As the cage dropped suddenly into darkness
The working morning had begun

Step in and see how, for the last quarter of a century, your coal was won
And how it is still won, twenty four hours 'round the clock

You're in a two hundred yard long coal face now
Temperature often reached eighty degrees
It's three feet six inches high from floor to roof

None knew when the foul air underground might not cause a disastrous explosion
Or a landslide might at any moment bring down the roof and walls of the tunnel

The people of Britain are building
Drilling out from their native rock
The foundations of the future

To coal we must now turn again
For all the strength that we shall need
In the years to come