My Sweet Teredo

from Tunnellers by Nancy Kerr

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In the British Tunnelling Society's 50th Anniversary book Jane Stancliffe writes:

"Brunel was at the Royal Dockyard at Chatham when he noticed a rotten piece of ship’s timber lying on the quay. Examining the wood through a magnifying glass, he observed that it had been infested with the teredo, or shipworm, whose rasping jaws could riddle a wooden ship with holes. As it burrows, the ‘worm’ (in fact a mollusc) shoves pulped wood into its mouth and digests it, excreting a hard, brittle residue that lines the tunnel it has excavated and renders it safe from predators… Brunel realized that the shipworm’s burrowing technique could be adapted to produce an entirely new way of tunnelling."

This song hears the tunneller’s lover, or perhaps a parent, thanking the Teredo shield (and the creature that inspired it) for keeping him safe.

lyrics

On dockland sand
Our future’s father
Surveyed a sunken ship
His hand upon its beams
Some seaborne soul
Some sweet Teredo
Turned trusted oak to bone
Turned oceans into dreams
That little friend
Through great invention
Grew to iron size below the riverbed
Now fortune fair
And great Teredo
Keep the air above my miner laddie’s head
I feel the stones
Below us rolling
Shifting shale and industry
Let life prevail
My sweet Teredo
Keep him whole and bring my miner lad to me

Brave engineers
And all their credo
May lose a hundred men or launch a dozen ships
Fortune and you
My sweet Teredo
Keep the breath between my miner laddie’s lips
I feel the stones
Below us rolling
Shifting shale and industry
Let life prevail
My sweet Teredo
Keep him whole and bring my miner lad to me

Oh Mother Thames
Beware our lovers
For they’re the ones who coax your London clay to part
When rivers rage
My sweet Teredo
Keep a cage around my miner laddie’s heart
I feel the stones
Below us rolling
Shifting shale and industry
Let life prevail
My sweet Teredo
Keep him whole and bring my miner lad to me

On dockland sand
Our future’s father
Surveyed a sunken ship
His hand upon its beams
Some weary soul
Some little sailor
Turned trusted oak to bone
Turned oceans into dreams
That little friend
Through great invention
Grew to iron size below the riverbed
Fortune and you
My sweet Teredo
Keep the air above my miner laddie’s head
When waters rise
My sweet Teredo
Keep the light within my miner laddie’s eyes
When rivers rage
My sweet Teredo
Keep a cage around my miner laddie’s heart
When ships come in
My sweet Teredo
Keep the breath between my miner laddie’s lips
Your steady heart
My little traveller
Warms the blankets on my miner laddie’s bed

I feel the stones
Below us rolling
Shifting shale and industry
Let life prevail
My sweet Teredo
Keep him whole and bring my miner lad to me
I feel the clay
Below us rolling
Ragged shale and industry
Let life prevail
My little traveller

Keep him whole and bring my miner lad to me

Words and music © Nancy Kerr 2021

credits

from Tunnellers, released April 15, 2021
Nancy Kerr: Voice, Guitar, Violin, Viola
Tom Wright: Voice, Bass, Drums
James Fagan: Voice, Mandolin, Bouzouki, Guitar

Engineered and produced by Tom A Wright at Powered Flight Music, Sheffield

Photography: James Fagan

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about

Nancy Kerr Sheffield, UK

Folk Singer of the Year BBC Folk Awards 2015

"Outstanding chamber folk" (The Guardian) "Folk's Poet Laureate" (FRUK) "One of the UK’s foremost composers of modern folk and social commentary songs” (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Photo credits: James Fagan, Elly Lucas
Album design: Lizzy Doe ... more

nancykerr.co.uk

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