Media : Lyrics

Shoreline Of Ghosts

Follow me down to a shoreline of ghosts
North Eastern Villages, rest by the coast
Stories on boards and heritage trails
New lines of commerce where old ones have failed

Come read the tales of old industries
Men in their fishing boats harvest the sea
Miners in headgear and faces in black
Staring into silence, silence staring back

Now stocks are diminishing, quotas are low
The trawlers are idle, those mines have been sold
And the minister says it's a matter of time
Has it ever been different, on this coast line

Silent machinery on dormant pit wheels
Vanishing slipways and old empty creels
Cliffs that are crumbling, and holiday homes
New generations in place of older ones,

The sea keeps her secrets she won't tell a soul
You can walk by these harbours and hear nothing at all
To tell you how vibrant and lively it was
When the herring was king, and coal made the law

Now stocks are diminishing quotas are low
The trawlers are idle, those mines have been closed
The minister says it's a matter of time
Has it ever been different, on this coast line

I stood in the half light and watched as the day
Lengthened it's shadows, played tricks on the bay
And I thought that I saw, a hundred boats sail away
Heading for new waters, 'cos nothing stays the same

Now stocks are diminishing quotas are low
The trawlers are idle, those mines have been closed
The minister says it's a matter of time
Has it ever been different, on this coast line

And it's not that the old times were better or worse
But just that we learn from what carried us first
So I stand here and think at the end of the Tyne
Has it ever been different on this coast line

Words & Music by Gareth Davies-Jones PRS
Copyright© Gareth Davies-Jones 2008