Big Big Train - A Boy In Darkness Lyrics
Part 1: Brookbottom Colliery, Heanor, Derbyshire, 1842Extract from Sub Commissioner’s report, 1842 on the conditions of children and young people employed in the collieries.“His name is Godfrey FletcherEleven years oldWorked these pits for nearly three yearsDoes not know the alphabetCannot read in the least”The pit shall keep him body and soulBut better that than going to schoolOr ploughing the fieldHot as any fire and brimstone Methodist’s sermon down hereIn the awesome stillnessof the deep blackA Boy in DarknessThe seam they work is more than a yardThe headway here is nearly four feetHe hears the eerie sound of the whistling windDeep down here in the dry and the heatA Boy in DarknessPart 2: The March of Progress, Enlightenment and the Passing of TimePart 3: Present TimesOnce upon a timeA secret sharedThreatened not to breathe a wordTo a living soulEspecially mother...He was just a boyBut even thoughIt wasn’t the way it’s supposed to goNeeded a fatherNot this hunterTo speak of the unspeakableTakes guts and nerveIt’s going to disturbHe can’t bring himself to say the wordsMisplaced blind faithIn church and stateTied up in too much red tapeIf help comes, pray not too lateWe face ourselvesLook long and hardMake the differenceA safer placeBut most of allDon’t be afraidTo shineLightInto the darkA Boy in Darkness
