The Lead Road

To listen to a recording of the song and see pictures, click here.

Now just imagine seeing this a long long time ago

Some fifty horses, single file, all walking in a row

And on their backs large panniers hang with quite a canny load

The men in charge they lead them on along an old drove road

Chorus - - -

We're headed down to Blaydon

We're on the old lead road

Wor bags are fully laden

Such a heavy, heavy load

Across the moors from Allendale they wind their weary way

Mile after mile the train moves on, the same day after day

And then at last the end is reached at Blaydon, near the Tyne

The Blackett-Beaumont factory where lead goes to refine

North Pennine mines were thriving then but now they are no more

A host of minerals they produced but most of all lead ore

The lead was smelted near the mines but too impure to sell

At Blaydon lead was then refined and then did very well

The ore contained some silver and at Blaydon t'was removed

A very canny process and quite lucrative it proved

But spare a thought for all those men who toiled all night and day

For miner's work is very hard and modest was their pay

And think of all those Galloways at Horsecrofts where they graze

A meadow just by Blaydon town that' s still there nowadays

Once loaded up with things folk need, provisions of all kinds

They set off home with ne'er a thought of silver on their minds