The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #58580   Message #3124835
Posted By: GUEST,Maurice
30-Mar-11 - 11:03 AM
Thread Name: Question about Byker Hill
Subject: RE: Question about Byker Hill
Everyone seems to sing diferent words 9silightly) to the ones I learned as a very young boy in the late 1950s.
The bit that anoys me is "all the way to Walker Shore" which should be "All the way to Duncan's rigg" real place and rhymes with pig.
And it's "scad" it with a shovel not hit it.

Byker Hill

If I had another penny
I would have another gill
I would have the piper play
The bonny lass of Byker Hill

Ch    Byker Hill and Walker Shore,
        Collier lads for ever more,
        Byker Hill and Walker Shore,
        Collier lads for ever more

When I first came to the dirt
I had no breeks nor no pitshirt
Now I've gotten two or three
Why Walker Pit's done well by me

The pitman and the keelman trim
They drink bumble made from gin
Then to dance they do begin
To the tune of Elsie Marley

The poor coal cutter gets a shillin'
the deputy gets half a crown
The owerman gets five and sixpence,
just for riding up and down

Geordie Charlton, he had a pig
He scad it with a shovel and it danced a jig
All the way to Duncan's rig
To the tune of Elsie Marley -