While researching photographic archives of Morley, on this website I came across a photograph in sepia of a lady in a quiet lane, with a hand written note beneath it “Annie Watson in Pretty Lane Morley 1900”. The Watsons were Mill owners, with a long history in Morley. Both my Father and Mother worked in the A.C. Watson Woollen Mill for many years. My father was a spinner, and my mother a weaver. At the same time, I was looking through Morley Memorial information from the 1st World War, and found Watsons who had fallen in that “war to end all wars”. What emerged was a very simple story around Pretty Lane and two fictional lovers just before the Great War.
Colin Holt’s songs about his childhood memories of living in Morley are published on his band’s CD Reminiscence Deftly Trips.
PRETTY LANE
I’ll walk with you down Pretty Lane
When primrose are in bloom again.
I’ll kiss the perfume from your face
And vow we’ll never part again
I’ll walk with you down Pretty Lane
And hear the songbird beckoning
Sit and watch the moonlight glow
Just like we did long time ago
Now I must away to war
To fight upon some foreign shore
And wait for my return again
To walk with you down Pretty Lane.
I’ll walk with you down Pretty Lane
When winter shrouds the trees again.
And you may link your arm with mine
In hope we freeze the hands of time
For I must now away to France
Entrust my fate to God’s own hands
Pray wait for my return again
To walk with you down Pretty Lane
When evening sun begins to wane
I’ll walk with you down Pretty Lane
I’ll kiss the perfume from your face
And vow we’ll never part again
I’ll walk with you down Pretty Lane.
(c) Colin Holt 2009
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