Last year at Towersey Susan asked for the lyrics of Alice White. I was not connected to the net at the time and all but forgot about it, but I just checked the DT and it's still not there so here goes:

ALICE WHITE
(Alan Bell)

My name is Alice White,
I'd have you all to know
I left my father's farm,
A long long time ago
My mother called me a silly lass
She said I'd rue the day
That I followed on the heels
Of the navvies

My first man Dandy Jack
Was handsome young and fine
And we travelled throughout England
As we trudged from line to line
We lived in shanty houses
Had lodgers and children three
As I worked to fill the needs
Of the navvies

When Dandy Jack was killed
Beneath a fall of stone
I wept and cursed the day
That ever I was born
But the children needed feeding
And many men looked at me
so I took another man
from the navvies

Time came I was deserted
When my children numbered five
And I had to take another man
Just to keep us all alive
And now I've had so many men
They call me Alice Free
As I've lived my life away
With the navvies

And now I'm getting old
And grey before my time
With the work and the childbearing
As we trudged from line to line
I often think of poor Dandy Jack
Lying so cold in his grave
He's the only one I loved
Of the navvies