In a Durham mining town
Coal was king and wore a crown
Pulley wheels went round and round
In a Durham mining town
Co-op store and colliery bands
Coalhouse door and blue-scarred hands
When light made the night retreat
Miners feet marched down each street
Chorus:
What a cold hard place is a mining town
Smoke goes up - rain comes down
Sulphur oozes from the ground
What a cold hard place is a mining town
Durham wore a blood-red crown
Mining ruled a mining town
Now its tree bears different fruit
Still I see the blackened root
Times gone by in mid-July
Banners flew in Durham’s sky
Black drapes on a silken gown
Marked the men lost to a town
Chorus:
Uncle George I did not know
He was crushed down deep below
Sleeping stones from ancient time
Crushed his bones in Silksworth mine
He survived a day or two
Then he left that town he knew
In the pit he found death’s door
He’d survived the First World War
Chorus:
In a Durham countryside
You could see two worlds collide
Black hills smouldered night and day
Green hills stood not far away
Threads that weave our history
Make us what we come to be
When I think of ties that bind
Words like seeds grow in my mind
Ending:
Idle are the blue-scarred hands
Homeless are the colliery bands
Pulley wheels don’t go round
In a Durham mining town
