Our Band Puzzlejug has recorded a local (Gloucestershire) traveller version of the Yorkshire Bite, entitled Jack and the Robber. I also learnt an Appalachian version of the same ballad to a nice modal tune some years ago (from an American visiting England). I like to think that it is in the same tradition as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Appalachian Jack Tales. Would anyone like to comment on that?

The [Rich] Farmer of Leicester/Cheshire/Sheffield has been collected from lots of English traditional singers - Wiggie Smith, the Copper Family, Mary Ann Haynes and so on. It's particularly popular with gypsy singers and most gypsies who have more than about 10 songs in their reportoire know it. It's not heard much in folk clubs, though. The tune varies but versions are usually similar.

Hell, I have even recorded a version of it myself.

Gwilym