Listen to the track:
🎶 Wembury 1891 🎶
(Quiet folk, reflective with soft rhythm and warm harmonies based on the 1891 census data)
(Verse 1)
At the School House near the bend in the lane
They kept a lamp through wind and rain
No plough, no forge, just ink and slate
A world held still behind the gate
(Verse 2)
Young Hubert Harry, still learning names
While Mary Nankivell played quiet games
She lived on means, no fields to tend
A room, a view, a well-dressed friend
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the hill
But fewer hands were called to till
The boots wore thin, the bells grew shy
And Wembury watched the years drift by
(Verse 3)
Down at Bay Cottage, William Algate stayed
No farm to dig, just jobs half-paid
An Oddman now, with patch and nail
Fixing things too worn to sell
(Verse 4)
His son young Will, not yet a man
Looked out to sea, not to the land
The field was done, the rows too dry
So folk turned inward, not to sky
(Bridge)
The rail ran close, the post came fast
But Wembury clung to its fading past
With every path and crumbling shed
They kept their word, though others fled
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the hill
But fewer hands were called to till
The boots wore thin, the bells grew shy
And Wembury watched the years drift by
(Outro)
So here we stand, with names held tight
Through softened days and shorter light
From plough to pen, from spade to sigh
Wembury stayed, though time moved by