Oh you who look down on me with that judgement in your eyes,
while the jury picks its fate for me id have you save you size,
as a child with no family I was begging in the street,
when great fortune came and made me a herring girl.
I don't come from there islands from England I have grown
And born in great Yarmouth that is my native home
in autumn when the girls all chased the fish down from the north
how I longed that I would one day be a herring girl.
A young girl down from Aberdeen took sick into her bed
I asked if there was work and down to Rona I was led
Oh she smiled at the hight of me and said that I would do,
and as a packer I was joined to be a herring girl.
The season started up in Scotland, id just turned 16,
and Rona she's the greatest gutter Stornoway has seen
at 80 fish a minute, and with Mary not much less
we 3 were famed as the best crew of herring girls
Saturday was dancing day and the boys were in the town
we were packing up and clean off and heading for our room,
when a stranger crept behind us in an alley out the back
out to catch himself a couple of fresh herring girls
Oh so suddenly he was on us and he knocked me to the ground
he pinned our Rona by the neck so she couldn't make a sound
but from her apron pocket fell a knife so clean and sharp
iv taught that man the price of fishing for a herring girl
Oh you who look down on me with that judgement in your eyes,
while the jury picks its fate for me id have you save your size
for id gladly do the same again to any man that tries
to test his luck and take advantage of a herring girl.
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Lyrics submitted by steph.