[Home Page [Programme [Songs [Performances [Links]

Sea Green Singers - Coal Not Dole - To see an enlarged image, suitable for printing on A4 paper click on the image

Coal not dole by Matthew Fox and Kaye Sutcliffe



A It stands so proud, the wheel so still.
A ghost-like figure on the hill.
It seems so strange. There is no sound.
Now there are no men underground.
Note: the letters A and B refer to the two sections on the musical score.


B What will become of this pit-yard,
Where men once trampled, faces hard?
So tired and weary, their shift done,
Never having seen the sun.
A Will it become a sacred ground?
Foreign tourists gazing round.
Asking if men once worked here,
Way beneath the pit-head gear.
B Empty trucks, once filled with coal
Line up like men on the dole.
Will they e'er be used again?
Or left for scrap, just like the men.
  BThere'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power.
They'll never realise the hurt
They've caused to those they treat like dirt.
A What will become of this pit-yard,
Where men once trampled, faces hard?
So tired and weary, their shift done,
Never having seen the sun.
B There'll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs and power.
They'll never realise the hurt
They've caused to those they treat like dirt.