There is a place in Newcastle’s West
Lately it has had bad press
Though people there think it’s the best
The bonny banks of Benwell
The Bonny Banks of Benwell

There is a place in Newcastle’s West
Lately it has had bad press
Though people there think it’s the best
The bonny banks of Benwell
Chorus: Ev’rybody get your duds
We’re gannin doon to Plessey Woods
See the squirrels in the trees
Plessey Woods the place for me
One sunny Sat’day morning, aroond the middle of June,
The wife sez “We’re ganning oot, it opens at twelve noon”,
The place was packed when we arrived, the Mayor of Blyth was there,
And we had a good time at, the Cramlington Village Fair.
CHORUS : So here’s to the memory of Tommy Armstrong
He was the pitman poet, righting all life’s wrongs
In the words of his poems which are now folk songs
Here’s to the memory of Tommy Armstrong
He was the pitman poet, recording life and times
In the late eighteen hundreds in his verses and his rhymes
When the main source of earnings was working down the mines
And sometimes the wages there were paid back in fines