The Coal Owner and the Pitman’s Wife (words W. Hornsby, tune trad; Roud 44465) Week 189, 2 Nov 2024

New month, new theme: the Devil! (since it was Halloween recently)

"The Coal Owner and the Pitman’s Wife" actually scores a hat-trick of my latest three themes, covering the Devil, but also mining and is also local to (originating in) North East England (where mining was an important industry for hundreds of years - though I'm not aware that the Devil appears here any more often than elsewhere!).

"The Coal Owner and the Pitman’s Wife" tells of a meeting between the two people of the title. When the coal owner balks at the sight of the pitman’s wife and asks where she's from, she says she's from hell. But they're turning the poor folk out of hell to make room for the rich and wicked - she heard the Devil say that many coal owners were expected to arrive there soon. If he wants to avoid going there, he should pay his men a fair wage! Anxious to avoid hell, he hastens away to give his men a pay rise....

When Ewan MacColl recorded the song the liner notes said:
"This ballad is believed to date from the Durham strike of 1844 and to have been written by William Hornsby, a collier of Shotton Moor, Durham. The ballad was discovered among a collection of papers relating to the strike by a studious Lancashire miner, J.S. Bell. The tune was supplied by J. Dennison, of Walker and, together with the text, can be found in A.L. Lloyd’s Come All Ye Bold Miners."
The tune is the trad "Derry Down", and the song has a Derry Down refrain/chorus.

I learnt this by listening to the recording of the song by The High Level Ranters, though I also referred to A.L. Lloyd’s "Come All Ye Bold Miners" (which has 12 verses (some possibly written by Lloyd).

Lyric notes:
v2: Lord Firedamp (the coal owner's name): firedamp = any flammable gas found in coal mines (sometimes triggering explosions)
v5: rout = marching orders/summons

For more notes and lyrics see: