The Denied from Moorscape - Album by John Reed

THE DENIED

The wild wind blows where trees once grew
Swooping down across the land
Dry stone boundaries divide and rule
For the ruin of many, and the benefit of few

War and commerce, need and greed
Food to grow and mouths to feed
Swathes of inhospitable earth
Turned to pasture for what its worth

Walls and dykes and pales plough through
Lynchetts, narrow rig and furrow
Trees cleared, saplings chewed,
Grazing stock on land accrued.

A right of way, a right of man
The right to graze on common land
A way of life that’s now passed on
From penniless man to penniless son
A legacy of bitterness
Of community divide
Of those who have, and those who strive
And those who’ve been denied

The poor and landless, marginalized
Driven from villages, stigmatised
Survive on waste and border land
To make a life, to fall or stand

Common fields erased by law
Assart strips beside the moor
A piecemeal patchwork on the edge
Its yield to fail, there left to beg

Factory workers built their homes
Cottages of rocks and stones
After a day of labour in the cotton mill
To till the soil as the shadows turn

A right of way, a right of man
The right to graze on common land
A way of life that’s now passed on
From penniless man to penniless son
A legacy of bitterness
Of community divide
Of those who have, and those who strive
And those who’ve been denied
And those who’ve been denied

• Alternative Folk
• Contemporary Folk
• ContemporaryFolk
• Folk
• Folk Rock
• FolkRock
• Protestsongs
• progressivefolk
• singersongwriter
• Berwick Upon Tweed