> Folk Music > Songs > Guard Yer Man Weel

Guard Yer Man Weel

[ Roud - ; Mudcat 37294 ; Johnny Handle]

Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman sang Tyneside musician Johnny Handle’s song Guard Your Man Weel in 2006 on their album Unity. They noted:

Johnny Handle wrote this song from the point of view of the poor miners’ wives who had to wait at home, always in fear of an accident that might just take the life of their husband and father of their children, a very real risk in the mining communities of days gone by.

The Unthanks sang Guard Yer Man Weel in 2020 on their album Diversions Vol. 5: Live and Unaccompanied.

Frankie Archer sang Guard Yer Man Well live at Cobalt Studios, Newcastle upon Tyne, on 6 October 2022:

Lyrics

Frankie Archer sings Guard Yer Man Well

Guard yer man well through the night
Hold him til dawn’s early light
For come the lang day, he’ll be far away
Deep down underground far from sight

Love him while he’s still at home
For mining work’s always the same
A stone from the slick can fall out so quick
And in blood there is written his name

Sit with yer bairns and yer man
Give him, lass, all that you can
All through the lang day, send your thoughts far away
How things in the pit might gan wrong

He’ll work his shift and get by
Come out from the dark to the sky
For mining’s his trade, and of pit stock he’s made
And a wife must learn never to cry