My name it is Alice White, I’d have you all to know
I went and left my father’s farm, a long, long, time ago
My mother called me a silly lass, she said I’d rue the day
That I followed on the heels of the navives.
My first man it was Dandy Jack, he was a handsome buck,
And we travelled throughout England as we trudged from canal to cut,
We lived in shanty houses, had lodgers and children three
As I worked to fill the needs of the navvies.
When Dandy Jack was killed, beneath a fall of stone,
I wept and cursed the day, that ever I was born,
But the children needed feeding and many men looked at me,
So I jumped the brush to stay with the navvies.
Time came I was deserted, when my children numbered five,
And I had to take another man, just to keep us all alive,
And now I’ve had so many men, they call me Alice Free,
As I’ve lived my life away with the navvies.
And now I’m getting old, and grey before my time,
With the work and the childbearing, as we trudged from canal to line,
I often think of my poor Dandy Jack, lying cold within his grave,
He’s the only one I loved of the navvies.