Kay Sutcliffe, the wife of a miner from the Kent coal-fields, wrote the poem Coal Not Dole during the mid-80s dispute between the Conservative government of Maggie Thatcher and the miners' unions.

Coope Boyes and Simpson sang this to the tune of "See, Amid the Winter's Snow", an English Christmas carol, written by Edward Caswall and first published in 1858. In 1871 Sir John Goss composed a hymn tune for it, "Humility".

It stands so proud, the wheel so still, A ghostlike figure on the hill.
It seems so strange, there is no sound, Now there are no men underground.
What will become of this pit yard? Where men once trampled faces hard?
Tired and weary, their shift done, Never having seen the sun.

Shelley Posen based his song No More Fish, No Fishermen on the Coope Boyes and Simpson version of the song.