I have listened carefully to the recording and made a few corrections:


JINNY BOBBIN
As sung by Mike Harding on "On the Touchline" (2011)

1. I was born on a Friday in a cotton shed.
A pile of warp was my birth bed.
Work was scarce and she'd little pay.
She was back at the loom the very next day,
And she called me Jinny Bobbin.

2. When I was five and I went to school,
Earn your bread was the golden rule.
The shadow of the mill was laid
Across the schoolyard where we played,
And they called me Jinny Bobbin.

3. When I was twelve and I went in t'mill,
Skips with bobbins I'd to fill.
Through the dirt and the noise I was growin' still.
I was small but I did it with a will,
And they called me Jinny Bobbin.

4. At eighteen I'd four looms to keep.
I paid me way from week to week
Till I met me lad as I danced one May.
He danced and danced me heart away,
And he smiled at Jinny Bobbin.

5. We were walkin' out for more than a year.
Times were good; we'd nowt to fear
Till I found meself in t'family way,
And I wed me lad on a bright summer's day,
And he smiled at Jinny Bobbin.

6. Three bairns came with the passin' years,
Then the war turned smiles to tears.
The lads came marchin' back from France,
But my lad lay where he'd no more dance,
Far away from Jinny Bobbin.

7. I was forced to work in t'mill again,
With a lad and two lasses to keep me then.
Times were rough, but we kept goin';
Paid our way an' nothin' owin'.
She was proud, was Jinny Bobbin.

8. In thirty-nine when the Second War came,
Just like his father, me lad went away.
Wrote us letters all during t'war,
But after Cassino, he wrote no more,
And he left his Jinny Bobbin.

9. Now I work in t'mill and me lasses too.
They've bairns o' their own so they have to do;
And I look back on the time that's done.
I wonder where the years have gone
Through the life of Jinny Bobbin.

10. I mind the days when times were hard,
And dust lay thick in the old mill yard,
And I think of the faces that I've seen,
All passed away like a mornin' dream
Through the life of Jinny Bobbin.

11. I often think of the friends I've known
Who've lived out lives much like me own.
So that's me story, an' I know it's not much,
But I can tell you of many a thousand such
As have lived like Jinny Bobbin.

[REPEAT FIRST VERSE]