Big Hewer

(Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger)

Down in the dirt and darkness I was born, go down

Out of the hard black coal face I was torn, go down

Kicked the world and the earth split open

Crawled through a crack where the rock was broken

Burrowed a hole, away in the coal, go down

In a cradle of coal in the darkness I was laid, go down

Down in the dirt and the darkness I was raised, go down

Cut my teeth on a five foot timber,

Held up the roof with me little finger,

Started me time, away in the mine, go down

I'm the son of a son of a son of a collier's son, go down

Coal dust runs in the veins where the blood should run, go down

Three steel ribs and an iron backbone

Teeth that'll bite through rock and blackstone

Gettin' me steam up, hewin the seam, go down

On the day that I was born I was six foot tall, go down

On the very next day I learned to haul, go down

On the third day worked with board and pillar

On the fourth I worked as a long haul filler

Working me time, away in the mine, go down

Three hundred years I've hewed at the coal by hand, go down

In the pits of Durham and East Northumberland, go down

Been gassed and burned and blown assunder

Buried more times than I can number

getting the coal away in the hole, go down

I've scrabbled and picked at the face where the roof was low, go down

I've crawled in the seams where only a mole could go, go down

In the thin cut seams I've ripped and readied

Where even the rats are born bowlegged,

Winning the coal away in the hole, go down

I've worked in the Hutton, the Plessy, the Brockwell seam, go down

The Bench and the Bowl the Busty the Marshall Green, go down

I've lain on me back in the Old Three Quarter

Upto me chin in stinking water,

Hewin the coal, away in the hole, go down.

Out of the dirt and the darkness I was born, go down

Out of the hard black coalface I was torn, go down

I lived in the shade of the high pit heap

I'm still down there where the seams are deep

I'm diggin a hole, away in the coal, go down