Yup, Byker Hill and Walker Shore (NOT walk ashore; that's from Grey Funnel Line . . ) were two mines.

Carthy took a different tune for his version of this, AND interspersed some words from a second song (possibly the "right" song for the tune . .)

I saw a lengthy discussion of this somewhere; if it wasn't here then I guess you need a deja-news search of uk.music.folk or rec.music.folk.

Byker is now a housing estate; Byker Grove is a successfull Children's Drama Series on UK TV (and pretty good it is) - unfortunately the producers lacked the initiative to use either of the Byker Hill tunes as the basis for theit theme tune . .

Personally, the Carthy/Swarb recording of this would sit well up my "Top ten best folk tracks ever".

G.