I'LL HAVE A COLLIER

(Words: traditional from Mrs Mary Boardman. Tune: adapted by Harry Boardman. Copyright: Maypole Music 1972.)

I went out to get some water
Get some water for my tea
Caught my foot and down I stumbled
Collier lads come kissing me

My mother said I mustn't have a collier
It would surely break her heart
But I don't care what my mother tells me
I'll have a collier for my sweetheart

If you leave your collier sweetheart
I'll buy you a guinea-gold ring
You shall have a silver cradle
For to rock your baby in

I don't want your silks and satins
I don't want your guinea-gold ring
I don't want a silver cradle
For to rock my baby in

Collier lads get gold and silver
Ferranti lads get nowt but brass
And who'd be married to a lad from Ferranti's
When there are plenty of collier lads.

My mother said I could be a lady
If from my collier lad I'd part
But I'd sooner walk on the bottom of the ocean
Than I'd give up my collier sweetheart

Note: Ferranti's was (is?) a large electronics factory near Oldham, making computers, radar etc, which would date this version to 1950s/60s. But presumably this is a modern substitution for another trade (weaving?)

VRH

Wassail! V