Settlement

The Road from York to Huddersfield

You see George Mellor,
A cropper in the weaving trade,
In Marsden village in the valley of the Colne,
Where the warp and the weft were made.
He took up Enoch's hammer
As the midnight bell was rung.
He went over the hill to Huddersfield
To do what must be done.

People said he was a Luddite,
But do they know what that means?
When you take all you can from the hands of a man,
You give it to a bloody machine.
Well, the valley still remembers,
Where people sit and talk,
When ten good men from the valley of the Colne
Were hanged in the Vale of York.

Chorus:
And the road from York to Huddersfield is a road that's hard as stone;
Light the light tonight,they're coming home.
And the road from York to Huddersfield will chill you to the bone;
Light the light tonight, they're coming home.

George Mellor's journey
To York would be his last
But in fifteen years his darkest fears
For the factories came to pass.
The owners stood united,
The children stood alone;
Twelve hours or more on the factory floor
While their parents wept at home.

And so the people walked from Huddersfield to York,
In the teeth of a gathering storm,
Where hammers fail let hope prevail,
With arrows of reform.
From sunset to sunset
They marched from dawn to dawn,
On the road from York to Huddersfield,
And now they're coming home.

Chorus

They linked hands with one thought,
To save the children, so they walked
A road from Huddersfield to York,
And now they're coming home.
Their bodies ached, their shoes were torn,
They walked till dusk from early dawn,
For the souls of children still unborn,
And now they're coming home.

And the road from York to Huddersfield is a road that's hard as stone;
Light the light tonight, they're coming home.
And the road from York to Huddersfield will chill you to the bone;
Light the light tonight, they're coming home.
From sunset to sunset,
They walked from dawn to dawn,
On the road from York to Huddersfield
They're bringing George Mellor home.

Lyrics by Jim Woodland, printed by kind permission