Christy Moore - The Dalesman's Litany lyrics

It's hard when folks can't get their work
Where they've been bred and born
When I was young I used to think I'd bide
My time 'mid the roots and the corn
But, I've been forced to flee the
Town so here's my litany
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord deliver me

When I was courting Mary Anne the
Auld squire he said one day
I've got no room for wedded folk
Choose to wed or stay
I could not leave the girl I loved
So town we had to flee
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord deliver me

I've worked in Leeds and Huddersfield
Where I've addled honest brass
In Bradford, Keightley, Rotherham
I've kept my bairns and lass
I've travelled all three ridings round and
Once I've been to sea
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord deliver me
I've been through Sheffield lanes at night
'twere just like being in hell
The furnaces thrust out tongues of flame that
Roared like wind o'er the fell
I've sammed up coal in Barnsley pit
With muck up to my knee
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord deliver me

I've seen grey fog creep o'er Leeds
Brig as thick as Bastille soup
I've been where folks are stowed away
Like rabbit's in a coup
I've seen snow fall on Bradford
Beck as black as ebony
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord deliver me

But now my children all have flown
To the country I'll go back
There'll be forty miles of
Heathery moor 'twixt
Me and the coal pit slack
And oft at night as I sit round
The fire I'll think of the misery
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good lord deliver me