I heard this at a folk night in Durham in 1982, not as a song but as a poem. The lad that recited it said his dad had told him it as a boy and that it was about the Trimdon mining disaster (http://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/literature/TrimdonDisaster.html). His rendition was so moving I searched for over 25 years to find the words. I love the Internet for this alone!