This interesting thread prompted me to see what recordings I have, and the only version I could find of the song was a copied tape someone gave me years ago, of Anne Briggs. What intrigues me is: who is playing the guitar on the song? I sort of feel, from what I recall of the era, that it is probably the legeendary Johnny Moynihan. Could someone with an LP or CD, with notes on, tell me who it was?
   I case she recorded it more than once,the tape has Martinmas Time before Blackwaterside, and the Snow it Melts the Soonest after it.
   ard mhacha: it is surely interesting to watch songs moving round the world isn't it? It's lovely seeing how they subtly change as they do so. Unfortunately (see a few posts back on this thread), some people have a fanatic desire to claim "ownership" of songs for their own locality, often on the very dubious basis of placename references in songs. And these references, of course, can often be the first bit of a song that changes as it moves (compare Derby, Fyvie and Fennario for another wellknown folk classic).