trad
About April 1812 Luddite uprising in Horbury, West Yorkshire. Recorded by Bill Price in 1972 and by Swan Arcade 1976. Price wrote that the song, a fragment of a longer song, was found in 1880 by Frank Peel, while collecting material for his book about the Luddites.
The Davenport Family: https://gavinandamydavenport.bandcamp.com/track/fosters-mill
Chorus:
Come all you croppers stout and bold,
Let your faith grow stronger still,
For the cropper lads in the county of
York have broken shears at Foster’s Mill.
And around and around we all do stand
And firmly swear we will,
We’ll break the shears and the windows too
And we’ll all set fire to Foster’s Mill.
O the wind it blew and the sparks they flew,
And the flames they had their fill,
And out of bed poor folks did creep,
And they cheered the fire at Foster’s Mill.
All drear and dark it is the day
When a man has to fight for his bread;
Some judgement sure will clear the way
And the poor to triumph shall be led.