The Colin Holt Band at Morley Town Hall in Yorkshire Film and Folk 2009
Colin Holt’s songs about his childhood memories of living in Morley are published on his band’s CD Reminiscence Deftly Trips.
Our community in the 1960s all seemed to be linked to the textile industry in some way, and subsequently linked to the Working Men’s Club, which for many of our elders was on South Queen Street. We all went off once a year, when the mills closed for a day, on the club trip. These trips were in steam trains from Morley top station usually to Blackpool. They were days for our parents to forget about the monotony and strains of work and the problems at home and simply have a good time. As children, it was a party with cousins, neighbours, and school friends, and travelling on a train was a special treat. This song tries to paint a picture of one of these trips in a fairly light-hearted way.
ANNUAL AUGUST BANK TRIP
Here is a photo my mother and father
And me just a lad in between
Dressed to the nines in my new Whitsun clothes
I knew I’d have to keep clean
The dawn mist around us, we stood on the platform
The train steamed up through the dip
On the South Queen Street Working Men’s
Affiliated Social club Annual August Bank Trip
All bound for Blackpool just picture the train full
Of family and neighbours and friends
Committeemen gave all us kids pop and crisps
And we giggled and laughed as we went
And when we got there, and could smell the sea air
My mother tightened her grip
On the South Queen Street Working Men’s
Affiliated Social club Annual August Bank Trip
We strolled down the prom under the sun
Ate fish and chips on the sand
And after a while from a shop down the mile
We sent a postcard to Grandma
There were “kiss me quick” hats and all sorts like that
Windmills and big candy whirls
The castles we made with our buckets and spades
Washed away on the next tide
Come six o’clock like it or not
We had to get back for the train
Some folks were drunk and others just tired
But we had a singsong all the same
I had sand in my shoes, a tear in my eye
And ice cream all round my lip
On the South Queen Street Working Men’s
Affiliated Social club Annual August Bank Trip
(c) Colin Holt 2009
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