The Dummer Sheener's Gang

Collected by Bob Copper in about 1954, from the author of the words (the tune is traditionally based), Frank 'Mush' Bond, of Dummer, Hants: see Chapter Fifteen, pp. 123-134, of Songs and Southern Breezes for the details; and the appendix for these words.

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I'll sing you a song of a sheener's gang,
I've got 'em all taped up to a man,
There's long and short and thin and fat,
But every man knows just what he's at,
Sing Fal-the-ro lai-rum,
Fal-the-ri laddie-i-day.

Six o'clock comes we now begin,
We usually stops 'twixt nine and ten,
To oil her up and see all things right,
And she'll knock out a couple of ricks by night.
Chorus

Jimmy Bailey he runs the concern,
He's got plenty of wood and coal to bum,
He pulls the lever and makes her grunt,
And the wheels we'll keep on going for a month.
Chorus

There's Brewer Allen the sheaves to put,
A lively gait he must keep up,
Old Chin keeps snipping the bonds all day,
And Butler he hucks the caven away.
Chorus

Ernie Annetts is 'baggin' the hoiles',
He is always handy when Jimmy calls,
He don't belong to the sheening crew,
But comes to oblige for a day or two.
Chorus

There's big, old Long'un and Plummer Hide,
On the com rick working side by side,
They takes it easy, 'tis play for they,
Supplying old Brewer with sheaves all day.
Chorus

There's Sammy Elmer and old Tom too,
A-hauling the com and got plenty to do,
They've got a sack-lifter of great renown,
And you squeezes a handle to steady her down.
Chorus

There's Wiggy and Mush building the rick,
To see 'em at work, well, it's a freak,
They builds 'em round or square or flat,
And tops 'em up the shape of your hat.
Chorus

Now sheeners thrived in the days of yore,
When work was hard and money was poor,
And if you were grafting for Hillary's delight,
'Twas from two in the morning till ten at night.
Chorus

Note: When Frank sang this for me one evening in the Sun Inn, Dummer, he 'ad libbed' the following verse and cocked his eye at the barmaid.

There's our old Lucy she works at the Sun,
If ever there was a nut, well, she is one,
I came in today, there was nobody here,
And she gave me bitter instead of beer.

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Bob Copper explains that "'sheen' is a contraction of 'machine' and is the local word referring to a threshing-machine. A sheener therefore is anyone working in the threshing gang. The song describes the different jobs that are carried out in the operation of the 'sheen' and also introduces many of the local men by name who used to do this work. Frank wrote the words of this song himself in about 1906. It is based on a traditional tune." (128)

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