It's hard when folks can't find their work
Where they've been bred and born
When I was young I always thought
I'd bide amidst fruits and corn
But I've been forced to work in town
So here's my litany:
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
Good Lord, deliver me!

When I was courting Mary Jane
The old squire, he says to me:
"I've got no rooms for wedded folk;
Choose whether to go or to stay."
I could not give up the girl I loved
So to town I was forced to flee:
From Hull and Halifax and Hell,
Good Lord, deliver me!

I've worked in Leeds and Huddersfield
And I've earned some honest brass
In Bradford, Keighley, Rotherham
I've kept my bairns and lass
I've traveled all three Ridings round
And once I went to sea:
From forges, mills and coaling boats
Good Lord, deliver me!

I've walked at night through Sheffield lanes
Twas just like being in hell
Where furnaces thrust out tongues of fire
And roared like the wind on the fell
I've sammed up coals in Barnsley pit
With muck up to my knee:
From Barnsley, Sheffield, Rotherham
Good Lord, deliver me!

I've seen fog creep across Leeds bridge
As thick as the bastile soup
I've lived where folks were stowed away
Like rabbits in a coop
I've seen snow float down Bradford Beck
As black as ebony:
From Hunslet, Holbeck, Wibsey Stack
Good Lord, deliver me!

But now that all our children have gone
To the country we've come back
There's forty miles of heathery moor
'Twixt us and the coal-pit stack
And as I sit by the fire at night
I laugh and shout with glee:
From Hull and Halifax and Hell
The Good Lord delivered me