Whippoorwill,
I will join in that one, although I learned it as 'They are shifting Daddy's bones to build a sewer'.

The story behind the song...When they first started building sewers in London they, of course, built them for the rich folks in the West End. They didn't want to dump the sewage, which in those days was untreated, straight into the Thames because it would stink up the whole of London. So they piped it all across North London, right through the working class East End (Where both the song and I come from) and dumped it into Barking Creek.

This turned Barking Creek into an open sewer which emptied into the Thames way downstream.

Barking Creek thus aquired it's other name of 'Shits Creek' and is the original creek where the saying "Up the Creek" came from.

Just thought you'd all like to know this important folklore gem :-)

Bert.