Although this was a national lock-out, the language of the song suggests that it refers to the dispute in the north-east coalfield, which lasted roughly 20 weeks.
[2] The village of Seghill, mentioned in the song, was the site of a mass eviction of striking miners during the 1844 lockout.
Mine workers from Wales employed in strikebreaking commonly wore pants made from moleskins, which were of course black, due to their wet working properties.
The coal-mining sector in the UK was always heavily unionised, and mining strikes such as in 1926, 1974 and 1984-5 have had big impacts on British society.
[5] The album's sleeve notes read: It is strange that a song as powerful and as singable as this should be so rare, yet it has only once been collected, from a man in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1949.
Ashley Hutchings: "This is the most modern traditional song on the album, possibly dating from the early part of the 20th Century, and is sometimes sung by singers from Northumberland.
[5] Violent clashes during the 1980s strike (most notably the attacks on Michael Fletcher and David Wilkie) made some[who?]
[citation needed] Scottish folk musician Dick Gaughan wrote of the change in attitude to the song after the strike of 1984-5: many folksong-loving conservatives who the previous year would have quite cheerfully sung that quaint old ditty, "Blackleg Miner", were suddenly forced to confront the unpalatable fact that what they had always regarded as a harmless little song about some far-off past events was in reality a venomous attack on scab labour and that it was now impossible to sing it without that being interpreted as a thunderous declaration of support for the NUM.
Other artists to have played this song include Ferocious Dog, the Ian Campbell Folk Group, the High Level Ranters, Highland Reign, the Houghton Weavers, Broom Bezzums, Ryan's Fancy, the New Minstrel Revue, Blue Horses, New Celeste, FinTan, Duo Noir, Cameron Muir, Smoky Finish and Clatterbone, Len Wallace, John Maggs, Seven Nations, Sol Invictus, Louis Killen, the Angelic Upstarts as well as Richard Thompson,[10] Ewan MacColl, Dick Gaughan, Aengus Finnan, Jon Boden, Maddy Prior, Andy Wainwright, John Hewitt, The Inchtabokatables, Banjax, Eric Fish, The Dixie Bee-Liners, Settlers Match and David Wrench with Black Sheep,[11] Offa Rex (Olivia Chaney & The Decemberists) In November 2023, Vince Clarke of Erasure released a version of "Blackleg" on his album "Songs Of Silence".
[citation needed] Ewan MacColl (1978) is one of the exceptions, as he attempted to sing the song with Northumbrian pronunciation throughout.