The Ballad of Elias Hall

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Ian F Ball

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The year is seventeen hundred and one
Elias Hall walked through Oldham's church doors
The women they were working, polishing bright brass
Quietly humming the Psalms as they knelt down and scrubbed clean the floors

He needed more singers to fulfil his oath
To have a really good choir to lead the Easter praise
But women were forbidden, to sing with men in church
The elders wouldn't let them, their innocent voices to raise

Three women they sang, surrounded by men
In their own parish church for the very first time
Accused of witchcraft, casting demonic spells
They placed their necks and their lives, on the line

Auditions they were held, but nobody saw
The faces of these women, just their voices were heard
Though the sound it was angelic, when all was revealed
John Taylor cried out 'Blasphemy, it's heresy, women singing is absurd

Three women they sang, surrounded by men
In their own parish church for the very first time
Accused of witchcraft, casting demonic spells
They placed their necks and their lives, on the line

The wives of the town, wouldn't let their men sing
The church doors were bolted, they couldn't get in
Though he thought all was lost, his hopes ne'er to be found
Elias Hall he faced them and fearing for his life he stood his ground

The vicar he relented, saw the error of his ways
He let the women sing behind a screen by the west door
And so, for the first time, in seventeen hundred years
Women sang aloud in church, in a choir where they'd never sung before
This wasn't done in London, Paris or in Rome
But in Oldham, at St. Mary's, by a man who stood his ground Elias Hall

Three women they sang, surrounded by men
In their own parish church for the very first time
Accused of witchcraft, casting demonic spells
They placed their necks and their lives, on the line

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