Listen to the track:
The Wembury Highwaymen
In August 1923 the Western Morning News reported that Charles Jackson of Newton Ferrers, a Devonport Dockyard worker, was allegedly waylaid near Wembury around 5 am while walking to catch the 6:05 train at Plymstock. Three attackers robbed him of loose cash, collar, tie and boots. Bruised but determined, he continued in socks and still reached the station before collapsing.
Verse 1
I left Newton while the village slept
No moon above, no stars to see
A dockyard man with a steady step
And the six oh five still calling me
Past Staddiscombe the road ran cold
Mist on the hedge and the day not born
Then shadows moved and the night took hold
On the Wembury lane before the dawn
Chorus
Take my money, take my boots
You will not take my way
I have walked this road for twenty years
I will walk it anyway
Through the mist and the fear and the bruises too
With the stones that cut my feet
Dockyard man I will not go down
Till I reach that station seat
Verse 2
Three men sprang out from the hedgerow side
Hands like iron at my throat
Flung me down where the road lay wide
And laughed as they stripped my coat
Coins from my pocket, eleven bob
Then collar and tie for spite
And boots off my feet like a trophy robbed
In the half lit edge of night
Chorus
Take my money, take my boots
You will not take my way
I have walked this road for twenty years
I will walk it anyway
Through the mist and the fear and the bruises too
With the stones that cut my feet
Dockyard man I will not go down
Till I reach that station seat
Verse 3
I rose up slow with a pounding head
Marks on my neck like fire
But I put one foot in front instead
Of giving in to the mire
Socks on the road and the road like flint
Every step a bite of pain
Yet I kept my face and I never bent
To the shame of that dark lane
Chorus
Take my money, take my boots
You will not take my way
I have walked this road for twenty years
I will walk it anyway
Through the mist and the fear and the bruises too
With the stones that cut my feet
Dockyard man I will not go down
Till I reach that station seat
Verse 4
A mate came by from the yard and quay
Heading for the same first train
He saw my state and he steadied me
And we walked on through the lane
At Plymstock platform the lights burned weak
Day just breaking grey and thin
Then the world went black but my heart still beat
Because I made it in
Final Chorus
Take my money, take my boots
You will not take my way
I have walked this road for twenty years
I will walk it anyway
For before the cars and the streetlights came
Men still stood and met
And even robbed on a Wembury lane
We went to work, you bet