The Miners’ Hard Times (Geri Thomas)
Come all you good people pay heed if you can
I’ll tell of the masters who don’t give a damn
Me wife and me daughter are strapped to a dram
It’s a hard way of making a living
Now a penny a pound for our flour we pay
And three ha’pence of cheese whenever we may
Then it’s Buttry Hatch at the dawn of the day
For it’s hard times have come for the miner
I owe half me wage to the company store
We don’t own a bed we all sleep on the floor
I won’t see the daylight for a day or two more
‘Cause I’m hewing at coal for a living
O’Reilly he came here from over the sea
To sink us a shaft for our colliery
The poor little bugger is worse off than me
He’s breaking his back for a living
And now to conclude I hope that you’ll see
The poor they are starving while the rich have their spree
To complain is a crime all the judges agree
Its Van Diemans land for the miner
The Charter (Wynford Jones)
Come gather round all you men suffering with your plight
Attend the torchlight meetings held on mountains in the night
Missionaries bring us news, from London they’ve been sent
To tell us of a charter that will reform parliament.
The Charter it contains six points to help the working man
Giving him the right to vote without owning land
For under present Parliament our backs against the wall
We’re told we’re only working class and have no rights at all
It’s why we’re thought of in this way that’s causing us despair
Our families are starving but we’re told we’re treated fair
If honest men should take to crime they know the price they’ll pay
Transported to a foreign land many miles away
So take up with the Charter and our struggling ways will change
A better way of life it says is well within our range
Unite together working men and without any doubt
The Charter’ll reform Parliament it’ll kick the old laws out
Frost Williams and Jones (Wynford Jones)
Three men came as leaders
To guide the working class
The six point Charter they did preach
Must be adopted fast
The first man being named John Frost
A fine upstanding man
Believed that rights for fellow men
Must reign throughout the land
Zephaniah Williams
He was the second man
His educated views he preached
Respect he did command
The third man being William Jones
A watchmaker by trade
His oratory fiery
The establishment he slayed
The three men preached the Charter
Of the cause they made no bones
The workers followed every move
Of Frost Williams and Jones
Bogey, Bogey, One Pound Ten (Wynford Jones)
I am just a common man to the land I give my life
Working for my family keeping them from worry and strife
It’s hard to stand by morals when there’s nothing left to eat
No clothes on your back, no shoes on your feet
Bogey bogey one pound ten
All for the masters and none for the men
Bogey bogey one pound ten
All for the masters, none for the men
Times are hard for many a man with a family to rear
Conditions being as they are what life is this to bear
To see his wife and children go hungry day by day
Turns a man to violence for he sees no other way
The masters take away your rights, drop your wages without a care
Cut your working week by half, rise their prices and bring despair
What else can a poor man do when they will not hear his voice
Unite against their tyranny for it is our only choice
The March – part one (Ernest Jones – Chartist Leader)
The rouse up me boys and fight the foe
Your weapons are truth and reason
We will let the Whigs and Tories know
That thinking is not treason
Ye lords oppose us if ye can
Your own doom you seek after
With or without you we’ll make a stand
Until we gain the Charter
The labour toils and strives the more
While tyrants are carousing
But hark I hear the lions roar
The British youths are rousing
The rich are liable to pain,
The poor man feels the smart, sir.
So let us break the despot’s chain,
We soon shall have the Charter.
The March – part two (Wynford Jones)
Down the valleys march the freedom fighters
And they’re fighting for their rights
A holocaust of power drunk heroes
On a cold November night
The Westgate, Newport is their target
Where their voices will be heard
All the men who gather round them
Know “Beanswell” is the password
A storm raged hard on the weary Chartists
As they marched on to the fray
Stopping at “The Welsh Oak” alehouse
Where they wait for break of day
Joined by men of other valleys
Who are tired and forlorn
The is passed they march on Newport
With the coming of the dawn
The early dawn saw the angry Chartists
As they marched with all their will
Lacking the east contingent
They marched on down Stow Hill
Turning in the Westgate courtyard
They hail with confidence
“Give up the Chartist prisoners
Or face the consequence”
Fare Thee Well to Newport (Geri Thomas & Mark Takel)
And now Port Arthur bound A reluctant act of grace
Zephaniah Williams, William Jones and I
On board the Mandarin our bodies bruised by chains
Our captors never caring if we live or die
So fare thee well to Newport
I can live with you no more
My name it is John Frost one of those who counts the cost
There are many more beside, some who lie in their graves
I’m fifty-five years old, will I see my home again
Will I have the courage that I need to survive
Of those we left behind, we never hear a word
We fought for Lovett’s Charter and it seems all in vain
We sought nothing but our rights, and though it seems we failed
While working men are still oppressed the struggle carries on
These Brave Men (Wynford Jones)
It’s so cruel, to take away the lives
Of men stood really not to blame
They were just innocent victims of the time
Striking out to make their claim
These brave men have all been lost
They shed their blood just to be free
These brave men fought for the cause
They gave their lives for you and me
It’s no use to deny they had to fight
For they could see no other way
They made a stand for the rights of other men
For this they dearly had to pay
Time is a healer or so they say
So just let time carry on
Time it will not erase the feeling of today
All you’ve believed in has all gone.