The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #103983   Message #3560995
Posted By: Joe Offer
24-Sep-13 - 07:08 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Blantyre Explosion
Subject: Lyr Add: FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION IN SCOTLAND
One more from A.L. Lloyd's Come All Ye Bold Miners (1978 edition, p 182)

FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION IN SCOTLAND

A dreadful and heartrendering sight in Scotland has been seen,
Where far away from friends and light poor men destroyed have been.
When working down beneath the ground, toiling for their bread,
About two hundred living souls were numbered with the dead.

The men were hard at work we find in Dixon pit that day,
Gallant hearts, both good and kind, God help them now, we say.
Without a moment's warning then the fatal firedamp came,
And about two hundred boys and men were killed by the deadly flame.

Hundreds stood around the pit in solemn silence there.
By the winter's sun each face was lit, but only showed despair,
Mourning for some missing one they never more would see,
Until the pathway they have trod of dark eternity.

FEARFUL COLLIERY EXPLOSION IN SCOTLAND. From a broadside, no imprint or date, in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. The song refers to the explosion at High Blantyre.