Beer, lyrics below. What is even better is that it is a true story. I heard it on Radio Cornwall when the son of the past coxswain of the Lizard lifeboat was on. As soon as I got to a phone I called them and they played the interview done the phone for me. When I arrived home I told Jon and within days he had written the song.

HORSE DAYS


My father used to tell me of his father's father's days
When men would come from Cadgwith up the steep and rocky way.
How that peril on the sea would send a fire into the sky
And they would stand behind the gate to watch the men run by.

Now no fire disturbs our ease, there's no longer need to run.
Willing men defy the seas but the horses' day is done.

When the signal called the farmer then the cart was brought in haste,
The boy would fetch the horses, not a minute would they waste.
The crew could catch their breath and ride, thankful for a faster speed
For every second saved on land could save a soul in need.

In time we learned the meaning of the fire in the sky
We knew we would be needed when we saw that star on high.
Over field and over meadow, 'twixt the hedges, down the lanes
We would run to be the first one to the bridle and the reins.

We each knew our duty, each to their appointed task.
Like the men who knew the danger we would never have to ask.
There was pride and there was honour in the job we had to do,
No reward except the knowing that the lifeboat had come through.

Came the day we were not needed 'neath the dark and stormy sky,
Horse and cart were superseded, we just watched the men drive by.
Now the fire is extinguished and the men go past unseen
But our story is remembered, like the fields forever green.

© Jon Heslop, March 2006