Cob-coaling was a Lancashire traditional of schoolchildren knocking on doors and singing for pieces of coal to put on their bonfires. Cob a Coalin is a Traditional song, and this version was written and arranged by Jennifer Reid with the children of Heymann Primary School in Nottingham.
lyrics
Cob a Coalin (trad, arr Reid)
The first to come in is a miner you see
With his pick and his shovel all ready to dig
He digs it and picks it and then it does fall
And that is the way that we gather cob coal
We come a cob a coalin, cob a coalin, cob a coalin,
We come a cob a coalin for bonfire night
Waiting for the cage to earn my wage
the coal has blackened the children’s hair
The mine hot and muddy, thank God for my Dudley
Give in motty tags and hang up your bags
We come a cob a coalin, cob a coalin, cob a coalin,
We come a cob a coalin for bonfire night
Down the pit you can’t tell if it’s day or night
Miners start digging with no end in sight
Little yellow bird we keep you alive
So that me and friends can all survive
We come a cob a coalin, cob a coalin, cob a coalin,
We come a cob a coalin for bonfire night
Plant the miner underground like a flower of coal
Pickaxing away, thinking of holidays
Lonely, old and very cold,
All of this just for a lump of coal
We come a cob a coalin, cob a coalin, cob a coalin,
We come a cob a coalin for bonfire night
credits
from Singing The Seam,
released July 2, 2019
Trad / Jennifer Reid and the children from Heymann Primary School
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