An ordinary settlement, this little town

ordinary people with our ups and downs

nothing to write home about, you might well say

life for us is much the same from day to day

 

But this little town keeps going, running still

like the river that keeps flowing, past the watermill

 

I know that on the face of it, you cannot see

the extraordinary changes of each century

to understand the present we must know the past

how community develops, how we make it last

 

Once we were a forest, where beneath our boughs

Marion and Robin may have made their vows

home to those who fled from every unjust law

seeking sanctuary on the woodland floor

 

And then we felled the trees so we could grow our crops

depending on the seasons for our wheat and hops

built our little cottages, began to thrive

working now with horse and plough, with hand and scythe

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Then underneath the farmland we would sink a mine

no longer could our workers see the bright sun shine

but we pulled together, turned our lives around

digging our prosperity from underground

 

Then there came a time that brought such deep despair

the closing of the mine, a time of pain and fear

but we braved the darkness till the daylight came

and rising from the ashes, we would thrive again