Heritage – Our Story
Never far from sundering sea
Gull’s and gannets make strident calls
The taste of salt is on the air
And fishes drying on the racks
Ragged nets spread calling to be mended
And rigging slapping on the mast
While mooring ropes groan with every swell
Spray and foam cast up on windward side
And leeward offers brief shelter from the gale
Nor from the depths of earth’s dark womb
Digging for the wealth to fuel the age
Of industry’s onrushing march of steam
They swing their picks and lay the powder
Keeping wary eye on yellow birds in iron cages
Alert for creaking beam or cascading thunder
Signalling the doom of any or all
Depending which side of the fall you’re on
The whistle sounds a mournful wail
As women and children gather awaiting news
Which chair at dinner, or bed at night lies empty.
Nor in great factories of brick and stone where
Great iron wheels revolve driving mighty pistons
With relentless deafening thunder
While flying belts propel clattering looms
Spitting out the weave and wealth of commerce
Bound for holds of ships to foreign lands
Foundries spit and glow and belch
Consuming all the produce of the mines
Loaded and transported from pit-head
To the yard where barges carry the output
Of those who sweat and labour underground.
Nor in the fields where generations of crofters
Tended herds, sheared the sheep,
Cleaned fleece, carded, spun and wove
And all the while kept ravenous wolves at bay
Drove their shaggy beasts from field to market
Harvested scant crops from stoney barren soil
They cut and dried the peat to feed the home fires,
Mended and re-mended simple garments
And sang and danced to strings and pipes
That called out both to young and old
“Forget your cares for this brief time.
This life is yours as it has for generations past
And will be forever more.”
Until by chance you cast your eyes to foreign lands
Not so unforgiving, so harsh, so unrelenting
To plant new roots and offer to your children more
To rise above the mines, the mills, the factories, the fields
And to your children’s children,
Hope.