‘The Heaton Main Suite’ was commissioned by ‘Under the Fields of Heaton’ to be written for Heaton community choirs and bands to come together to mark the anniversary year of commemoration ending in 2016. You can see films of the performances, hear audio clips and read the lyrics and poems below.
It was performed by 258 participants comprising a massed choir, dance group and massed band on 5th July 2015 at the Ouseburn Festival & then back by popular demand to a sell out house on 9th April 2016 at Northern Stage.
Listen to the Heaton Main Suite
Choirs: Flotsam, Heaton Voices, Chillingham Rd Primary, St Augustine’s R.C. Primary, & The Swing Bridge Singers
Dancers: Hexham Morris
Bands: Chillingham Rd Band, 10th Avenue Band, Meze Mundo, & Hexham Village Band
The suite moves from May Day celebrations to the events of 3rd May when 75 men and boy miners were trapped in a flood underground. The new Davy Lamp was used in the rescue. It took 9 months to find the men and boys & put them to rest.
The composers:
Johnny Handle: legendary north east folk singer and ex miner
Ken Patterson: the founder of the 10th Avenue Band, Meze Mundo, Newcastle All Stars and other N.E. community bands
Andrew Scott: long established choir leader of The Swing Bridge Singers and the more recently formed ‘Flotsam’
Richard Scott: leader of Heaton Voices, and arranger of choir music in the Vanessa Redgrave film “A Song for Marion’
The 237 participating singers and musicians are listed here
‘Found on Facebook’: footage of different performances with ‘Heaton Main Suite’ material.
Finale song & dance: ‘Shafts of Light’ outside The Cumberland Arms, Ouseburn Festival
‘Heaton Trio’ by Andrew Scott outside Byker Farm, Ouseburn Festival
Heaton Voices sing ‘Waiting’ (second song on this clip)
Click on the vocal scores you wish to download, below:
Heaton Trio With Accordion and Fiddle – Full Score
Rehearsal Tracks
Cd cover back
Songs from Heaton Main Suite
‘The Last Shift’: read by Tony Neilson
May Day was over & the great festival of Spring had passed.
Tuesday, the second, was just another ordinary day.
The sun had set and, by late evening,
Heaton’s farming community was at rest.
Only the mine disturbed the silence.
In the darkness after midnight,
Numerous figures thread their way through the blackened fields,
Marshalled to their workplaces by the beat of the great engine,
The pulse of the colliery.
To the outsider the mine is an awesome place,
Full of magical sights and sounds,
Another world,gripping the imagination.
Small fires light up the pithead
And the acrid smell of burning coal pervades the air.
The noise, the drifting smoke and the flickering lights
Add to the mystery.
The rhythmic power of the massive engine is compelling.
The deafening thuds and hissings command attention.
Amid this inferno,
Men and boys exchange banter,
While they wait to be lowered, in wicker baskets,
Down into their underworld.
All are unaware of the impending disaster,
And the acts of heroism,
Which ordinary men would soon perform.
Most will not escape
Before torrents of water overpower the great engine
And destroy the mine.
Summer will pass,
And the ice of winter grip the ground,
Before their bodies are found.
Men and boys will be returned, lifeless,
Through frozen fields, now white with snow,
To their final resting places.
…………This was their last shift. Les Turnbull 2015
Under the Fields of Heaton
Me Man he was a champion hewer,
Bringin’ siller te mek his family sound;
The press gang and the army never got him,
But he died at hyeme, underneath the ground.
- A modern pit in Eighteen Ten,
Work for three hundred boys and men;
With only a roof fall now and then,
Under the fields of Heaton.
2.Now London Markets are the goal,
A need and a greed for High Main coal;
Hewers toil in the deep, dark hole,
Under the fields of Heaton.
- On the third of May in Eighteen Fifteen,
Working the barrier, on the drilling team;
Then a rush of water from the worked out seam,
Under the fields of Heaton.
4.With candles out, men run outbye,
“Save yourselves” their marras cry;
Race to the shaft, beat the water or die,
Under the fields of Heaton.
5.Seventy five men and boys down there,
Still lie trapped in a pocket of air;
But the waters rise as they despair,
Under the fields of Heaton.
6.Rescue workers, brave volunteers,
Digging old workings, they have no fear;
With toil and sweat, getting near,
Under the fields of Heaton.
7.But old shafts fall in all around,
Water builds up underground;
Quicksand and gas soon wears them down,
Under the fields of Heaton.
8.Nine Long months of grief and pain,
Nine long months of the owners shame;
Nine long months our loved ones have lain,
Under the fields of Heaton.
9.The ordeal not finished, the women went down,
To name those sad victims, all scattered around;
The red hair of my love, dead where he’s been found;
Under the fields of Heaton..
