Ballad of Hull Jail Riot

Come all you lawbreakers, I’ll tell you a tale

Of a glorious revolt that took place at Hull Jail.

The month it was August of ’76

And the bullying screws had been up to their tricks.

 

(chorus)

And it’s no, nay never, no never no more

Will we stand for oppression, no never no more.

 

It’s there in the prison they corced them to toil

In a furniture factory known as “The Mill”

The dust it was choking, too noisy to speak

And the wages a fine 95 pence a week :

 

A prisoner named Clifford was attacked by four screws

For answering back to their taunts and abuse.

When word got around what the warders had done

A block full of prisoners united as one, and said…

 

(chorus)

 

A hundred demanded the Governor to see

but to talk about Clifford he wouldn’t agree

The prisoners got angry, the screws all took fright

And surrendered the building without any fight.

 

Now the prisoners in solitary were freed from their cells

They broke down the doors and the windows as well

They got in the office and found all the files

Where their lives were recorded in language so vile.

 

(chorus)

 

Three days they took over that dreary old jail

And they laughed and they sang as they knocked it to hell.

A million pounds worth of damage was found

But they should have demolished it down to the ground.

 

(chorus)

 

Those uniformed sadists, those boot-boys in blue,

Their wages are paid for by me and by you.

But one day the screws will all be unemployed

On the day when the jails are shut down and destroyed.