CHORUS If you want to see fine bridges, then on Teesside we've got two To show what local engineers and labourers can do There's one o' them that lifts itself Up out o' shipping's way And t'other shuttles back and forth A 'undred times a day.
When I was just a college lad, and living on a grant, I went and got a summer job at Dorman's Acklam plant Where conditions for the workers Hadn't changed for fifty years And the smell of oil & manganese Hung in the burning air
The output of this plant It would be hard for two to beat Wi' wiry types a-toilin' in the grime and bloody heat Why, a firm that makes a finer steel, you tell me if you can For this furnace made the very steel For Sydney Harbour's span
Chorus
One day the foreman & meself were going to the Bess We passed three 'undred ton o' steel, I'm sure it was no less Says 'e to me "This job looks 'ard, Of ingots there's a glut" And sure enough, in twelve months time, That Acklam plant was shut.
Now all you lads o' Brummagen As makes yer fancy cars And fittings fine electrical And fruit and nutcake bars There's not a single one of you As knows the way we feel, about our area up 't North Where we make British steel.