Broadside entitled 'Lines on the Terrific Explosion at Moss End'

Commentary

Verse 1 begins: 'Good people all now give attention, / Young and old of each degree'. The location of 'Moss End' is not specified, suggesting that the accident was well reported at the time and so the readers would have been up-to-speed on such detail.

Most probably published during the middle of the nineteenth century, this piece would have been of great topical interest as the Industrial Revolution was coming into its own. This report is also very close to modern day journalism, with a description of the events and the scene, then a further comment on those left behind. The men who died in the accident are all named as well.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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