Christy Moore - The Dalesman's Litany lyrics

It's hard when folks can't get their work where they've been bred and born When I was young I used to think I'd bide my time 'mid the roots and the corn But I've been forced to flee the town so here's my litany From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me When I was courting Mary Anne the auld squire he said one day I've got no room for wedded folk choose to wed or stay I could not leave the girl I loved so town we had to flee From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I've worked in Leeds and Huddersfield where I've addled honest bra** In Bradford, Keightley, Rotherham, I've kept my bairns and la** I've travelled all three ridings round and once I've been to sea From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I've been through Sheffield lanes at night 'twere just like being in hell The furnaces thrust out tongues of flame that roared like wind o'er the fell I've sammed up coal in Barnsley pit with muck up to my knee From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I've seen grey fog creep o'er Leeds Brig as thick as Bastille soup I've been where folks are stowed away like rabbits in a coup I've seen snow fall on Bradford Beck as black as ebony From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me But now my children all have flown to the country I'll go back There'll be forty miles of heathery moor 'twixt me and the coal pit slack And oft at night as I sit round the fire I'll think of the misery From Hull and Halifax and Hell good lord deliver me