We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Sheffield Made

from Sheffield Made by Steel Songbirds

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £1 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York really was built using steel manufactured in Sheffield (in Neepsend). In 2007 a proposal to build a smaller-scale replica of the bridge, to carry the Upper Don trail over the river near Ball St bridge, had funding and planning permission. Sadly, after the floods of June 2007, the project was put on hold due to a flood-prevention review of all riverside structures; it has never properly resurfaced and is now
unlikely ever to be built. (from Alec Thompson)

lyrics

6. Sheffield Made
© Alec Thompson, May 2011

In a back reach of Sheffield, on the banks of the Don,
lies the cold, quiet grave of a giant long gone.
In that dark, silent pit, there once turned a wheel,
bringing power and life in the city of steel.

Chorus:
Ah, but where are those days, when wheel after wheel,
ground out Sheffield’s edges and shone Sheffield steel?
When no man worth his trade lacked a good Sheffield blade,
and the knives of the gentry all shone “Sheffield Made”.


Then the forgemen and grinders worked the power of the wheels,
and the names of the mesters found fame far afield.
So when the great bridge of Brooklyn, New York was conceived,
they sent out to Sheffield to furnish the steel.

But the wheel it turned round and fortunes turned down.
The forges fell silent, they were pulled to the ground.
And the cold men of money turned their gaze overseas,
and an old iron bag smote the city of steel.

Then I heard of a man with a star-spangled dream,
to breathe back new life to that tired old stream;
On a dank river bank, where the work was long gone,
to build a new Brooklyn Bridge, striding over the Don.

[And I thought of those days ….etc]

For if the great bridge of Brooklyn could stride o’er the Don,
what more might we see from those days we thought gone?
Might the forgemen, the grinders, the buffers return,
and might new little mesters trade blades with the world?

Might we see brand new days, when wheel after wheel
grinds out Sheffield’s edges and shines Sheffield steel?
When no woman worth her trade lacks a good Sheffield blade,
and the knives of the gentry all shine “Sheffield Made”.

credits

from Sheffield Made, released February 15, 2019
Alec Thompson

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Steel Songbirds image

Steel Songbirds Sheffield, UK

Steel Songbirds are Marilla Homes and Emily Eastwood. A comic and poignant musical duo based in Sheffield UK. Blending acapella voices, with occasional fiddle or bouzouki, these girls know how to laugh!

Steel Songbirds were dug from the soil of Australia & England, forged in Sheffield UK, tempered in the swimming pool of life & sharpened on the wit of singledom in the folk/pub/archaeology worlds. ... more

contact / help

Contact Steel Songbirds

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Steel Songbirds, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now