Lyr/Tune Add: The Broomfield Hill

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE BROOMFIELD HILL ^^
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 14 Jan 00 - 07:47 PM

G'day,
From the Penguin Book Of English Folk Songs, Ed Pellow's rendition of the tune of The Broomfield Hill (Child #43) can be found here.

THE BROOMFIELD HILL

Sung by Mrs Powell, weobly, Herefordshire (E.M.L & R.V.W. 1910)

'A wager, a wager with you, my pretty maid,
Here's five hundred pound to your ten
That a maid you shall go to yon merry green broom,
But a maid you shall no more return.'

'A wager, a wager with you, kind sir,
With your hundred pounds to my ten,
That a maid I will go to yon merry green broom,
And a maid I will boldly return.'

Now when that she came to this merry green broom,
Found her true love was fast in a sleep,
With a fine finished rose, and a new suit of clothes,
And a bunch of green broom at his feet.

Then three times she went from the crown of his head,
And three times from the sole of his feet,
And three times she kissed his red rosy cheeks
As he lay fast in a sleep.

Then she took a gold ring from off her hand,
And put that on his right thumb,
And that was to let her true love to know
That she had been there and was gone.

As soon as he had awoke from his sleep,
Found his true love had been there and gone,
It was then he remembered upon the cost,
When he thought of the wager he'd lost.

Three times he called for his horse and his man,
The horse he'd once bought so dear,
Saying: 'Why didn't you wake me out of my sleep,
When my lady, my true love, was here?'

'Three times did I call to you, master,
And three times did I blow with my horn,
But out of your sleep I could not awake
Till your lady, your true love, was gone.'

'Had I been awake when my true love was here,
Of her I would had my will;
If not, the pretty birds in this merry green broom
With her blood they should all had their fill.'

The DT has different versions here, here and here.

Previous song: The Bramble Briar (or Bruton Town).
Next Song: The Cock-Fight (The Bonny Grey).

Cheers,
Alan ^^

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 02:41 PM

From the notes to the Penguin Book (1959):

"This ancient ballad was a great favourite with singers in England and Scotland.  Sharp alone collected at least twelve distinct versions.  It was often printed on broadsheets and in America a good version found its way into a popular song book, The Pearl Songster¹, about the middle of the 19th. century.  Some texts make it clear that the bold girl had bewitched the lover into his deep sleep.  In England, other versions of the song have been reported from Dorset (FSJ vol.III, p.69), vol.IV, p.115, vol.VII, p.31), Lincolnshire (FSJ vol.IV, p.110), Somerset (FSJ vol.IV, p.112, vol. VII, p.33), Norfolk, Hereford (both FSJ vol.IV, p.114) and Essex (FSJ vol. VIII, p.127)."  -R.V.W./A.L.L.

This version was collected by Ella M. Leather and Ralph Vaughan Williams from Mrs. Powell of Weobley in Herefordshire, in 1910, and was first published in the Folk Song Journal, vol.IV, p.114.

¹Published by C. P. Huestis, NY, 1846.

Other versions on the DT:

The Broomfield Wager   Transcribed from a 1977 recording by Roberts and Barrand.  The version they sing came from source-singer Cyril Poacher of Blaxhall in Suffolk; he was a regular at the famous Ship Inn.  On Cyril's first recording of the song, made by the BBC (Child Ballads Vol I, Topic 12T160, 1961 [originally Caedmon]), singer and audience constantly interject the phrase hold the wheel.  This allegedly arose as a result of the singer trying to explain the story to a visiting yachtsman who misunderstood had his way as hold the wheel, but by the 1970s Cyril had gone back to the old way of singing it.  (ref.  notes to Cyril Poacher: Plenty of Thyme, Musical Traditions MT CD 303 ).
Two tunes are given; the second is Cyril Poacher's, the first (BROMFLD1) names no source, but is in fact the Penguin version.

The Broomfield Wager(2)  from Sam Henry, Songs of the People: with tune.

The Broomfield Wager(3)  Child's version C, originally published in Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland.  No tune.

In the Forum:

The Broomfield Wager  Some discussion, and a link to a transcription of the broadside version printed by J. Pitts of London.

There is an entry at  The Traditional Ballad Index:
The Broomfield Hill

Child #43
@witch @love @talkbird @magic

There is a version, no source given but apparantly collected in the Upper Thames Valley, at Ron Clarke's website:  The Broomfield Wager  A tune is also given; again, no source is named; just the remark that it "comes from Southern England".

