Children covered in coal dust black

on their heads and on their back

coal for heating to keep us warm

for drying children’s clothes all torn

for cooking on and making drinks

for burning toast-cor the stink.

——

Coal that came up from below

the mines in numbers they did grow

children payed penny’s each day

to dig the face to carry on

now my fiends the coal is gone

——-

times are hard today they say

think of children past away

to keep us warm, to make men rich

digging coal from a ditch.