BETWEEN SEA AND LAND – A TRIP TO THE WHITSUNTIDE FAIR by Henry Peacock 2022

Tune; Rambleaway as sung by Roger Wilson. Performed by the Albion Band on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_0LBEbiVhU

Twice every day the tide fills Morecambe Bay
Sweeping aside anything in its way
Ellen and Thomas worked on Flookburgh sands
Reaping the harvest between sea and land

Ellen, my darling girl, Thomas then said
It won’t be long now before we are wed
And people in hundreds come from far and wide
To watch as we walk down the aisle side by side

Chorus; Sailors take to the sea, others never leave land
             But in Flookburgh the folk spend their lives on the sand

In Ulverston there’ll be the Whitsuntide Fair
We’ll take all our friends and we’ll have some fun there
And so they set off at the break of the day
Over the sands that surround Morecambe Bay

Thomas bought Ellen a new dress to wear
A ring for her finger and a bow for her hair
The sun was going down at the end of the day
As they departed on their homeward way

Chorus

The sands hold great dangers for wandering souls
Where the rush of the tide scours out steep-sided holes
Their cart in the dark, I am sorry to say
Was heading towards a deep pool in their way

Early next morning nine bodies were found
The coroner confirmed his verdict of drowned
Who thought that a day that began so carefree
Would end on the sands in such dark tragedy?

Chorus

At noon on the Sunday the muffled church bells
Sadly rang over the grey Furness Fells
And mourners in hundreds came from far and wide
As Ellen and Thomas were laid side by side

Nine lives were needlessly lost on the sands
Caught in the space inbetween sea and land
Today as you cross the sands safely by train
Remember those poor souls whose trip was in vain

Chorus

The events in this song occurred in 1846. Until 1974, Furness was part of Lancashire - the two were linked by the dangerous road across the sands. The Earl of Burlington - who became the Duke of Devonshire - promoted a railway from Ulverston to Carnforth, and by 1857 trains would carry passengers safely over both the Kent and the Leven rivers.