Silt
by Eric Payne (July 2011 & modified June 2020)
Recorded by Eric and Eileen Payne
I saw them drain the ‘Cut’ today and dig the blackened silt away,
Ageing sediment of work, deep settled on the brick lined earth;
Of arteries that Navvies laid to serve our commerce, route our trade,
And feed the mills and forges coal to make the goods that earned our gold.
Chorus :
From sunrise until sunset, folks worked the hours away,
We’re digging out their legacies from up the Cut today,
From up the Cut today.
Two hundred years of telling silt upon which England’s wealth was built,
Is being cleared to make a draught sufficient for all pleasure craft.
Barges heave and take the spoil - dark, noxious weight of human toil,
To float upstream from whence it came along the navigational drain.
Chorus
And, with each gouge of slurried black, dark rainbowed waters scurry back;
To fill the void and thus forbid all knowledge of the past it hid;
Of endless hours in thickened air, of children’s cries and tired stares,
Of those who couldn’t struggle free, slowly bled by poverty.
Chorus
But in that silt lies hidden worth for, spread across our farming earth,
It will nourish, nurture, feed, the growing crops of food we need;
An irony that won’t be lost upon those ghosts who paid the cost,
That I see in the black silt clay they’re digging from the ‘Cut’ today.
Chorus
I am indebted to Eric and Eileen Payne for providing the lyrics and recordings. Eric and Eileen’s website contains
more information about their folk music activities and Eric’s songs. CDs and a song book are available for purchase.
Silt
by Eric Payne (July 2011 & modified June 2020)
Recorded by Eric and Eileen Payne
I saw them drain the ‘Cut’ today and dig the blackened silt away,
Ageing sediment of work, deep settled on the brick lined earth;
Of arteries that Navvies laid to serve our commerce, route our trade,
And feed the mills and forges coal to make the goods that earned
our gold.
Chorus :
From sunrise until sunset, folks worked the hours away,
We’re digging out their legacies from up the Cut today,
From up the Cut today.
Two hundred years of telling silt upon which England’s wealth was
built,
Is being cleared to make a draught sufficient for all pleasure craft.
Barges heave and take the spoil - dark, noxious weight of human toil,
To float upstream from whence it came along the navigational drain.
Chorus
And, with each gouge of slurried black, dark rainbowed waters scurry
back;
To fill the void and thus forbid all knowledge of the past it hid;
Of endless hours in thickened air, of children’s cries and tired stares,
Of those who couldn’t struggle free, slowly bled by poverty.
Chorus
But in that silt lies hidden worth for, spread across our farming
earth,
It will nourish, nurture, feed, the growing crops of food we need;
An irony that won’t be lost upon those ghosts who paid the cost,
That I see in the black silt clay they’re digging from the ‘Cut’ today.
Chorus
I am indebted to Eric and Eileen Payne for providing the lyrics
and recordings. Eric and Eileen’s website contains more information
about their folk music activities and Eric’s songs. CDs and a song
book are available for purchase.
