Listen to the track:
Build a Path for Me
A local protest song about the long-promised footpath behind Langdon View that still has not been built nearly ten years later. The path was meant to be a joint project involving Wembury Parish Council, South Hams District Council, and the National Trust, but after years of meetings, delays, false promises and overblown ideas like motion-triggered lights, nothing practical has appeared whereas the National Trust built a multi-user trail in short time! Meanwhile local people are left struggling with a muddy, clogged route in winter, accidents and slips, and an awkward track that is hard to use with a buggy in summer. The song is an attempt to play the whole thing with humour and exasperation, contrasting all the talk and promises with how simple the job ought to have been. One day..........
VERSE 1
On Mowey Meadow, years ago
They built some housing new
They said they’d put a pathway in
Behind old Langdon View
For kids and mums and boots and buggies
Going to and fro
But nearly ten years later now
There’s still no path to show
CHORUS
Oh W P C, won’t you help build a path for me
If you start it in the morning
We’ll be done by half past three
Oh W P C, and S H D C too
You promised us a path back when
Langdon View was new
VERSE 2
In winter it’s a boggy slide
A claggy, clogging track
You take one step, you lose your shoe
And nearly break your back
In summer if you’ve got a buggy
Good luck getting through
You need a mule and not a pram
Behind old Langdon View
CHORUS
Oh W P C, won’t you help build a path for me
If you start it in the morning
We’ll be done by half past three
Oh W P C, and S H D C too
You promised us a path back when
Langdon View was new
VERSE 3
The National Trust in ten short weeks
Had built a decent trail
We’ve been waiting ten long years
And still there’s not a rail
They got on with the digging
And they saw the whole thing through
While we are left with promises
Behind old Langdon View
BRIDGE
They talked of lights that flickered on
When someone wandered by
A sort of space-age wonder path
Beneath the Devon sky
But all we wanted all along
Was something firm and plain
Not ten years’ worth of meetings
Just to walk there in the rain
CHORUS
Oh W P C, won’t you help build a path for me
If you start it in the morning
We’ll be done by half past three
Oh W P C, and S H D C too
You promised us a path back when
Langdon View was new