Union Songs

One Miner's Life

A Song by Ed Pickford©Ed Pickford mcps/prs

Now you are born, another to feed
Small are our wants lad but great is our need
For the work is scarce, yer dad's on the dole
They want nee mair men 'cos they've got too much coal.

Chorus:
Wee knaas wee yer cryin' for?
Wee knaas wee made us so poor?
Wee knaas what yer ganna dee?
Wee knaas what's in store for ye?

Now you're a boy, yer play in the streets
Fish in the burn and performing great feats
While the pit heaps stand, marking the graves
Of fathers and sons and the lives that they gave.

Now you've left school, a man at thirteen
Yer mother is grim as she looks at the scene
And she makes up yer bait, yer off down below
And away t' the pit with yer father yer go.

Now yer a man, yer work in the mine
With fightin' with strugglin' yer old for yer time
For the work is hard, conditions are bad
And yer promise yer son lad what ye nivver had.

Now you are old, yer've worked aal yer can
But they're closin' the pits and yer part of the plan
To cut out waste, make the mines pay
So t' hell with yer now lad and be on yer way.

Notes

Many thanks to Ed Pickford for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

Ed writes:
'Written in verse that chart a man’s life. Dick Gaughan does an interpretation of it on ‘True & Bold’. Bob Fox - the great North East troubadour has just released this song for Topic on his CD The Blast. Bob is carrying his songs to the world now - I’m biased because he’s from the NE - but -good luck to him I say!'.

Find more Ed Pickford songs on this site.

Visit Ed Pickford's website at http://www.ed-pickford.co.uk/

Return to top of page

union songs..........a selection by mark gregory