The Rambler’s Song – Annika Perry

I’m off on a weeks holiday tomorrow to the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors. With all that mesmerising scenery the wi-fi just does not want to work, so I’ll be awol from here for the time.

I came to Yorkshire as a young child and lived there for many years. I never tired of the beauty of the moors and many times a week we would all go for long walks across them. There is nothing quite like it!

To ensure you all get a feel for the moors I’ve included the lyrics below. They are from a famous folk song called ‘The Manchester Rambler’ and was written by Ewan MacColl.

Here are part of the lyrics.

‘He called me a louse and said “Think of the grouse”

Well I thought, but I still couldn’t see

Why all Kinder Scout and the moors roundabout

Couldn’t take both the poor grouse and me

He said “All this land is my master’s”

At that I stood shaking my head

No man has the right to own mountains

Any more than the deep ocean bed

I once loved a maid, a spot welder by trade

She was fair as the Rowan in bloom

And the bloom of her eye watched the blue Moreland sky

I wooed her from April to June

On the day that we should have been married

I went for a ramble instead

For sooner than part from the mountains

I think I would rather be dead

So I’ll walk where I will over mountain and hill

And I’ll lie where the bracken is deep

I belong to the mountains, the clear running fountains

Where the grey rocks lie ragged and steep

I’ve seen the white hare in the gulleys

And the curlew fly high overhead

And sooner than part from the mountains

I think I would rather be dead.’

Ewan MacColl wrote this song as he was part a group of trespassers across the moors fighting for more free access on the moorland and mountains across the UK. The protest succeeded and led to, amongst other things, the development of the national parks and long-distance footpaths – the first being the Pennine Way opened in 1965.