My father always used to say that there was a hymn tune named after Waingate, a hamlet about 400 yards along the hillside from Springhill. He couldn't remember it, had never sung it to his knowledge and didn't have a copy.

This was substantiated however by a line in a poem which referred to various parts of Rossendale and concluded 'Waingate worthy of a song'. I was no nearer finding the tune but had some external evidence that it existed.

My family had a number of hymnbooks of various ages including my great-grandfather's from 1896. Nope, it wasn't in any of them. However an online friend implied it was 'readily available' so keep looking…

Some time later I began to volunteer at the local museum (The Whitaker) and their collection included music which was played by the Deign Layrocks, a C18-19 choir and band who played in the Water and Goodshaw areas of Rossendale. Some of their instruments and original music is on display in the local history section but this reproduced copy of the music was in the store.

And there it was!











I haven't tried playing it yet…need to get my clarinet out…

For good measure, the original Layrocks' instruments.