Barbara, you requested the words John Tams sings. He sings three verses. I'm told you can hear him singing his version, with Barry Coope, on YouTube, so you can see if his words agree.

Manchester Hiker's Song
(AKA The Manchester Rambler)

I've been over Snowdon, I've slept up on Crowden,
I've camped by the Wain Stones as well,
I've sunbathed on Kinder, been burnt to a cinder,
And many more things I can tell.
My rucksack has oft been my pillow,
The heather has oft been my bed,
And sooner than part from the mountains,
I think I would rather be dead.

Chorus

There's pleasure in dragging thro' peat-bogs and bragging
Of all the fine walks that you know;
There's even a measure of some kind of pleasure
In wading through ten feet of snow!
I've stood on the edge of the Downfall
And seen all the valleys outspread,
And sooner than part from the mountains
I think I would rather be dead.

Chorus

So I'll walk where I will over mountain and hill
And I'll lie where the bracken is deep;
I belong to the mountains, the clear running fountains
Where the grey rocks rise rugged and steep.
I have seen the white hare in the gullies
And the curlew fly high overhead,
And sooner than part from the mountains
I think I would rather be dead.

From The Topic Songbook published by the WMA.

The water industry in England and Wales, including its moorland catchment areas, was privatised by Mrs Thatcher's government in 1989.