sim exists in Failsworth today; there is a Schofield Street, but I cannot find the missing link to prove or disprove that it was named in his memory. It would be absurd to claim that Sim ranked with the immortals of Lancashire literature, but nobody will deny to him feeling, sincerity, and a certain wistful grace of expression, as well as, where it was called for, something of rugged power.

The Peterloo Photograph

The Bust of Ben Brierley

The Painting 1905 -1950 (or perhaps to present?)

Sim's work

Sim's book, Short Stories about Failsworth Folk was printed in 1905 (red cover) with a second edition in 1906 (green cover). Both are available from most second-hand book shops priced at around £20. A good place to start is this website http://www.abesbooks.com who specialise in second-hand books.