COT VALLEY
Words and music by Sarah McQuaid
Recorded on If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous (2018)
So much has changed in my lifetime
And mostly for the best
Even when the morning news is frightening
It doesn’t set me yearning for the past
There’s a valley near my home
Where children run among the stones
Instead of giving up their lives
For copper and tin
Cot Valley is green today
Where the slag heaps used to smoulder
Now a child is free to wander
And I know things could be better
But we’ve come a long, long way
There was a time when choice was something made for us by others
For some the pick and shovel, some the sword and some the veil
No difficult decisions, no surprises to discover
Just take the road that’s laid for you and hope it treats you well
And for far too many children
That’s still the way it happens
The cards you’re dealt
Are all you have to play
I’m glad I know the valley as it is now
And not the way it was before
I’m glad we don’t send children down the mines now
Or set them burning arsenic from ore
I go there with my daughter
The world is open to her
She can gaze out at the sea
And watch her dreams roll in
Cot Valley is green today
Where the slag heaps used to smoulder
Now a child is free to wander
Yes I know things could be better
But we’ve come a long, long way
Cot Valley is green today
