Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
Down in the coalmine, underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging up the dusky diamonds all the season round
Deep down in the coalmine, underneath the ground

I am a jovial collier lad as blithe as blithe can be
And let the times be good or bad, it's all the same to me
It's little of the world I know and care less for its ways
For where the dog star never glows I wear away my days

Me hands are horny, hard and black through working in the vein
And like the clothes upon me back my speech is rough and plain
Well if I stumble with my tongue I've one excuse to say
It's not the collier's heart that's wrong, it's the head that goes astray

How little do the great ones care who sit at home secure
What hidden dangers colliers dare, what hardships they endure
The very fire they sit beside to cheer themselves and wives
Mayhap was kindled at the cost of jovial miners lives

Then cheer up lads and make the most of every joy you can
And always let your mirth such as best befits a man
For let the times be good or bad, we'll still be jovial souls
For where would Britain be without the lads who look for coals

As sung by The Ian Campbell Folk Group

Cf. Here Come the Navvies

Tune: The Roving Journeyman

[1964:] The words are by J. B. Geoghegan, a Durham miner, and date back about ninety years. It was one of the songs collected by A. L. Lloyd during his "expedition" that led to the monumental book "Come all ye bold miners" (Lawrence & Wishart). (Notes 'Presenting The Ian Campbell Folk Group')

[1967:] [An example of] the songs of professional pride that were so much in vogue among workers in the 1870s and '80s; [...] the old vainglorious songs strove rather after literary tone, while today's songs are perhaps too readily content with a documentary realism. (Lloyd, England 377)