The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #172680 Message #4203646
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
08-Jun-24 - 05:32 PM
Thread Name: Origins: What is this MacColl coal mining song?
Subject: RE: Origins: What is this MacColl coal mining song?
This is a song about the occasion when Durham miners were offered a move to Nottingham; https://www.wcml.org.uk/wcml/en/our-collections/working-lives/miners/mining-and-mineworkers/
Farewell to 'Cotia. Jock Purdon was a deputy at Harraton Colliery in County Durham when he wrote this. The pit was always known as the 'Cotia (an abbreviation of Nova Scotia) and when it closed as part of Lord Robens's 'rationalisation' schemes, the miners were given the alternative of moving to Nottingham. Purdon put it up in the pit head baths for all to see that 'the death knell had been tolled for the colliery where the men were brave and bold.'
Ye brave bold men of Cotia, The time is drawing near Ye'll have tae change your language, lads, Ye'll have tae change your beer But leave your picks behind ye, Ye'll no need them again An off ye go tae Nottingham Join Robens merry men
A new version of the song, A Warning, was adapted by Mel Calladine, a miner from Bufford Colliery, Nottingham, for the 1984 strike:
You working miners mark my words, The time is drawing nigh You'll have to change your language lads, You'll have to change your beer. But leave your picks behind you, You'll ne'er need them again And off you go to Nottingham, To join MacGregor's men.