I didn't have any luck asking this in an existing thread -- I think it got buried under an unhelpful thread title.

Does anyone know the origin of The Watersons' version of The broom of Cowdenknowes? I've seen it described as a Yorkshire version, but nobody has actually cited a source for where and when etc it was collected.

Their version, as performed on New Voices (Topic 12T125 1965) and reissued on Early Days (Topic TSCD472 1994), is (in full):

Oh the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom
The broom of Cowdenknowes
Fain would I be in the north country
To milk my daddy's ewes.

All the maids that ever were deceived
Bear part of these my woes
For once I was a bonny lass
When I milked my daddy's ewes.

Oh the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom
The broom of Cowdenknowes
Fain would I be in the north country
To milk my daddy's ewes.

The first and third verses are a pretty standard chorus, but the second isn't in other versions that I have come accross, and appears to come from a broadside ballad called The lovely Northerne lasse (Roud V20510, printed by Child as an appendix to 217).

The sleeve notes to New Voices (reprinted with Early Days) are by Bert Lloyd and talk about the seventeenth and eighteenth century sightings of the tune, but say nothing about the origin of the words of the version.

Can anyone help?