10.How many times must the funeral bells toll,
How many must die in the greed for coal;
How many must toil and never grow old,
Under the fields of Heaton.
- I sit in my garret, small coal, no bread,
What relief for the widows? Who remembers the dead?
I wish I’d gone with them, as they suffered and bled.
Under the fields of Heaton Johnny Handle February 2015
Heaton Trio
The Miner:
1 Sir, here’s a miner’s hand, I’m trusted throughout the land.
Your industry I can supply,
On me you can rely, until the day I die.
Give me the work, I’m at your command,
Trust in a miner’s hand.
2 Lad, here’s a miner’s arm, your Dad is your lucky charm,
And you’re the apple of my eye.
On me you can rely, until the day I die.
Working with me, you won’t come to harm,
Trust in a miner’s arm.
3 Love, here’s a miner’s heart, I’m true to my own sweetheart;
I’d never want to make you cry,
On me you can rely, until the day I die.
Hinnie, I swear we shall never part,
Trust in a miner’s heart.
CHORUS
Why can’t I move? Why am I so weak?
I have the heart of a fighter.
Someone, please tell me,
What is that noise? Why can’t I speak?
Why has my breathing got tighter?
I’m not ready to die, not ready to die.
The Miner’s Wife:
1.If I never wash another
Coal-miner’s shirt, covered with dirt,
It’ll be too soon, I said…
(But) How wrong I was, how wrong I was.
2 Women’s work is never finished:
Make do and mend, when will it end?
Let it be over, I said… (But) How wrong I was…
3 I’ll be happy if I never
Scrub one more back, filthy and black.
That’s what I said last week, (But) How wrong I was….
CHORUS
Who’s running past? Why do they shriek?
Why have their faces gone whiter?
Someone, please tell me,
What is that noise? Why can’t I speak?
Why has my breathing got tighter?
I’m not ready to cry, not ready to cry.
The Miner’s Lad
1 Finally I got a pair o’ boots, Mam,
Finally I got a pair o’ boots.
They’ve got no soles, they’ve seen some wear,
They’re full o’ holes, I divn’t care;
‘Cos they’re my boots, they’re my boots.
2 Finally I got a miner’s lamp, Mam,
Finally I got a miner’s lamp.
It either fades or starts to flare,
It isn’t safe, I divn’t care;
‘Cos it’s my lamp, it’s my lamp.
3 Finally I got a miner’s wage, Mam,
Finally I got a miner’s wage.
It’s only pence, there’s nowt to spare,
You take it all, I divn’t care;
‘Cos it’s my wage, it’s my wage.
CHORUS
What is that flood? Is there a leak?
How can I get my lamp brighter?
Someone, please tell me,
What is that noise? Why can’t I speak?
Why has my breathing got tighter?
I’m not ready to die, not ready to die.
Oh, somebody, somebody,
Tell me, what’s going on?
Anyone,
Help me, somebody, somebody,
Help me, tell me what’s wrong.
Anyone, somebody, anyone…
Why? Why?
The Miner’s Wife
LAST CHORUS
Oh, somebody, somebody,
Tell me, what’s going on?
Anyone,
Help me, somebody, somebody,
Help me, tell me what’s wrong.
Anyone…
Please, don’t let them die,
Don’t let them die, die underground. Andrew Scott 2015
Waiting
Waiting, they’re waiting, waiting at home.
Needing and grieving, feeling alone
Their future’s look bleak, some help on the street,
But it’s hardly enough to go round
What they want is the truth, or even some proof
That their men and their boys will be found.
No news today, maybe tomorrow…….
Waiting, they’re waiting, waiting at home.
Needing and grieving, feeling alone
A bond on the house, means they have to move out
If there isn’t a collier at home.
So they gather the bairns, & the few bits they own
And it’s off to the poor house they go
No news today, no homes tomorrow…….
Waiting, they’re waiting, waiting at home.
Needing and grieving, feeling alone
Nine months go to ground, Then the widows go down
To identify father and son.
Longbenton, Wallsend, is where one story ends
But the families’ struggle goes on……… Richard Scott 2015
Shafts of Light
1 Men and boys of Heaton Main, now free from pain
There’ll be some hope again
We can learn from what has passed and look ahead
Your loss is not in vain.
Chorus: Shafts of light, Heaton Main,
We shall see the light of day again x2
The driver, the putter, the hewer, rollymen & trappers
The wastemen, the shifters…….. underground x2
2 Map, record, and know the ground, seam and vein
There’ll be some hope again
By Davy’s lamp a way’s been found: look ahead
Your loss is not in vain.
Shafts of light, Heaton Main,
We shall see the light of day again x2
3 With power of steam, the engine pump, stem the flow
There’ll be some hope again.
Safer work down underground, look ahead
Your loss is not in vain. Ken Patterson 2015
A Community Participation Project 
