Here are the notes from Penguin:Droylsden Wakes (FSJ V 204)
This Lancashire dialogue song was once associated with a folk ceremonial attached to the local 'wakes' or annual holiday. The custom was for two men in comic dress, one of them travestied as a woman, to sit in a cart with a spinning-wheel before them, spinning flax as they sang the song, and collecting money from onlookers. The ceremonial may go back to ancient times, though it does not seem to have reached Droylsden until early in the nineteenth century. The tune is of the primitive sort often used for wassails, May Day songs and other festive ceremonial purposes. There is some doubt whether the refrain means 'Tread the wheel' or 'Thread ye well'. A description of the ceremonial, with a text of the song, is in John Harland's Ballads and Songs of Lancashire (1865).
Here is the entry from the Traditional Ballad Indes, which has only the one songbook citation, Penguin:Droylsden Wakes
DESCRIPTION: Man and woman alternately brag and insult each other over their prowess at spinning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: bragging weaving ritual dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 36, "Droylsden Wakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3290
Notes: "This Lancashire dialogue song was once associated with a folk ceremonial attached to the local 'wakes' or annual holiday." - A. L. Lloyd. The role of the woman was played by a man in woman's clothing; the two participants sat on a cart with a spinning-wheel spinning flax and collecting money from onlookers. - PJS
File: VWL036Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index InstructionsThe Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
Are there any other versions of this song?
-Joe Offer-