I'm not as a rule going out of my way in these listings to link to transcriptions elsewhere on the web made from recordings by Revival singers, but will just mention that the text of Martin Carthy's 1965 version is available at:
Henry's Songbook  with notes added by Susanne, and
Gary Gillard's website

There are a number of broadside versions at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads.  Where there are duplications, I have given a link to the most legible copy:

The Merry Broomfield: or, The West Country Wager     Printed between 1711 and 1732 for Tho. Norris, at the Looking-Glass on London Bridge. License note: Licens'd according to Order.
The Merry Broomfield: or, The West Country Wager     Printer and date unknown
The Merry Broomfield: or, The West Country Wager     Printed and Sold by J. Pitts, No. 14, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, London, between 1802 and 1819.
The Merry Broomfield: or, The West Country Wager     The Merry Broomfield: or, The West Country Wager  Printed and Sold by John White, in Pilgrim-street, Newcastle, between 1711 and 1769.

The Merry Broom Fields: or, The West Country Wager  Printed by H. Such, Printer & Publisher, 177, Union Street, Boro' S.E. And 5, Back Church Lane, Cable-St., St. George's East, London, between 1863 and 1885.
The Merry Broom Fields: or, The West Country Wager  Printed by J. Turner, High Street, Coventry, between 1797 and 1846.

These are all large images.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 03:54 PM

I am familiar with a version the starts "A wager, a wager, oh will you go with me/away to the may-blooming fields". This is off of the CD Comet by Cordelia's Dad. The liner notes say it was collected in Utah at the turn of the century.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 09:47 PM

The lyrics for Cordelia's Dad's version of The Broomfield Hill  may at present be found here:  May Blooming Field

Unfortunately, no details are given as to where they got it.  Assuming that it is a genuine traditional version, does anyone have any specific information?

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 29 Jul 00 - 12:02 AM

From the Comet liner notes:

"The May Blooming Field is an old story with a new tune. Lester Hubbard got this version of the words from 92-year-old James Jepson in Hurricane,Utah,in 1947. Jepson said he learned the song in the 1870s when he hauled produce for the Mormon Church."

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAY BLOOMING FIELD
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Jul 00 - 09:31 AM

Many thanks for that information!  Here, then, is the text:

THE MAY BLOOMING FIELD

A wager, a wager and I'll go with you,
Away to the may blooming fields;
A maiden I will go to the bloomfield hill
And a maiden I will return.

A wager a wager and you'll go with me,
Away to the may blooming fields;
A maiden you will go to the bloomfield hill
But a maiden you never will return.

Away went this young man, his wager for to win,
Away to the may blooming fields;
He sat himself down by the clear flowing stream
And fell fast asleep on the banks.

Nine times she walked round the crown of his head
And nine times she walked round his feet;
Nine times she kissed his red ruby lips,
As he lay on the bank fast asleep.

The ring that she wore on her little finger,
The same did she place on his own;
That it might be a token of her love unto him,
That she had been there and was gone.

If I'd been awake as I was asleep,
This maiden she never would have fled;
It's her I would have killed,her blood I would have spilled
And the birds told the story of the dead.

Oh hard-hearted young man, hard-hearted youth,
Your heart's as hard as any stone;
For to think to kill one who has loved you so long
And I'll weep o'er the grave you lie in.

By a curious chance, I have what appears to be the very tune that Hubbard published in the Journal of American Folklore, vol.LXIV, p.42, and will send a midi of it to Alan.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 10:08 AM

G'day,
Thanks to Malcolm the tune for "The May Blooming Field" can be found here at the Mudcat MIDI site.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:41 AM

Is the May Blooming Field an American variant? Because if it was learned in Utah during the 1870s, it was just as likely to have come from Britain.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 12:36 PM

Yes, that's perfectly possible; though the song was printed in the USA more than once in the mid-19th century. In this case it's reasonable to class the Utah text as a discrete Utah variant. The information EJ and I provided earlier (the posts are presently out of sequence, of course) was incomplete. I now have access to more complete references (though not at the moment to the JAF piece itself), so I'll enlarge a little.

The text I quoted was from James Jepson (Hubbard printed it as The Hard-Hearted Young Man) but there was no tune. The tune actually belongs to another Utah set printed by Hubbard and Robertson, and reproduced in Bronson I 340 (43.11): this was from Salley A Hubbard (aged 86 at the time), Salt Lake City, Utah; she had learned it from "Doc" Lish, Willard, in 1871.

Both texts are similar and both refer to the "May blooming field", so would appear to be forms of a variant circulating in Utah in the early 1870s (wherever it came from before that). It's reasonable to think that the tunes will have been alike, but we don't know for sure, so my earlier comments on the tune should be taken as tentative only; it isn't clear whether "Cordelia's Dad" used the Hubbard tune in their arrangement (which I don't think I've heard) or added one of their own.

