Yes, I did mean the song John Tams wrote from his showman background. I learned it from John's own singing of it way back when he was with Roger & Helen Watson in "Muckram Wakes". The record was called "A Map of Derbyshire".

These are the words as I sing them. No guarantees this is exactly what John wrote - but that's the folk process:

Pull down lads,
We'll pass the bevvy round lads,
Tara to Sylvie, Tara to Jean,
We'd best be on our way now.
Don't think on what you're leaving,
Don't think on what you've seen,
But take off the tilt,
Pull out the chat,
It's time that we were leaving.

Pull down lads,
It's not been a bad ground lads,
We've made some brass,
You've had a lass,
Perhaps it's well we're leaving.
I know how much it hurts lads,
To leave her standing here,
But there's often tears,
And there's always fears,
And you'll be back next year.

Pull down lads,
The sets are cooling down lads,
The Arc's all packed,
And the dogem's stacked,
A bite of scran
Then away we'll go.
We'll leave it as we found it,
They'll soon forget we've been,
For we trade in fun,
And we go and come,
We're often scorned,
But seldom mourned,
I hope you all know what I mean.

TRANSLATIONS:

I don't know what happens with fairgrounds (carnivals?) in the States, but over here they clear the ground after the last night of the show and are gone with out a trace the next morning. This is what they call "Pulling Down".

Bevvy = drink, usually alcoholic, often (but not always) beer.
Tilt = generic name for canvas or tarpaulin covering of stalls, rides, etc.
Chat = generic name for pins, screws and suchlike
Brass = money
The sets = the big diesel engines used to power the rides and the lights, massive mobile generators.
Arc & Dodgems = fairground rides.
Scran = Food.

Hope this clarifies things

Dave Smith