Peg Powler Songtext
von Old Corpse Road

A gentle voice upon breeze as a mother calls her child
Wading in, up to their knees, Pegs suds upon Tees
Dragged to their death
Frantic thrashing of tiny limbs
Immaculate lungs fill with murky water
Innocent eyes fade into the void
A silent scream from their watery grave
Drowning

Rising on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines
Rushing waters that carved the boundaries of our great counties
Dark fast waters break against weathered stones in Croft
The River Tees that brought town life but cursed it with Peg Powler

Green skinned and wicked she pulls children under
A grotesque mermaid that dwells in dead reeds
In the silty depths they are torn asunder
A green-haired fiend stalks quietly in the weeds


A series of records mark the dates of outrages on humanity
April 1652. Isabeil Sympson, slain
June 1730. Elizabeth Lee, drowned
Whit-Tuesday, 1846. Another youth, lost
The waters calm and running smooth on a summer′s eve
For a moment they turned their backs, the children's souls did leave

Dragged to their Death
Frenzied death throe of an infant
Marbled flesh that meets cold blue lips
Hair that snags as it dances in the broken light
A futile grasp to the heavenly sun above

Darlington′s victims of the waters, from the annals of history
The lore of which began in sixteen hundred and three
Peg Powler haunts the river bed, an abhorrent entity
Drownings were so commonplace, no other blame could be

A rhyme to warn the children of their fate
When the suds are upon the water


"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don't go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don't go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don′t go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don′t go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don't go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don′t go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don't go in the water"
"Mother may I go out to swim
Yes my darling daughter
Hang your clothes on the alder limb
But don′t go in the water"

Green skinned and wicked, she pulls children under
A grotesque mermaid that dwells in dead reeds
In the silty depths they are torn asunder
A green-haired fiend stalks quietly in the weeds