Alfred Williams collected The Ripe and Bearded Barley from farm hand Henry Sirman of Stanton Harcourt, and printed it in 1923 in his book Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames. Martin Graebe gave an illustrated talk about Alfred Williams and his song collecting to an appreciative audience at Whitby Folk Week last year. The words of the song are attributed to A.T., and Shan Graebe speculated that A.T. might be Alfred Tennyson.