Best Stuff I' Lancashire                                
(Dick Gillingham)

It's eight o'clock in't morning, clogs on the cobbles ring,
As from the trams and buses down the Sidings Road they cling;
They chatter in the morning mist, last night's stories they all tell,
And there are no girls in Fleetwood like the girls from B.S.L.

Chorus:-
        In a world of ice and boxes, cheerful those girls appear;
        In aprons and their clattering clogs, As they toil and sweat to clear
        Your Fleetwood fish from B.S.L.; "Best Stuff I'Lancashire".

The fish comes from the market, from the boxes ice does spill;
There's haddock, coley, whiting, there's cod and hake and brill;
There's flat-fish, plaice and roker, there's halibut and skate,
And dogfish, called "rock salmon" in London's Billingsgate.

Their knives they flash like lightning, heads and tails they separate;
There's skin and bone and fish'eads, for gulls waiting at the gate;
Prime fish cut into fillets, into boxes packed with ice,
And the phone is always ringing, merchants asking for a price.

Chorus & tune

And lunchtime now it's over, all the girls the boxes shift,
There's nailing lids and labelling, from the benches fish they lift;
There's lorry engines running, and auto trucks as well,
All waiting for the Fleetwood fish that comes from B.S.L.

And now the trucks are loaded and the train does hiss and sway,
And the guard he blows his whistle and the driver pulls away;
Over t'junction, past the Loco, and on its way to Crewe,
To Nottingham and Norwich, to Swindon, Bristol, Looe.

And afternoon it's over, factory floors to sweep and swill;
There's hoses flowing over, kits and boxes standing still,
At B.S.L., near Ash Street, full nine hours they have passed;
And Harry Brown's clog ladies they can say "Goodnight" at last.

Tune & Chorus

Sung by Sue Bousfield and Liz Gillingham to their tune. Lancashire and Cheshire Clog Dancing Champion Sue Bousfield performs the clog dance in the middle.

One of Fleetwood's many fish processing companies, Brown, Sinclair and Laugharne used the company's initials to create a unique selling slogan, "Best Stuff in Lancashire". Many of the ladies wore clogs to work.

Ross