Fourpence A Day

Lyrics

1
Ore's a-waiting in the tubs, snow's upon t'fell,
Canny folks they're sleeping yet but lead is reet to sell,
Come, me little washer lad, come, let's away,
We're bound down to slavery for fourpence a day.

2
It's early in the morning we rise at five o'clock,
Little slaves come to the foot to knock, knock, knock.
Come, me little washer lad, come, let's away,
It's very hard to work for fourpence a day.

3
Me father were a miner, he lived down in t' town,
’Twere hard work and poverty it always kept him down;
He aimed for me to go to school, but brass he couldn't pay,
So I had to go washing rake for fourpence a day.

4
Me mother rises out of bed with tears upon her cheek,
Puts me wallet on me shoulders, it has to last a week,
It often fills her great big heart when she to me does say,
I nivvor thought thaa'd 'av te work for fourpence a day.

5
And fourpence a day lad, the work is very hard,
Never a pleasant nod from a gruffy looking sod,
His conscience it may fail aye his heart it may gi'e way,
Then he'll raise us wages to ninepence a day.

This is a traditional song about Yorkshire.

Provenance

Ewan MacColl is credited with recording this song from the singing of John Gowland, retired lead miner of Middleton-in-Teesdale, Co. Durham. It first appeared in print in MacColl’s The Shuttle and Cage, Industrial Folk-Ballads published in 1954 by the Workers’ Music association.

Child labourers worked near the entrance of a lead mine on the washing floor, where they crushed the lead ore to about the size of a pea using a mell or other hammer-like tool. These ‘little slaves’ came to the ‘foot to knock, knock, knock’. The ore was then washed and the gangue (waste material) was dumped. The galena was then taken to the smelt mill some distance away.
The children would have to walk quite a distance to the mine early Monday morning and stay from then until Friday evening, hence their mothers putting their ‘wallets’ on their backs to sustain them for the 5 days.

This information provided by Colin Keighley.