Blackleg Miner - Richard Thompson

It’s in the evening after dark

When the blackleg miner creeps to work

With his moleskin pants and his dirty shirt

There goes the blackleg miner

He takes his pick and down he goes

To hew the coal that lies below

And there’s not a woman in this town row

Will look at the blackleg miner

And Delaval is a terrible place

And they rub wet clay in the blackleg’s face

And around the peak they run a race

To catch the blackleg miner

Now don’t you go near the Seghill mine

For across the way they stretch a line

To catch the throat and break the spine

Of the dirty blackleg miner

And they take his picks and his duds as well

And they throw him down the pits of hell

O down you go and fare you well

You dirty blackleg miner