The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145138   Message #3356826
Posted By: Brian Peters
29-May-12 - 11:32 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Scarborough Fair: earliest version?
Subject: RE: Scarborough Fair: earliest version?
As Mick says, the diaries don't extend back as far as 1913. However, we do know what Cecil Sharp was doing in Goathland in July 1913: he was researching the old and more or less moribund Goathland sword dance and mummers' play. Sharp's enquiries resulted in the revival of the local dances, performed to this day by the Goathland Plough Stots - info on this website

Kidson's version B of 'Scarborough Fair' in his 1891 'Traditional Tunes' was also collected in Goathland, from one A. Wardill. However, this version doesn't have the magnificent Dorian tune of Hutton's song (although it's not bad), and only one verse seems to have been notated.

Mrsfifties, if you could contact me here , I'd like to talk further about the ballad. I've been singing that Hutton version for years!