A few corrections to the words below. This was written for a play called "The Last Road North" by Alan and this song was to be sung by Marie Little. Alice White was a real person and she was 38 when she died.

Although this song was written about the building of the railway, it has been taken up by the canal song fraternity for obvious reasons.

ALICE WHITE

My name is Alice White, I'd have you all to know.
I left my father's farm a long time ago.
My mother called me a silly lass and said I'd rue the day
That I followed on the heels of the navvies.

My first man, Dandy Jack, was handsome, young and fine,
And I loved him right through England as we tramped from line to line.
We lived in shanty houses with lodgers and children three
As I worked to fill the needs of the navvies.

When Dandy Jack was killed beneath a fall of stone,
I wept and cursed the day that ever I was born;
But the children needed feeding and many men looked at me,
So I jumped the brush to stay with the navvies.

Time came I was deserted when my children numbered five,
So I got me yet another man for to keep us all alive;
And so I've known so many men they call me Alice Free,
As I've lived my life away with the navvies

And now I'm getting old and grey before my time,;
With the work and the childbearing as we tramped from line to line
But I'll never forget poor Dandy Jack lying so cold in his grave.
He's the only one I loved of the navvies.

---

From Joe Offer: I've listened to the recording by a female singer on the CD Alan Bell: The Definitive Collection, and I hear a few things differently:

ALICE WHITE
(Alan Bell)

My name is Alice White, I'd have you all to know.
I left my father's farm a long time ago.
My mother called me a silly lass and said I'd rue the day
That I followed on the heels of the navvies.

My first man, Dandy Jack, he was handsome, young and fine,
And I loved him right through England as we tramped from line to line.
We lived in shanty houses with lodgers and children three
As I worked to fill the needs of the navvies.

When Dandy Jack was killed beneath a fall of stone,
Well, I wept and cursed the day that ever I was born;
But the children needed feeding and many men looked at me,
So I jumped the brush to stay with the navvies.

Time came I was deserted when my children numbered five,
So I took me yet another man for to keep us all alive;
And now I've known so many men they called me Alice Free,
As I've lived my life away with the navvies

And now I'm getting old and grey before my time,;
With the work and the childbearing as we tramped from line to line
But I'll ne'er forget poor Dandy Jack lying so cold in his grave.
He's the only one I loved of the navvies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhM4j6yavPA