Gurney: I think you are absolutely right and I was absolutely wrong. I was suffering from phonetic memory. We were all talking about weirs, and the phrase "went fishing in the weir" sprang into my mind and I typed it out. but given the geography of the song, the Wear is ssurely intended. the odd thing is I'm sure I understood it as Wear all my life. It was just talking about weirs made my brain scramble. However, that does not detract from my pointing out that dam and weir can both be used for the stretch of water, as well as the earthwork.