New Shanty | The Pearl of Dungeness

THE SHED SONG

(sung to the tune of 'There was an old lady')

I had a shed that swallowed a shed...It rumbled & tumbled, until it was fed and went to bed.

I had 2 sheds that swallowed 1 more....they rumbled & tumbled, they knew they were poor, so they laid a floor.

I had 3 sheds that swallowed a forth....they rumbled & tumbled, and were laid backs to north, not south of course.

I had 4 sheds that swallowed another....they rumbled & tumbled, and brought in a mother, Oh what a mother.

I had 5 sheds, did I need anymore...Of course I do I am a collect-OR, that is for sure.

I had 6 sheds that swallowed I think ….they ballooned and bloated, reaching the brink even a kitchen sink.

Now 7 sheds is rather a lot, but not for a family, a cat & dog. A mouse in his house, a rat & a gizzard, sea-water urchins, goldfish & a lizard.

A hermit crab, Suzie the bunny, put on a leash, she wasn’t funny.

No room for the chickens the hampster nor hawk, they'll have to make do and sleep in the porch, without a torch.

So I have 8 sheds that needed a ninth.....they bulged & expanded,

still no park for the truimph, still no hindsight.

So all 9 sheds swallowed again.....extending & swelling, fitting a new window frame, umbrella stand and walking cane.

Now I have 10 sheds, I'm sure to go on....There is always a job or a pleasure to adorn, in this land forlorn.

But what will we do when the wind changes direction, I am sure to stand back and view with reflection, love & infection.

This shed upon shed, for work & for life, built by needing hands, and troubles and strifes, and afterlife's.

Tended and cared for, for hang and for herring, all men on the beach they had a share in, cutter & farring.

In and each other, fight down the pub.... Ready to scupper, beer in a tub, war of tug.

Now I have no shed, but one little 1....

To bulge & expand and to smoke in is fun, which I love to run.

Now all the sheds are fighting for life....To absorb & to sway wife after wife, and the afterlife.

So they build more sheds but not by hand.....of rubber & concrete not mud & not sand,

Prey tell me what happens to our mighty land.

Words: Joldine Moate | @smokeymoatey + Images Paddy Hamilton | @dungenessstudio