Wednesday 24 February 2010

Celebrating Diversity: Coal Hole Cavalry

A song called "Coal Hole Cavalry" has been recorded by the Houghton Weavers (do visit the link to the tour dates, and at least pretend that you know where Pilling is). I have just heard it on Radio 2 as I was eating my tea (Lancashire folk have "dinner" in middle o't day).

This is, of course, written/sung in a version of the English language that might not be familiar to southern folk. So I link here to a Youtube video which shows the lyrics as the verses are sung (slightly different version than the Houghton Weavers original - spot the differences). The Houghton Weavers original - a rather better performance, with an accelerating pace as you move from verse to verse - can be found on Spotify, by entering the title "Coal Hole Cavalry".

Some of the things you need to know about to understand this song: the "knocker up"; clogs and cobbled streets; flags; what a snap tin is; the hooter used to sound the start and end of shifts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

zero says
It's not that lively is it? I watched half of it but couldn't watch and listen to any more !

Joe said...

Try the original on Spotify ...