Just stumbled across this...

For the sake of accuracy (I'm an insufferable pedant!!), Ted used the word 'een', not 'eins', meaning eyes. Also, it's 'Jinny's young mon'. There are other subtle differences, too. Please don't take this as a criticism - that's not how it's meant!

My copy of the words was given to me by Ted, and is a scanned copy of his original... it couldn't be more authentic than that, so here is a transcript:

I'm gooin', ney, Mary, I'm off deyn to t'pit,
In an hour I'll be at the coal
I'll be mekin' good brass fer our Jimmy and thee,
Dost remember when I were on t'dole?
So gi' us me tin, put thi smile on thi face,
I'll be back a'fower th'endin' o't'day
An' don't let it show, love, let nobody see
As tha's weepin' an' wailin' away.

CHORUS:

Weepin' an' wailin' away
Weepin' an' wailin' away
The men at the coal, and the women at home,
And they're weepin' an' wailin' away.


It's well I remember when I'm at the face
That summer when I courted thee
We'd walk o'er t'common and I'd owd thi 'and,
For an hour or two we'd be free
Then I'd tek thi to t'pictures an' then walk thi wom
We'd be feelin' so 'appy and gay
But when th'ooter'd blow in the mornin' I'd know
Tha'd be weepin' an' wailin' away.
                (chorus)

Me feyther were under a big fall o'dirt
An' he'll never walk proper again.
An' his feyther, too, he's got stag in his een,
An' both of 'em started full men.
I remember that look in me owd lady's eyes
When I went wi' me dad that fust day
It wasn't the same as when I went to schoo'
Er were weepin' an' wailin' away.
                (chorus)

They sen as the days of the miner are done
For there's oil and there's gas from t'North Sea
An' ney atom power is bein' browt in,
But I think as it's too late for me.
But our Jinny's young son, he's just started in t' pit
An' afower he's much owder they may
Shut that big Iron gate an' stop Jinny fro' waitin'
An' weepin' an' wailin' away.
                (chorus)


Ted is a 'Songs in the Snug' regular at the Railway, Heatley. On Wednesday April 14th 2004 he actually sang the song for us (and Albert Berry, too), which was a rare treat. Better still, he has agreed to let me record him!

He will be 65 on Sunday April 25th 2004... call into Wetherspoons in Eccles and wish him well!