Larry Kearns vocal; Gerry Kearns chorus & guitar; John Howarth chorus.


When I was a lad, well a street was a street
Full of kids, paper planes, reeked of tar in the heat.
At night gas lights shone on cracked cobbles below.
Oh the town I have known, she is changing her cloak.
Is the Owl to become a flamingo?

Now, street lights like monsters cast their bright orange hue
On the shiny black surface so common yet new
And the streets are all empty, no neighbourin’ now.
For the town I have known, she is changing her cloak.
Is the Owl to become a flamingo?

Oh the plain stone-floored ale house is sayin’ goodbye,
Foam rubber an’ plastic are well on their way,
An’ many a mill worker speaks “Oh so so”.
For the town I have known, she is changing her cloak.
Is the Owl to become a flamingo?

No Rubberboots bides on the still of Sun Brew.
Man-made gulfs in our town are to make the place new.
Giant cranes even make our mill chimneys look low.
For the town I have known, she is changing her cloak.
Is the Owl to become a flamingo?

Let’s get rid of Kranj Way. How could that be a loss?
Give me back the White Horse, the Canteen, an’ the Auss’.
Give me back the tradition that’s bulldozed below.
For the town I have known, she is changing her cloak.
Is the Owl to become a flamingo?

Larry Kearns

Arrangement  © Oldham Tinkers.

Larry Kearns returned from France in the autumn of 1965 to find his neighbourhood, namely St. Mary’s Ward greatly altered. The terraced houses in which people had lived and neighboured for decades had now been raised to the ground and been replaced by blocks of flats. Three pubs, two of them often used by Larry, had been knocked down: The Australian Inn, the Canteen and the White Horse Inn. The Spotted Cow remained but was poshed up. Larry was aware of the need for housing progress and could asses the obvious improvements as regard sanitation and economy of space, but one night whilst picking his way through the new estate on his way home from the Grapes Hotel in Yorkshire Street he envisaged the estate as it had been, compared it with how it was then and became nostalgic. Gone was the homely atmosphere. A whole way of life had elapsed. On arriving home he put pen to paper and wrote the song. Mentioned in the song is Kranj Way. Kranj is Oldham’s twin town in Yugoslavia. The word “Rubberboots” used in the song refers to Jimmy Miller or “Jimmy Rubberboots” as the kids used to call him. Jimmy, who always wore rubber boots, lived in the darkest street in the area, Sun Broo, and was one of many characters to be ousted prior to demolition. The new estate now thrives happily but preserved in “The Owl of Oldham” is some of the atmosphere of the old St. Mary’s Ward. The song asks if Oldham’s image, represented by its emblem, the owl, going to change to something more exotic. One might ask: “seven squares?”

First published by Topic 1971
Oldham’s Burning Sands LP  TOPIC TSDL206 STEREO
The Oldham Tinkers
Ballads, Songs & Daft Ditties
First published by Topic 1971
Recorded at TPA (Tin Pan Ally) Studios 1971
Produced by A L Lloyd
Sleeve design Humphrey Weightman
Photography by Benny Kearns

Re-released on C.D. by Pier Records in 2003 under licence from Topic Records Ltd, England.
The C.D. The Oldham Tinkers, ‘Best O’ T’ Bunch’ Back Street Songs of Lancashire. PIERCD 506
A classic Lancashire folk album, available for the first time on CD, with four bonus tracks and full song notes by the band and A. L. Lloyd.