Harry the Tailor (Traditional)

 [The following song was taken down some years ago from the recitation of a country curate, who said he had learned it from a very old inhabitant of Methley, near Pontefract, Yorkshire. We have never seen it in print.]

When Harry the tailor was twenty years old,
He began for to look with courage so bold;
He told his old mother he was not in jest,
But he would have a wife as well as the rest.

Then Harry next morning, before it was day,
To the house of his fair maid took his way.
He found his dear Dolly a making of cheese,
Says he, 'You must give me a buss, if you please!'

She up with the bowl, the butter-milk flew,
And Harry the tailor looked wonderful blue.
'O, Dolly, my dear, what hast thou done?
From my back to my breeks has thy butter-milk run.'

She gave him a push, he stumbled and fell
Down from the dairy into the drawwell.
Then Harry, the ploughboy, ran amain,
And soon brought him up in the bucket again.

Then Harry went home like a drowned rat,
And told his old mother what he had been at.
With butter-milk, bowl, and a terrible fall,
O, if this be called love, may the devil take all!

A copy of verses written by a miner after an explosion at Methley Junction Colliery on the b9th December 1875. Thereby six miners were deprived of their lives.
 

 [The following ]

Pay attention people far and near
I shall not detain you long
Whilst in these few lines I do relate
to the old and young
I am myself a miner
and I am in duty bound
to comment upon that explosion
Whish happened underground.

It was at Methley Junction
under Messers Briggs and Co
and it is the first explosion
that we ever did their know
On the 9th of December
the men rose in their Bloom
their went to their daily toil
not thinking of their doom.

At half past ten the roof fel down
which deprived them of their lives
They have left their orphan children
Likewise their weeping wives
The worthly steward James Tapman
His name I cannot withhold
He quickly ran into that place
with heart so brave and bold.

The longwall deputies
Quickly did volunteer
not thinking of the fierydamp
Which they had to fear
With allspeed they ran along
They did not hesitate
Until they arrived within that place
But alas they were too late.

not one man they found alive
I am sorry to to for to tell
That cause of the explosion
Was the heavy roof that fell
Life is uncertain but death is sure
Sin is the wound but Christ is the cure
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
Blessed he the name of the Lord.

Next I must comment upon the bank
Where people quickly run.
Some lamenting for their farther
Their husbands or their sons
It was a painfull sight to see
The people ran with speed
Who had a friend in that shaft
It made their poor heart bleed.

There was a pore woman that could not run
She was to lame and old
Her only son was in that place
It's true so I am told
She is put upon the widows fund
although she was a wife
I hope it will support her
The remainder of her live.

Messrs Briggs and Co
a fund they did propose
To subscribe for the widows
To find them food and clothes
a miner in the meeting
Boldly stood up and said
We must gather for the widows
Cause the poor men are dead.

If it should be opposed
and should not be carried out
The union will support them
Of that I am sure, their is no doubt
It is the best thing in the world
and in it all men should be
Its demands fairation in our land
and defies all poverty.

This is the last verse I shall write
and in it I must say
I hope the souls of these poor men
To heaven went straight away
and their for ever may they remain
With angels round the throne
and children their
With the happy home.

To go straight to Methley Forum click on the map below.

- Home page - Back -

Copyright © Methley website Hub - 1st August 2003 -

Website built by Graham Waite at  methley@uku.co.uk