THE BLANTYRE
EXPLOSION
Traditional
By
Clyde's bonny banks where I sadly did wander
Among the pit heaps as evening drew nigh,
I spied a young woman all dressed in deep mourning,
A-weeping and wailing with many a sigh.
I
stepped up beside her and thus I addressed her:
"Pray tell me the cause of your trouble and pain." Weeping and
sighing, at last she made answer;
"Johnny Murphy, kind sir, was my true lover's name.
"Twenty-one
years of age, full of youth and good looking, To work down the
mines of High Blantyre he came,
The wedding was fixed, all the guests were invited
That calm summer evening young Johnny was slain.
The explosion was heard, all the women and children With pale
anxious faces they haste to the mine.
When the truth was made known, the hills rang with their mourning,
Two-hundred-and-ten young miners were slain.
Now
husbands and wives and sweethearts and brothers, That Blantyre
explosion they'll never forget;
And all you young miners that hear my sad story,
Shed a tear for the victims who're laid to their
rest.
Footnote
: The disaster described in this song occurred at Messrs. Dixon's
colliery, High Blantyre, on 22nd October 1877. Over two hundred
miners were killed.
 |
Typical Miners Row in
1877. It consisted of 2
rooms. The main room
was the scullery, living
room and had 2 beds
built into the wall. |
Pit Ponies were used
to pull the buggies and seldom seen day light. |
|
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