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It's hard when folks can't get their work where they've been bred and born |
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When I was young I used to think I'd bide my time 'mid the roots and the corn |
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But I've been forced to flee the town so here's my litany |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me |
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When I was courting Mary Anne the auld squire he said one day |
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I've got no room for wedded folk choose to wed or stay |
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I could not leave the girl I loved so town we had to flee |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me |
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I've worked in Leeds and Huddersfield where I've addled honest brass |
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In Bradford, Keightley, Rotherham, I've kept my bairns and lass |
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I've travelled all three ridings round and once I've been to sea |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me |
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I've been through Sheffield lanes at night 'twere just like being in hell |
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The furnaces thrust out tongues of flame that roared like wind o'er the fell |
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I've sammed up coal in Barnsley pit with muck up to my knee |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me |
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I've seen grey fog creep o'er Leeds Brig as thick as Bastille soup |
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I've been where folks are stowed away like rabbits in a coup |
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I've seen snow fall on Bradford Beck as black as ebony |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me |
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But now my children all have flown to the country I'll go back |
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There'll be forty miles of heathery moor 'twixt me and the coal pit slack |
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And oft at night as I sit round the fire I'll think of the misery |
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From Hull and Halifax and Hell good lord deliver me |