Bus journeys, domestic violence refuges, lust and loneliness. Stan Helm argues in favour of a decent income for the unemployed and the working poor. And Wilf Carr of the Rochdale Writers Group recalls the explosion at the munitions factory in Ashton-under-Lyne in 1917 in an extract from ‘Th’Ashton Explosion’:

We geet fairly battered, o’ t’ windows were shattered
An’ t’doers were torn of ther ‘ooks.
Them slates showered down like confetti,
Streets littered wi’ debrie galore.
It were said that poor ‘etty
Were blown of their petty
Bi a draught as who’d nare felt afore.
Front doers were left open, that ‘ad um.
To lock ‘um meant fumblin’ wi’ keys.
There were no time fer that, or searchin’ fer t’cat.
Mony a gale now just seemed like a breeze

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Publication date: 1979