Tony Green collected the song from a Castleford miner called Bill Hill who worked at Wheldale Colliery. Mr Hill had worked as a pony driver in Yorkshire pits since he was fifteen years of age, and he learnt the song from other pony drivers he worked with. The Doggie referred to in the song was the man responsible for maintaining the ‘road’, the rails along which the pony pulled the tubs. If the tubs went ‘off the road’ it was his job also to get them back on. The standing was the pony stall in the underground pit stables.

Mr. Hill said that at every mine he had worked in the first five stalls were always named in order, 1. Tom, 2. King, 3. Shot, 4. Dick, and 5. Turpin. This jogged my memory. as when a boy growing up, I recall my Father, then a miner working at Wath Main Colliery, trying to locate a field for a pit pony they were about to retire called ‘Turpin’. Pit ponies due to the nature of their work and spending most of their lives in an underground environment did not gladly take to life on the surface as they were mostly old and infirm when they were  retired. They were often sent to the ‘Knackers Yard’, slaughter house, for horse meat, or to a maggot farm. The lucky ones were put into the care of farm homes where they often had to be hand-fed as they were not accustomed to eating grass.