The heartily men are noble and you'll hear a tale of woe.

I'll tell the tale of the heartily man in the year of 62.

It was on a Thursday morning in the first one.

On the 8th of July 1832, during a period of rebellion in the Northumberland and Durham Coalfields in the north of England,

Cuthbert Scipsey, a striking minor, was shot dead, leaving behind a wife and

eight children. The youngest, Joseph, was only three months old. Yet despite having to enter the

minds as a child himself, Joseph Sikipsey would grow up to become a nationally renowned poet,

respected by some of the greatest artists of his time. This the working class literature podcast. It's been a while since the last

episode, so sorry about that. It's been a tough year in terms of work, kids and an international

health crisis. In this episode, we'll be discussing the life and work of poet and coal miner Joseph

Siksy. In many ways,

Sikipsey is emblematic not only of the brutal hardships faced by the Victorian

working class, but also of how many often strove to lead creative lives despite

those hardships, not to mention the beauty they created when they succeeded. I spoke to

Chris Harrison and Dr. Gordon Tate, who've both been doing lots of work around Joseph Siksy.

Unfortunately, there were some issues with Gordon's sound quality which couldn't be sorted out, so apologies in advance for that.

So I'm Chris Harrison. I'm a musician and music educator and one of the projects that I've embarked on recently of the last 10 years

is to set some of Joseph Scripps' poems to music as a way of reviving interest in him and re-evaluating

and getting a new perspective on his work.

And the reason that I got involved with this in the first place is that Joseph Skipsy was my great-great-grandfather.

So I'm descended from his eldest daughter.

My name's Gordon-Titt.

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