A true story, of course, about the biggest loss of life in any mining disaster in Britain.
On the fourteenth day of October
In the year 1913
At the Lancaster pit Senghenydd
Hundreds worked the black seam
Harry Wedlock was starting his first day at work
A young lad just fourteen years old
He heard a sound from under the ground
And the blood in his body ran cold
A mighty explosion deep in the mine
Spat the pit-cage out into the air
Young Harry started to cry
Confused, frightened and scared
One of the miners stopped him from crying
Told him to be brave and be strong
He said be tonight it'll all be alright
He couldn't have been more wrong
CHORUS
Say four hundred and thirty nine prayers for the dead
Or there won't be enough to go round
For fathers and brothers and husbands and sons
Claimed by the cold dark ground
A terrible fire swept through the mine
Spreading fear and panick and death
If fire underground doesn't burn you
It may still steal your last breath
The desperate one the families and friends
Prayed their husbands and sons and dads weren't amoung
The four hundred and thirty nine dead
CHORUS
Forty five died from Commercial Street
From High Street thirty five
Mrs Benjamin Preist lost her husband
She's had two sons, nethier survived
Mrs Twinings' three were amoung the young men
Killed that day at the black seam
Sixty all told less than twenty years old
Eight of them only fourteen
(c) 2001 Mike Brooks
"Celtic Bonding"
(Silverwolf Records SWC1034
Ethnoworld C CD 880))
1. Lock Up Your Daughters
2. Celtic Bonding
3. The Senghennydd Explosion
4. Hiraeth
5. Naill Ar Ol Llall
6. Bracchi
7. Ar Fy Mhen Fy Hun
8. Galway Rose
9. Hollol
10. I'm Not Drunk
11. One More Year
12. Catrin's Sister
13. Goodnight Cariad
BUY THE ALBUM
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