To Lancashire

To Lancashire

Return, return to Lancashire
And find those childhood treats
That lie upon the landscape there
Or hopscotch in the streets.
Oh trav’ller with your suitcase,
Your iPad and your phone
Find rest in this great county,
The place you can call home.

From Furness’ ancient abbey
To Warrington’s golden gates.
See industry forge history;
Watch nature orchestrate.
For cased within these borders
As in the fell’s sweet shade
Are places once forgotten,
Where memories were made.

Remember that first slog-up
Pendle’s sun-kissed haunted paths?
Or tram illuminated:
The candy-floss, the laughs?
The floodlit, chanting terraces
With badge and cap and scarf;
The speaking as we find
And never doing things by half.

Recall recall the funny men,
The clowns and rubber-faced.
A place to raise a giggle;
A place of style and taste:
The Uncle Joes, black puddings,
And the cockles from the bay;
The cakes, the cheese, the butter pies,
The barm cakes (have your say!)

Return, return to Lancashire,
Oh trav’ller of the road!
Regain that childhood feeling;
Unearth that ancient code.