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The Collier Lass

from Howay The Lasses by Howay The Lasses

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • A beautifully packaged and high quality printed album companion booklet presented with carefully curated artwork designed by Annie Ball. Against a backdrop of historical maps that relate to each character, each album companion comes with full information for our Howay The Lasses songs and stories. As you listen to the songs read about the background to each of the women or organisations we've written about, linger over the lyrics and find out more about how we came to collaborate together. The package also includes a A4 poster from our photoshoot for the project taken on location at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland.

    Please Note: This product is an Album Companion and is designed to accompany and enhance your experience as you listen to our music. It does not include a CD.
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lyrics

My Names Polly Parker I come O’er from Worsley
My father and mother work in the coal mine
Our family’s large we have got seven children
So I am obliged to work in the same mine
As this is my fortune I know you’ll feel sorry
That in such employment my days I shall pass
I keep up my spirits I sing and look merry
Although I am but a poor collier lass

By the greatest of dangers each day I’m surrounded
I hang in the air by a rope or a chain
The mine may fall in I may be killed or wounded
May perish by damp or the fire or the train
And what would you do if it weren’t for our labour
In wretched starvation your days you would pass
While we could provide you with life’s greatest blessings
Then do not despise the poor collier lass

Now all the day long you may say we are buried
Deprived of the light and the warmth of the sun
And often at nights from our bed we are hurried
The water is in and then barefoot we run
And though we go ragged and black are our faces
As kind and as free as the best we’ll be found
Our hearts are as white as your lords in fine places
Although we’re poor colliers that work underground

I’m growing up fast now one way or another
There’s a collier lad strangely runs in my mind
In spite of the talking of father and mother
I think I should marry if he was inclined
But should he prove surely and would not befriend me
Another and better chance May come to pass
My friends here I kno-ow to him will commend me
And I’ll be no longer a collier lass

credits

from Howay The Lasses, released October 18, 2022
Traditional - Arranged by Annie Ball
Copyright © Annie Ball 2022

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Howay The Lasses Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

The North East of England is rich with the discoveries, achievements and successes of women from all strands of life - from writers, and reformers, to animators and engineers. Some stories are known to a degree - others not at all. Musicians Annie Ball, Katie Tertell, Bronwen Davies-Jones and Gareth Davies-Jones have teamed up on "Howay The Lasses" to tell them out loud through original song. ... more

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