Here Come The Navvies / Songs and Lyrics

Version 1

%abc-2.1
X:1
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T:Here Come The Navvies
Z:Webmaster
C:Ian Campbell
M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=150
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Eb
P:verse
E |B,2 E E2 E |EEF G2 A |B2 c B2 G | A3 
w:I am a nav-i-ga-tion-er and I come from Coun-ty Cork,
G2 A |B2 E E2 E |E2 F G2 E |F2 D B,2 C | _D3-_D z
w:And I had to leave me na-tive home to find a job of  work. *
B, |B,2 E E2 E |E2 F G2 A |B2 c B2 G | A3 
w:The crops were bad in Ire-land and the tax too much to pay
G2 A |B2 e e2 f |e2 c B2 A |G2 E F2 D | E6 |
w:And so here I am in Eng-land dig-ging up the wat-er-way.
P:chorus
_d3 d2 c |_d B2-B3 |_d2 c B2 G | A3- A2
w:Here come the nav-vies * Out to earn their pay,
 A |B2 E E2 E |E2 F G2 E |F2 D C2 C | _D3-_D2 
w:We work with bar-row, Plough and spade to clear the cut a-way,
C |B,2 E E2 E |E2 F G2 A |B2 c B2 G | A3 
w: And when we put the pud-dle in, With sweat we wet the clay,
G2 A |B2 e e2 f |e2 c B2 A |G2 E F2 D | E3-E2 z |]
w:And we scar the face of Eng-land for to make the wa-ter-way 
W:1
W:I am a navigationer and I come from County Cork,
W:And I had to leave me native home to find a job of work.
W:The crops were bad in Ireland and the tax too much to pay
W:And so here I am in England digging up the waterway.
W:
W:ch
W:Here come the navvies, out to earn their pay
W:We work with barrow, plough and spade to clear the cut away,
W:And when we put the puddle in with sweat we wet with clay,
W:And we scar the face of England for to make the waterway.
W:
W:2
W:Once I was a ploughman and I did a decent job,
W:I worked from dawn 'til darkness just to earn me couple o' bob,
W:But when the praties died on us I couldn't pay me way,
W:And so here I am in England ploughing up the waterway.
W:
W:3
W:The lads who built the waterway they are a motley crew,
W:And when we've sweated all day long we like a drink or two,
W:The local folk don't take to use, but still I'm proud to say,
W:In years to come our monument will be the waterway.

Version 2

Version 3

Song Note

Song by Ian Campbell

Folk song references:

Song to be found in the following collection(s):

My Own Song Book