Dawson Smith - Children Born To The Valleys

Children Born to The Valleys

Chorus
We are children born to the valleys
And we work all the live-long day
We are brave but we are hungry
For we starve if we earn no pay

We are cinder girls
And collier boys
We haul the trams
Through the smoke and noise
We are children born to the valleys
And we work all the live-long day

My name is Bethan Ponty
And I work down Hopkins pit
I am there to work the vent door
So alone in the dark I sit
And the rats come around
To steal my cheese
When the waters come
My feet they freeze
My name is Bethan Ponty
And I work down Hopkins pit

Chorus

My name is Thomas Jenkins
A puddler’s butty am I
We are there to cast the iron
When the furnace lights the sky
But the iron can spit
And burn you raw
If it catches you
You will work no more
My name is Thomas Jenkins
And a puddler’s butty am I

Chorus

My name is Daido Morgan
And there’s no more work for me
For I died in the big explosion
When the poison gas got free
I was 9 years old when the angels came
There was 20 of us all went the same
My name was Dido Morgan
And there’s no more work for me

Chorus

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Children Born to The Valleys
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Through out all of Allexander Cordell’s books the lives of the children are vividly described. Their limited schooling and harsh working lives are central to Cordell’s portrayal of the times. The plight of these children is a main focus of This Proud And Savage Land and the book also contains many of the damning government reports and actual testimonies of children working in South Wales in the early 1800’s.

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