The song is surprisingly rare in the USA considering its popularity in England and (to a lesser extent) Scotland over some 300 years. At the time Bronson wrote, he knew of only one example found in America with a tune, though a few others have turned up since then.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 12:54 PM

When I have the time, it's something I could look into. Generally speaking, it's not that hard to find out who came from where and when in early Utah.
Must try and find the tape mum made of an old record of Utah folksongs (1940s, IIRC), it might possibly be on there, as Hubbard rings a bell.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 01:38 PM

Much of this already has been posted by Malcolm, but here are notes from Lester A. Hubbard, 1961, "Ballads and Songs from Utah," pp. 8-9, "The Broomfield Hill."

Hubbard says the supernatural elements are absent in the Utah versions.
A. "The Hard-hearted Young Man," "Sung by James Jepson of Hurricane, Aug. 11, 1947. He learned it in the 1870s while he hauled freight from southern Utah to Salt Lake City."
The song differs from that quoted by Malcolm as "The May Blooming Field."

B. "The Bloomfield Hill." "Sung by Mrs. Sallay A. Hubbard of Salt Lake City, June 26, 1947. She learned it in Willard from "Doc" Lish in 1871." This version is printed with music.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 01:58 PM

That's what comes of quoting texts provided by revival performers; presumably they made alterations of their own while still presenting their text as Jepson's. Would you quote the real thing for us?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HARDHEARTED YOUNG MAN
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:07 PM

Lyr. Add: THE HARDHEARTED YOUNG MAN

"Wager a wager and I will go with thee
Away to the May blooming field;
A maiden I will go to the May blooming field
And a maiden I will return."

"Wager a wager and you may go with me
Away to the May blooming field;
A maiden you may go to the May blooming field,
But a maiden you never will return."

Away this young man went his wager for to win,
Away to the May blooming field.
He sat himself down by a clear flowing stream
And fell fast asleep on its banks.

Nine times she walked around the crown of his head,
And nine times she walked around his feet,
And nine times she kissed the ruby, ruby lips
As be lay on the banks fast asleep.

The ring that she wore on her little finger,
The same she did place upon his own
That it might be a token of love unto him
That she had been there but was gone.

"If I had been awake as I was asleep
This maiden she never would have fled.
It's her I would have killed and her blood I would have spilled,
And the birds told the story of the dead."

"Oh, hardhearted young man, oh, hardhearted youth!
Your heart is just as hard as any stone,
For to think of killing one who has loved you so long
And would mourn o'er the grave you lie in."

Sung by James Jepson of Hurricane, Aug. 11, 1947. He learned it in the 1870's while he hauled freight from southern Utah to Salt Lake City.
Lester A Hubbard, 1961, "Ballads and Songs from Utah," Univ. Utah Press, pp. 8-9, 4, The broomfield Hill.

Many Mormon immigrants from the UK and other parts of Europe trekked to Utah, in caravans or pushing handcarts across the plains. Undoubtedly they brought their songs with them.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:46 PM

Thanks for that. The differences are fairly trivial as it turns out (I expect that "bloomfield hill" in the modern arrangement crept in by analogy with other forms) but it's always best to know.

Subject: RE: Lyr & tune add: The Broomfield Hill
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 02:49 PM

Most of the Mormons in early Utah, including my lot, were from Britain. Herefordshire, Lancashire and Wales seem to have been the most significant areas.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BROOMFIELD HILL (UTAH)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Aug 05 - 05:31 PM

Lyr. Add: THE BROOMFIELD HILL (Utah)

"A wage a love a wager and go along with me;
I'll bet you five hundred to one
That a maiden you may go to the May blooming field
And a maiden you never will return."

Away this young man ran to the May blooming field
His wager all for to win,
He sat himself down by a clear purling stream,
And he set till he fell fast asleep.

Nine times she walked around his head,
And nine times she walked around his feet,
And nine times she kissed his ruby, ruby lips
As he lay on the bank fast asleep.

She had a ring on her little finger,
And on his she placed it as his own;
She placed it there as a token of love
That she had been there but was gone.

"If I'd a-been awake when I was asleep
A maiden she never would return,
For her I would have killed and the blood I would have spilled,
And the butcher told the tale of the dead."

"You falsehearted young man, you hardhearted youth,
Your heart to me is as hard as any stone,
Would you think of killing one who's never harmed you?
I'd a-mourned for the grave you lie in."

Sung by Mrs. Salley A. Hubbard of Salt Lake City, June 26, 1947. She learned it in Willard from "Doc" Lish in 1871.

Lester A. Hubbard, 1961, "Ballads and Songs from Utah," Univ. Utah Press, No. 4 B, pp. 8-9, with music.

Nothing new, but submitted for completeness.

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