Listen to the track:
🎶 Wembury, 1861 🎶
Based on the 1861 census data
(Verse 1)
Up at Langdon Court, they took their tea
In rooms with names and symmetry
Jarvoise ruled from the drawing room chair
While servants passed like silent air
(Verse 2)
Two governesses trained each child
With French and verse and manners mild
Ten maids moved like wheels unseen
Polished boots and folded green
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the land
But the gap grew wide between foot and hand
From hedge to hall, from clay to coin
But the village stitched with separate hands
(Verse 3)
Down in the Alms Houses, nothing was new
Same damp stone, same morning dew
Charles Algate limped to fetch the pail
While Emma Harper stitched a hem for sale
(Verse 4)
A shoemaker shared the endmost wall
Thomas Witheridge, near blind, near small
And Patty Treble, long widowed, stayed
Counting crumbs till rent was paid
(Bridge)
No engines reached the village track
But the empire rolled and never looked back
The Jarvoise girls learned waltz and rhyme
While paupers prayed to outrun time
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the land
But the gap grew wide between foot and hand
From hedge to hall, from clay to coin
But the village stitched with separate hands
(Outro)
Now the names still ring where the rain runs slow
In crooked rows where no brass shows
And if you ask what passed or stayed
Wembury bowed, but never swayed